The secret.

The revelation of secrets lies at the core of much psychotherapeutic method and was the seed from which early psychoanalytic theory grew. The notion of "the secret" can therefore be regarded as critical to an understanding of the psychotherapeutic process. This paper puts forward a view which contrasts, in important aspects, with traditional concepts and which emphasizes the positive or creative value of certain hidden ideas and the importance of the social arena on which they are displayed.