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Psychotherapy is having yet another identity crisis.It has manifested itself in two recent trends in the profession in America:the first involves trying to make therapy into more of a“hard science”by putting a new emphasis on measurable factors；the other is a growing belief among therapists that the standard practice of using talk therapy to discover traumas in a patient's past is not only unnecessary but can be injurious.

That psychotherapists of various orientations find themselves under pressure to prove to themselves and to society that they are doing a hardcore science—which was a leading theme of the landmark Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference in California in December—is not really surprising.Given the prestige and trust the modern world gives to scientific standards，psychotherapists，who always have to measure themselves against the medical profession，are going to want to demonstrate that they，too，deal in the predictable；that they，too，can provide evidence for the value of what they do.

And，obviously，if psychotherapy is going to attain scientific credibility，it won't do to involve such wishy-washy practices as“going back to childhood”or“reconstructing the past”—terms that when used with appropriate scorn can sound as though a person's past was akin to the past lives New Agers like to talk about.

Since at least the middle of the 19th century，Western societies have been divided between religious truth and scientific truth，but none of the new psychotherapies are trying to prove they are genuine religions.Nor is there much talk，outside of university literature departments，of psychotherapy trying to inhabit the middle ground of arts，in which truth and usefulness have traditionally been allowed a certain latitude(nobody measures Shakespeare or tries to prove his value).

It is，so to speak，symptomatic that psychotherapists are so keen to legitimize themselves as scientists:they want to fit in rather than create the taste by which they might be judged.One of the good things psychotherapy can do，like the arts，is show us the limits of what science can do for our welfare.The scientifiComethod alone is never going to be enough，especially when we are working out how to live and who we can be.

In the so-called arts it has always been acknowledged that many of the things we value most—the gods and God，love and sexuality，mourning and amusement，character and inspiration，the past and the future—are neither measurable or predictable.Indeed，this may be one of the reasons they are so abidingly important to us.The things we value most，just like the things we most fear，tend to be those we have least control over.

This is not a reason to stop trying to control things—we should，for example，be doing everything we can to control pain—but it is a reason to work out in which areas of our lives control is both possible and beneficial.Trying to predict the unpredictable，like trying to will what cannot be willed，drives people crazy.

Just as we cannot know beforehand the effect on us of reading a book or of listening to music，every psychotherapy treatment，indeed every session，is unpredictable.Indeed，if it is not，it is a form of bullying，it is indoctrination.It is not news that most symptoms of so-called mental illness are efforts to control the environment，just like the science that claims to study them.

It would clearly be na6ve for psychotherapists to turn a blind eye to science，or to be“against”scientifiComethodology.But the attempt to present psychotherapy as a hard science is merely an attempt to make it a convincing competitor in the marketplace.It is a sign，in other words，of a misguided wish to make psychotherapy both respectable and servile to the very consumerism it is supposed to help people deal with.(Psychotherapy turns up historically at the point at which traditional societies begin to break down and consumer capitalism begins to take hold.)

If psychotherapy has anything to offer—and this should always be in question—it should be something aside from the dominant trends in the culture.And this means now that its practitioners should not be committed either to making money or to trivializing the past or to finding a science of the soul.

If you have an eye test，if you buy a car，there are certain things you are entitled to expect.Your money buys you some minimal guarantees，some reliable results.The honest psychotherapist can provide no comparable assurances.She can promise only an informed willingness to listen，and the possibility of helpful comment.

By inviting the patient to talk，at length—and especially to talk about what really troubles him—something is opened up，but neither patient nor therapist can know beforehand what will be said by either of them，nor can they know the consequences of what they will say.Just creating a situation that has the potential to evoke previously repressed memories and thoughts and feelings and desires is an opportunity of immeasurable consequence，both good and bad.No amount of training and research，of statistics-gathering and empathy，can offset that unique uncertainty of the encounter.

As a treatment，psychotherapy is a risk，just as what actually happens in anyone's childhood is always going to be obscure and indefinite，but no less significant for being so.Psychotherapists are people whose experience tells them that certain risks are often worth taking，but more than this they cannot rightly say.There are always going to be casualties of therapy.

