agreement on faith. He must learn to fight for his own happiness and to deserve it. He must learn that the irrational
will not work—and that so long as any part of him desires it, that desire is the cause of his suffering.
He must learn to live as a rational being—and for guidance at this task, he needs a code of rational moral principles.
This is the reason I consider the Objectivist ethics indispensable to the practice of psychotherapy.
It is necessary, at this point, to enter a note of caution with regard to the manner in which moral principles are
communicated to patients.
There is a radical difference between directive therapy, in which the therapist accepts the responsibility of his role
as educator—and authoritarian therapy, in which the therapist preaches, propagandizes, intimidates, cajoles, and
otherwise attempts to pressure the patient into accepting certain views.
Authoritarianism in the name of reason, or for the patient's "own good," is a contradiction in terms. The fact that a
patient has psychological problems does not mean that the therapist is entitled to treat him with less than full
intellectual respect. It is often all too easy, granted the nature of the therapist's position and the patient's self -doubt,
for the therapist to use subtle forms of intimidation to compel acceptance of his own moral or philosophical beliefs.
Such a practice is counter to the entire nature and intention of the therapeutic enterprise. If a therapist is to help his
patient, what he needs is the patient's rational understanding, not his blind faith. A therapist is a scientist, not a
witch doctor.
It would be an error, I should mention, to assume that the danger of authoritarianism is peculiar to therapists who
accept the necessity and responsibility of dealing with values in their practice. Witch-doctory is fully as prevalent,
if not more prevalent, among the type of therapist who eschews the issue of values. Freudians in particular are
notorious in this regard.^13
Therapeutic Techniques
It is outside the scope of this book to enter into a detailed discussion of the techniques of psychotherapy. I may
make that the subject of a future work. Here I shall confine myself to a few general observations about more
technical aspects of therapy.