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Long-Term Benefits from Psychotherapy: A 30-Year Retrospective by Client and Therapist

University of California, Irvine

James Bugental

Association for Humanistic Psychology

This article offers a uniquely long-term examination by a client and therapist, mental health professionals, of their therapeutic work together and of related principles of psychotherapy. The dialogue includes discussions of the experience of surprise as a hallmark of effective therapy, the extent to which the authors are usually alienated from their subjective experience, and ways in which introspective sensitivity can be fostered and alienation overcome. Other topics include the nature of therapeutic insights and their similarity to those valued by contemplatives, their state-dependency and multiple grades of significance, and the illusion of final insights and attainments. The dialogue goes on to discuss the emergence and implications of synesthesia and increased energy, comparisons of psychotherapy and meditation, the mind as potentially self-healing and self-actualizing, and therapeutic processes that foster self-trust.

Key Words: alienation • introspection • psychotherapy outcome • meditation • self-actualization • spirituality

Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 45, No. 4, 531-542 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0022167805280266


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