Since drugs like Valium do not treat any specific disease, does that mean that they are not effective? On the contrary, such drugs are exceedingly effective as psychotherapeutic agents not because of their pharmacological properties but because they enhance the basic components of psychotherapy. They are compatible with a Western cultural worldview which posits that everything can be helped by modern technology - better living through chemistry. They enhance the personal qualities of the therapist because giving a drug demonstrates the caring quality of the therapist; the client may be symbolically taking home little pieces of the therapist in a pill bottle. Drugs dramatically increase a client's expectations that he or she will improve, and this is known to be a major source of the effectiveness of all pharmacological agents. Finally, drugs are used to increase a person's sense of mastery. An injunction to "take one of these three times a day and you will cope with stress better" is analogous to the major elixirs used in mythology; it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and the person does cope better.
E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., Witchdoctors and Psychiatrists: The Common Roots of Psychotherapy and Its Future, p.81
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