Values in Nature and in Psychotherapy

1. The Concept of Nature  The clinical background for the following theoretical considerations was provided by 25 years of systematic application of projective techniques to all persons seen for purposes of evaluation,⁹ therapy and psychomatic research.^5,6,10 Two were introduced by psychiatrists: Rorschach and Szondi, two by psychologists: Koch and Machover. The tests provided clues regarding the role of specific value systems in maintaining physical and mental health.In order to understand the results and apply them to psychotherapy it was necessary to reconsider the emphasis of modern psychotherapies on the autonomous character of the individual. In classical psychoanalysis the personality structure is identified as a primarily self-preserving pleasure-seeking, biological organism which secondarily is forced to adjust to the tasks of dealing with the demands of physical and cultural realities. In existentialism also autonomy is emphasized, but as a psychological phenomenon. In Sartre's