I have always felt that it is completely unethical to subject neurotic patients to a treatment the efficacy of which has not been proven, and indeed, the efficacy of which is very much in doubt--so much so that there is no good evidence for it, in spite of hundreds of studies devoted to the question. Patients are asked to spend money and time they can ill afford, and subject themselves to a gruelling experience, to no good purpose at all; this surely cannot be right. At least there should be a statutory warning to the effect that the treatment they are proposing to enter has never been shown to be effective, is very lengthy and costly, and may indeed do harm to the patient.[10] [10] Eysenck, "The Battle over Therapeutic Effectiveness," in _Does Psychotherapy Really Help People?_, p. 59. WHY PESSIMISM IS UNFOUNDED I hold all contemporary psychiatric approaches--all "mental-health" methods--as basically flawed because they all search for solutions along medical-technical lines. But solutions for what? For life! But life is not a problem to be solved. Life is something to be lived, as intelligently, as competently, as well as we can, day in and day out. Life is something we must endure. There is no solution for it.[11] [11] Thomas Szasz, interviewed in Jonathan Miller, _States of Mind_ (New York: Pantheon Books, 1983), p. 290. We must grab the bull by the horns. Thousands upon thousands of people continue to enter psychotherapy. How long would any service last if it failed to serve the needs of its market? It is tempting to suppose that something constructive, at least sometimes, happens as a result of psychotherapy to justify the time, expense, and faith of clients. Or is their faith really misplaced? One of the most outspoken critics of psychotherapy is psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. His views are an unlikely source for a defense of psychotherapy, but its defense, oddly enough, can be found there. Szasz argues that psychology has been influenced by the disease model that dominates medicine. Medicine bases its conception of treatment on the fact that there are diseases (or {271} injuries) that can be helped by means of drugs or surgery. Illnesses and injuries are _treatable conditions_. Treatment is applied from outside by the physician, and the condition, when the treatment is effective, improves.