Sorrows and Joys of the Psychotherapist*

Professor Antoni Kepinski, 1918-1972, studied medicine at the University of Cracow. At the beginning of World War II he fought against the Nazi invasion of Poland, and in 1940 against the German invasion of France. He escaped to Spain, was interned there, but was able to make his way to England by way of Gibraltar in 1943. He again fought against Hitler as an RAF pilot. He finished his medical studies in England and returned home to Poland in 1947, where he remained active, first as a member, then, from 1969, as chief of the psychiatric clinic of the Medical Academy of Cracow. He died in 1972. Kepinski was one of the most prominent psychiatrists and philosophers of post-war Poland. His publications are captivating because of their incorruptible spirit, their richness and originality, as well as their tolerance paired with an inexorable passion for truth. Kepinski criticizes the regime courageously and engages in a psychological analysis of the conditions necessary for democratic, free, and spontaneous existence. The following chapter is taken from his book, Life's Rhythm, published in 1973, which traverses the border between medicine and philosophy. In wide-ranging essays, it deals with the origins and development of social and psychopathological behaviors in modern society.

It is difficult to make use of a scientific methodology, as we understand it today, in the field of psychotherapy. How can one assume a scientific attitude in an undertaking where one is both