[Truth and reality in psychotherapeutical treatment].

Truth is not to be understood in the abstract but as an individual inner truth which comes from knowing the underlying nature of the human being, from knowing all his qualities and feelings. A person is ill or becomes ill, when he will not experience his inner truth or allow it to surface. Psychotherapy must help the patient to find his personal inner truth. -- To reality on the other hand do belong all objects, all processes and events, as do all other people and their individual inner thruths. By integrating the person's inner truth into reality through action, there will be changes of the reality. Expressing one's inner truth does not necessarily equate with leading a healthy existence. Mentally ill people often cannot accept their individual inner truths, which also include their mental illness. Psychotherapy should accentuate the healthy parts of the mind and emphasize all the circumstances which the patient has managed well. The freedom of a patient not to want to acknowledge his inner truth must be respected; to accompany the ill person in an unassuming way can also be effective. The specific character of his illness and its resulting actions also belong to the patient's individual inner truth. This knowledge gives rise to necessary sacrifice and helps bring about the required period of mourning. Sacrifice and mourning also constitute part of existence. They can lead man to greater psychic maturity and contribute to independent use of the achieved individual inner truth.