Psychotherapy makes use of a traditional wisdom holding that the past matters and that，surprisingly，talking can make people feel better—even if at first，for good reasons，they resist it.There is an appetite to talk and to be listened to，and an appetite to make time for doing those things.

Religion has historically been the language for people to talk about the things that mattered most to them，aided and abetted by the arts.Science has beCome the language that has helped people to know what they wanted to know，and get what they wanted to get.Psychotherapy has to occupy the difficult middle ground between them，but without taking sides.Since it is narrow-mindedness that we most often suffer from，we need our therapists to resist the allure of the fashionable certainties.

Adam Phillips is a psychoanalyst and the author，most recently，of Going Sane:Maps of Happiness.

1.Why does the writer say psychotherapy is experiencing an identity crisis?

2.What is the position of psychotherapy in the realms of science，religion and arts?

3.How do people now reassess the talk therapy practiced by psychotherapists?

4.“It is not news that most symptoms of so-called mental illness are efforts to control the environment，just like the science that claims to study them.”Discuss.Pay attention to“the science.”

5.“As a treatment，psychotherapy is a risk，just as what actually happens in anyone's childhood is always going to be obscure and indefinite，but no less significant for being so.”Discuss the meaning of this sentence.

Identity crisis:The critical period in emotional maturation and personality development，occurring usually during adolescence，which involves the reworking and abandonment of childhood identifications and the integration of new personal and social identifications.

Hard science:Hard science and Soft science are colloquial terms often used when comparing fields of academic research or scholarship，with“harder”meaning perceived as being more scientific，rigorous，or accurate.For example，fields of the natural sciences or physical sciences are often described as hard in contrast to soft social sciences.The hard sciences are characterized as relying on experimental，empirical，quantifiable data or the scientifiComethod，and focusing on accuracy and objectivity.When soft science is used to refer to a natural science，it is usually used pejoratively，implying that a particular natural science topic described as“soft”does not belong to the field of natural science.

Different approaches to the scientifiComethod can be distinguished by the research they term“soft science”and what they consider“hard.”The issue is important to the philosophy of science(which does not always support the possibility of drawing a distinction between“hard”and“soft”)and to science studies and the sociology of science(which study scientists'implicit perceptions of research and methods).

Consumerism:Consumerism describes the shift in American culture from a producer-oriented society in the nineteenth century to a“consumerist”society in the twentieth century.Changes in domestic demographicsandadvancesinindustrialization，manufacturing，transportation，and communication all contributed to the change.Consumerism also contributed greatly to the liberal thrust of the Progressive Era and spawned a long-running trend of consumer advocacy and consumer protection legislation.

Psychotherapy:Treatment of psychological，emotional，or behaviour disorders through interpersonal communications between the patient and a trained counselor or therapist.The goal of many modern individual and group therapies is to establish a central relationship of trust in which the client or patient can feel free to express personal thoughts and emotions and thus gain insight into his condition and generally share in the healing power of words.Such therapies include psychoanalysis and its variants，client-centred or nondirective psychotherapy，Gestalt therapy，play and art therapy，and general counseling.In contrast，behaviour therapy focuses on modifying behaviour by reinforComent techniques without concerning itself with internal states.心理治疗又称精神治疗，是指以心理学的理论系统为指导，以良好的医患关系为桥梁，运用心理学的技术与方法治疗病人心理疾病的过程。从广义上讲，心理治疗就是通过各种方法，运用语言和非语言的交流方式，影响对方的心理状态(影响或改变患者的感受、认识、情感、态度和行为，减轻或消除使患者痛苦的各种情绪、行为以及躯体症状)，通过解释、说明、支持、同情、相互之间的理解来改变对方的认知、信念、情感、态度、行为等，达到排忧解难、降低心理痛苦的目的。从这个意义上说，人类所具有的一切亲密关系都能起到心理治疗作用。理解、同情、支持等心理反应就是生活中最值得提倡的心理治疗方法。

