Unpacking the Demoralization Thesis

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Abstract
American psychotherapies use a variety of explanations for their practices. From an anthropologist's point of view, one of the most sophisticated of these explanations is the demoralization thesis proposed by the psychiatrist Jerome Frank. Frank's thesis is that (1) no psychotherapy has been shown to be more efficacious than any other psychotherapy, and (2) claims about the special efficacy and validity of particular traditions and techniques are equivalent to myths. Because the demoralization thesis appears to be making radical claims, it seems paradoxical that it also enjoys a favored position in psychiatric discourse. This article unpacks the thesis and finds that, appearances notwithstanding, its implications are consistent with the cultural particularisms of the eclectic mainstream of contemporary psychiatry.

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