The Changing Concept of the Irrational and its Effect on Therapeutic Technique*

We are inextricably woven into the ever-changing fabric of our culture. No pair of words reflects this more than the antonyms rationality and irrationality. It is apparent that time, this elusive phantom, has now shifted its allegiance to the irrational, which is “in”, while rationality is not “relevant”, as the lingo has it. While many of us may not be “with it” because of age or inclination, we all recognize the restless undercurrent of our time, erupting in many ways, including pervasive questioning of traditional values.

Suzanne Langer describes this mood when she states: “Later generations will probably see our age as a time of transition from one social order to another, as we find the Middle Ages a ‘middle’ between Graeco-Roman civilization and the full-fledged European. But we cannot see the present way, because what we are moving towards does not yet exist, and we can have no picture of it. We feel ourselves swept along in a violent passage, from a world we cannot salvage to one we cannot see; and most people are afraid” (Langer 1962).

It was, though, not only the obvious historic-cultural connection of the concepts of rationality and irrationality that lead me to choose the historical approach to our topic, but also the exciting and clarifying impact on me of Henry Ellenberger's book, The History of the Unconscious. History makes sense of the present. Much falls into place. While the understanding of a logical continuity does not change the urgency of our present plight, it