ALTERNATIVE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PRACTICE AMONG MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS: II: SOME CONCEPTUAL AND PRACTICAL COMPARISONS

This article will contextualize ethnographic and clinicalfeatures that distinguish one particular alternativehealing method (Self-Acceptance Training) frommainstreampsychotherapeutic procedures. Factors common to manypsychotherapies are listed and a series of contrasts andcomparisons made by examining definitions of: (1) presentingproblems, (2) inciting events, (3) phasic development, (4)taxonomic classifications, (5) therapeutic interventions,and (6) prognostic formulations. The alternative method oftreatment described in a companion publication(SAT) is used to makesome specific comparisons (Zatzick and Johnson 1997).Baschs (1980) concise recording of a dynamic therapy isborrowed for purposes of a comparative hypothetical treatmentof his patient through a Self-Acceptance Training session.Some directions for future work are suggested.