From the Revd J. D. Brown Sir: Professor H. J.
Eysenck's review (January 11) has exposed the shrill polemicism of which Ivan Illich's latest book could no doubt be fairly accused. May we now hope that the Professor's advocacy of a balanced view regarding medical treatment will be extended to the realm of psychotherapy, which over many years he has castigated as useless, and any faith in psychoanalysis as a complete delusion?
I can hardly be the only analysand who would cheerfully state that the permanent benefit received from five years' analysis was well worth the time and expense. Because the success of this form of treatment can obviously never be objectively proved, must the Professor always be right in dismissing such claims as mere auto-suggestion? Such total 'debunking' could itself justify the charge of obscurantism. It is alas not unknown for one-sided hostility towards psychotherapy to spring from an unconscious fear of its insights.
J. D. Brown Westhampnett Vicarage, Chichester, Sussex
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