Menschenbild und Psychotherapie

Images of humans provide preliminary answers to the question of what essentially constitutes their situation. In psychoanalytically based procedures images have appeared from time immemorial, which especially emphasize the animal impulses, the emotions, the interpersonal situation and in contrast, the self-reflecting subject, the capabilities for speech, communication and culture. In addition to this, in this discussion special attention is paid to the changing economic and technological circumstances, which displace humans into a novel living environment and could possibly bring about new forms of personality development with respect to the biological nature and also the sociocultural possibilities. As a consequence for psychotherapy, the consideration of these anthropological aspects is recommended beyond the processing of individual mental disorders.