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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.sci,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Value of therapy
Message-ID: <560@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Mar-86 23:52:59 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.560
Posted: Wed Mar 26 23:52:59 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Apr-86 07:56:19 EST
References: <617@kontron.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 19
Xref: watmath net.sci:679 net.philosophy:4811

In article <617@kontron.UUCP> cramer@kontron.UUCP writes:

[With regard to the performance of psychotherapy]

>  I've read that the spontaneous cure rate for schizophrenia is
>33%.  The psychoanalytic cure rate is 35%.  Big improvement.

It's been known for some time now that therapy is of little use in the
treatment of schitzophrenia.  THere are numerous other signs, including its
responsiveness to drug treatment, which suggest that it represents a
neurochemical problem.

Even so, the conclusions that can be drawn from this are quite limited in
scope.  Using this to cast aspersions upon psychotherapy is an error of a
type we commonly see in n.philo, an error in generalization.  In this case,
there is little reason to presume that all psychological disturbances are
similar both in nature and in cause.

C. Wingate