Personality and Behaviour Therapy

I reviewed the evidence for the effectiveness of psychotherapy with adults; the conclusion was that the data published to date failed to show any beneficial effects of psychotherapy. Levitt in 1957 carried out a similar review for work with children, and came to a similar conclusion. These findings are in full agreement with the pessimism with which Freud in his later years regarded the therapeutic possibilities of his own techniques. Dr. H. I. Weinstock, the chairman of the fact-finding committee of the American Psychoanalytical Society, has recently stated that "no claims regarding the therapeutic usefulness of neurotic treatment are made by the American Psychoanalytical Society", and in this country Glover (1955) has explicitly disavowed any claims for therapeutic usefulness of psychoanalytical methods. Schmideberg (1958) can be quoted in a similar vein, and several psychotherapists like J. Wolpe (1958) and A. Ellis (1955, 1957) have be-