Abstract
The tenets of interpersonal psychotherapy are illustrated through a case in which hypnotherapy was used to eliminate cigarette smoking. The sixteen tenets of interpersonal psychotherapy are; (1) there is a psychological reality; (2) it is based on “psychologic” rather than logic; (3) having two modes of communication; (4) which involve emotional and cognitive processes. People are (5) more or less aware of their mental life. The (6) search for cause and effect is chimerical; (7) there is no past or future orientation, only that which is in the present moment. The (8) units of analysis range from the molecular to the molar, (9) are both subjective and wholly empirical, and (10) occur in repetitive themes or scripts, (11) that play out continually in the interpersonal context, (12) Emotions are both contagious and fundamental to the human experience, (13) with people being unable to not behave, (14) Successful psychotherapy involves being asocial, (15) using authentic communication to counter duplicitous communication, and (16) holding that purposive eclecticism is wrong.