New Age:A term popularized in the 1980s to describe a wide-ranging set of beliefs and practices that are an outgrowth of the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States.Adherents of the New Age movement believe that a spiritual era is dawning in which individuals and society will be transformed.The movement encompasses a wide range of ideas，including personal spiritual growth and self-realization，holistiComedicine(including the use of crystals for healing)，reincarnation，astrology，and the mystical energies said to be induced by pyramids.Many critics of the movement regard it as anti-intellectual.新纪元和浪漫主义有很多相似之处。音乐史上每一种新的风格，都是在时髦与反时髦的斗争中形成的。就像稳健的古典主义是对轻巧的洛可可风格的反叛；感情至上的浪漫主义又像对崇尚形式的古典主义的反叛一样，新纪元音乐是轻音乐领域里的后现代主义思潮对传统审美观念的反叛。所不同的是，古典的也罢，浪漫的也罢，它们的反叛都是在传统的审美范畴中进行的。尽管在风格上、思想观念上有很多变迁，但二者的背后却有着共同的哲学观念，那就是对生命、对快乐的理解:生命属于我们只有一次，应当活得崇高而有意义。

http://www.businessweek.com/careers/workingparents/blog/archives/2007/10/a_mind_is_a_ter.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/30/AR2008093001832.html

新闻报刊中词语的文化、政治内涵。读者可能还记得在前面环境类学过的The Environmental MovementEndangered Species这篇文章，其中出现的短语“Motherhood and apple pie”颇值得思考。其字面意思是“做母亲与苹果派”，但是风马牛不相及，但若是细究之后，会发现这里为人之母与苹果派是美国大众文化所推崇的价值观念，再延伸则是人人皆认可、无人唱反调的东西，换言之，则为something too bland or innocuous，这样便能与上下文相关联，明白作者是说Apollo Alliance这一环保组织是一个无鲜明主张的平庸机构。同样，cowboy带给读者并不仅仅是“牛仔”，而是传递rugged individual，adventurous and freedom pursuing中的价值观。再如，英语中eugenics一词更是意味深长。其字义为“优生”、“优生学”。但20世纪三四十年代纳粹德国和墨索里尼的意大利等国出于担心本国“劣等人口”大量增加，对“劣等种族”或者“缺陷人口”进行强制性绝育。纳粹德国还对犹太人实施种族灭绝。由于优生学被种族主义的人口政策所利用，因此，以后的人口立法对Eugenics一词避而远之。反之亦然，汉语的“霸权”、“霸权主义”均为贬义词，而英语中的hegemony或hegemon则趋于中性偏贬。以上举例告诉我们字面意义与其背后的文化与政治内涵足以引起读者的注意，避免望文生义或浅尝辄止。

Ⅰ.According to the article，determine which statements are true and which are false.

1.More and more people believe talk therapy can be harmful.

2.Practices like“going back to childhood”in psychotherapy diminish its credibility as a hard science.

3.Psychotherapy，like arts，inhabits the middle ground between religion and science.

4.It seems that people have the least control over the most fearful but not the most valued.

5.The honest therapist can provide the same assurances as，but not more than，the assurances you are entitled to expect when you purchase a car.

1.“Psychotherapists of various orientations”probably means________.

A.entry-level psychotherapists just taking their orientation programs

B.experienced psychotherapists offering various orientation programs

C.psychotherapists of different beliefs or interests

D.none of the above

2.Which of the following statements is false?

A.People are not sure that psychotherapy can definitely help.

B.A good psychotherapist promises an informed willingness to listen and possible helpful comment.

C.Consumer capitalism has some effect on the evolution of psychotherapy.

D.None of the above.

3.Which of the following statements is true?

A.Talk therapy is necessary for traumatic patients.

B.“Reconstructing the past”is to regain scientific credibility of psychotherapy.

C.Psychotherapy can show us the limits of what science can do for our welfare.

D.University literature departments never put psychotherapy in the realm of arts.

4.With regard to talk therapy，________.

A.the therapist may not know in advance what will be said by the patient

B.the therapist may not know the consequences of what the patient will say

C.it can evoke previously repressed memories or desire

D.all of the above

5.The following statements are all true except________.

A.psychotherapy can only be on the middle ground between religion and science

B.religion has been a medium through which people discuss what matters most

C.science has helped people to know what they want to

D.psychotherapy has to strive for more certainties