Professionalism and Wrong Pathologizing

Excerpt-James Hillman-Revisioning Psychology

By regarding our symptoms as the accidents that brought us into therapy rather than as the via regia into soul, we neglect their importance in soul-making. Instead, this importance is displaced onto therapy. By carelessly turning over our symptoms to professional therapists, we have reinforced the grip of professionalism upon psychopathology. Here the critics of psychotherapy have much on their side: they note well the dependency of the helping professions upon the fantasy of sickness. Because states of soul need professional help only when they can be found sick, a collusion develops between patient and therapist in regard to psychopathology. They both require it for the therapy game.