Psychotherapy, the precious girl in the health field: always useful and never harmful?

Abstract

The present paper reviews some psychotherapy's features through the light of it's alleged supposedly invariant usefulness and incapacity to harm consultants. Differences between general health field and mental health field are discussed with the assistance of the concepts of necessity, supply and demand, in order to understand psychotherapeutic supply dynamics. Its use with non- diagnosed clients and the explicit decission to give assistance to people ailed with discomfort are discussed based on international studies on prevalence and efficacy of psychotherapy. Its harmfulness, underreporting by psychotherapists and specific proposals to reduce it are reviewed. Some considerations regarding psychotherapy as part of the health field are discussed.