[Relation between yoga and psychotherapy].

Western psychotherapy and Yoga overlap insofar as both systems are based upon religious and mythological facts, and--on the level of psychotherapeutical praxis--on the technics of hypnosis, auto- and heterosuggestions and/or meditation. It is 50 years ago that the west considered the psychotherapeutical effects of theayoga-systems, first of all of Hatha- Yoga. Even today a theoretical foundation by means of proper comparison of the two structures is missing. In present-day India Yoga fulfills psychohygienical functions without being a psychotherapy in our sense. There are various techniques of magic in use, which replace the experimental psychological-psychotherapeutical methods in the West. The acceptance of meditation could only be successful if the metaphysical and sociocultural context would be integrated at the same time. The traditional function of Yoga guarantees its continuity even in the modern industrialized society of India. Neither the theoretical nor the pratical fundaments allow a direct transfer at present.