The important thing to remember is that patients often get the treatment they want. If you’re a self-absorbed neurotic, and you want to spend an hour a week for years talking about yourself, you can find someone who will take your money. [...] Most patients don’t want to get better [...] they want to talk about themselves.
Perhaps unwittingly, this comment suggests wherein the value of such psychotherapy lies. There’s a social taboo against talking about oneself in this fashion, and a place that is “safe” from this (and other) conversational taboos may well be worth paying for.
Just a week or two ago I found out—to my utter astonishment -- that at least two people whom I see regularly have religious doubts about evolution—in one case even about the age of the earth. They played various familiar cards, e.g.
-”You have faith in science [i.e. just like I have faith in religion]”
-”Evolution may work as science, but I must suspend judgement on whether it’s true”
-”I believe in evolution within species”
-”How do you know the radioactive decay rates have remained constant?”
-”Are you a person of faith? [Answer: No.] You see? That’s why this conversation will go absolutely nowhere.” (Btw, anyone else notice how the religious are always the first ones to declare this?)
I was too shocked to be able to respond effectively. Would that I had had The Book to hand them.