Alternative psychotherapeutic practice among middle class Americans: II: Some conceptual and practical comparisons

This article will contextualize ethnographic and clinical features that distinguish one particular alternative healing method (Self-Acceptance Training) from 'main-stream' psychotherapeutic procedures. Factors common to many psychotherapies are listed and a series of contrasts and comparisons made by examining definitions of: (1) presenting problems, (2) inciting events, (3) phasic development, (4) taxonomic classifications, (5) therapeutic interventions, and (6) prognostic formulations. The alternative method of treatment described in a companion publication ('SAT') is used to make some specific comparisons (Zatzick and Johnson 1997). Basch's (1980) concise recording of a dynamic therapy is borrowed for purposes of a comparative hypothetical treatment of his patient through a Self-Acceptance Training session. Some directions for future work are suggested.