Persuasion in Psychotherapy
GENE M. ABROMS M.D.1
1 Assistant professor, department of psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, Wisc. 53706
Persuasion plays an important role in promoting therapeutic change. But the claim that it is the sole or primary agent is rejected on methodological grounds because it fails to account for individual differences in persuasibility and for the process of incorporating and generalizing new attitudes and behaviors. "Healing through persuasion" says no more than that therapy is an interpersonal process.
