American Therapy: The Rise of Psychotherapy in the United States Hardcover - 2008

by Jonathan Engel

From Freud to Zoloft, the first comprehensive history of AmericanPsychotherapy

Fifty percent of Americans will undergo some form ofpsychotherapy in their lifetimes, but the origins of the fieldare rarely known to patients. Yet the story of psychotherapyin America brims with colorful characters, intriguingexperimental treatments, and intense debates within thiscommunity of healers.

American Therapy begins, as psychotherapy itself does,with the monumental figure of Sigmund Freud. The bookoutlines the basics of Freudian theory and discusses the peculiarlypowerful influence of Freud on the world of Americanmental health. The book moves through the emergenceof group therapy, the rise of psychosurgery, the evolutionof uniquely American therapies such as Gestalt, rebirthing,and primal scream therapy, and concludes with the modernworld of psychopharmacology, cognitive-behavioral therapy,and highly targeted short-term therapies.

For a counseled nation that freely uses terms such as'emotional baggage' and no longer stigmatizes mentalhealth care, American Therapy is a remarkable history ofan extraordinary enterprise.