What did Freud get right?

[brewer]

Was he right about cocaine? Absolutely.

But what about talk therapy? Maybe. Studies have indicated that talk therapy's influence on recovery from mental illness may be negligible. As one of my psych profs explained to me, most of the data supporting talk therapy is based on what recovered individuals name as the cause of recovery. Meaning, people who have had talk therapy generally think IT was an instrumental factor in their recovery. But studies that focus on results only find the influence of talk therapy negligible.

Cocaine is a subject for another time...

In my experience, talk therapy was helpful in getting some perspective with a couple of life events...such as the death of my first husband.  It was uncharted territory and I really didn't know where to go with what I was thinking and feeling.  Having a third party to speak with that wasn't emotionally invested was helpful to see through the fog.  It was also helpful to me when I finally made the break with my mother...in fact, it was crucial.  These were very specific events and I am not sure that talk therapy is as useful for mental illness since that is often a chemical imbalance.  I'm sure for some people talking it out does help on some levels.

I saw that for situational depressive states it was helpful to me.

Thanks for addressing intrinsic vs extrinsic.