Self-study
Psychotherapist: Support The troubles from which a patient seeks relief through psychotherapy do not have purely internal causes; rather, Support those troubles result in part from the patient's relationships with other people. ██████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ███████████████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████████████
Summary
The author concludes that to help patients heal, a psychotherapist must focus on the need for positive change in relationships with other people. The reasoning is that there are at least 2 causes of the troubles for which patients seek relief: internal factors, and relationships with other people. The author concludes that since the causes aren’t purely internal, psychotherapists must focus on the interpersonal relationships.
Notable Assumptions
One assumption is that because interpersonal relationships are part of the problem, the solution requires addressing them. The author assumes that focusing on the internal causes alone cannot help a patient heal. But even though the problems are caused by multiple factors, maybe addressing one of the factors is enough to help patients heal.
13.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ███ █████████████████ ████████ █████████
a
Psychotherapists cannot help ██████ █████ █████████ █████████████ ██████ █████ ████████ █████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████
The author argues that psychotherapists need to focus on positive change in interpersonal relationships. But this isn’t the same as focusing on “other people’s troubles”. Perhaps there can be positive change in relationships without considering other people’s troubles.
b
At least some █████████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██ █ ███████████████ █████ ████ ██████ █████ █████████████ ████ █████ ███████
This would actually undermine the argument, by suggesting that focusing on relationships is not fully effective.
c
Those psychotherapy patients ███ ██████ █████ █████████████ ████ █████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ █████████
The argument says that change in relationships is necessary to provide relief, while (C) says that change in relationships will provide relief. It could be that some patients need more than just changing their relationships — this would be consistent with the argument.
d
No psychotherapist can ████ █ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████
If a psychotherapist could help a patient heal by only addressing the internal causes of their troubles, then there would be no need to focus on interpersonal relationships — even if those relationships were a partial cause of the troubles.
e
If a psychotherapist █████ ████████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ █████████ ████ ████ ███████████████ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ █████
One way to exclude (E) is that it contradicts a premise. The stimulus says that the troubles for which patients seek relief do not have purely internal causes.