Freud on Psychotherapy and Medicine

The question of the relationship between psychotherapy and medicine is as old as psychotherapy itself. From the very beginnings, there have been people who believe that a psychotherapist must necessarily be a physician and that only physicians should be allowed to be psychotherapists. This view still prevails in Latvia as well. However — already in the 1920s of the last century, the father of modern psychotherapy, the physician Sigmund Freud, clearly formulated his opinion:

No one has the right to practice analysis who has not acquired the right to do so through special training. The question of whether this person is or is not a physician is not essential.

Here is a page from the manuscript of Freud’s work “Die Frage der Laienanalyse” (1926), in which the statement is highlighted.

The article itself can be read in English and German here: http://ebookbrowsee.net/question-of-lay-analysis-pdf-d323885178

__________________ * In Freud’s time, the words psychotherapy and psychoanalysis were synonymous. Today, psychoanalysis is considered one of the methods of psychotherapy.