What remains elementary—and essential—in psychotherapy?
As psychotherapy becomes increasingly specialised, protocol-driven, and subject to managerial thinking, do we risk losing sight of what makes it therapeutic in the firstplace? Presence, attention, listening, care, and the human encounter itself.
In this episode, two ‘hosts’ discuss On the Spirit of Psychotherapy. The Elementary Holmes, a review essay by Mark Kinet, published in the British Journal of Psychotherapy (2026).
Reflecting on Jeremy Holmes's The Spirit of Psychotherapy: A Hidden Dimension (2024), it explores the often overlooked relational, existential, and spiritual dimensions of psychotherapy. Can increasing technical sophistication come at the expense of something more elementary? And what remains essential when therapeutic expertise threatens to overshadow the therapeutic relationship?
Read On the Spirit of Psychotherapy. The Elementary Holmes
More information: Mark Kinet MD
Current Psychoanalysis brings together more than 35 books and other writings by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Mark Kinet. Each episode explores how unconscious meaning,personal history, and the therapeutic relationship illuminate psychiatry, psychotherapy, and culture. Two virtual hosts discuss carefully selected texts, translating complex psychoanalytic ideas into clear, engaging conversationswhile remaining remarkably faithful to the original work. For clinicians, students, and anyone curious about the human mind.
