Psychotherapy - Etymology

Etymology

Psychotherapy is an English word of Greek origin, deriving from Ancient Greek psyche (ψυχή meaning "breath; spirit; soul") and therapia (θεραπεία "healing; medical treatment").

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, psychotherapy first meant "hypnotherapy" instead of "psychotherapy". The original meaning, "the treatment of disease by ‘psychic’ methods", was first recorded in 1853 as "Psychotherapeia, or the remedial influence of mind". The modern meaning, "the treatment of disorders of the mind or personality by psychological or psychophysiological methods", was first used in 1892 by Frederik van Eeden translating "Suggestive Psycho-therapy" for his French "Psychothérapie Suggestive". Van Eeden credited borrowing this term from Daniel Hack Tuke and noted, "Psycho-therapy ... had the misfortune to be taken in tow by hypnotism."

The psychiatrist Jerome Frank defined psychotherapy as the relief of distress or disability in one person by another, using an approach based on a particular theory or paradigm, and a requirement that the agent performing the therapy has had some form of training in delivering this. It is these latter two points which distinguish psychotherapy from other forms of counseling or caregiving.

Psychologist Hans J. Eysenck in explaining the relationship between psychotherapy, behavior therapy and behavior modification defines it in its broadest sense as "the use of psychological therories and methods in the treatment of psychiatric disorders." He goes on to state that psychotherapy "has a narrower meaning, namely the use of interpretative (mostly Freudian) methods of therapy."