[Psychotherapy and epistemology]

The different psychotherapic methods and technics which appeared during psychiatric history incite us to consider their connections with the prevailing ways of thinking of human knowledge, namely the mythical and rational ones, for the latter condition not only this knowledge, but also the human relationships and interrelations with the cultural environment. Starting from an original mythical and religious orientation, psychotherapy evolved towards a more rational orientation still stamped with magic, as hypnosis shows it. Then, after some regressions, it developed until it settled in two opposite empirical trends: one still mainly mythical, the other more objective and critical aiming at being more rational and experimental. Nowadays, new researchers show that the contribution of predominantly mythical trends can be admitted by a modern scientific orientation, liable to integrate it in a larger and more rigorous rational knowledge, while coming nearer to ethic preoccupations. Thus, it is possible to underline the relative value of any psychotherapy and envisage even the creation of new methods and technics.