https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/01/chemical-psychological-psychotherapy/
Chemical psychotherapy is what we usually call psychiatric drugs. They also change the brain, but not back to normal. They create an artificial third state that is neither normal nor the diseased state the patient came from. This creates many problems. Above all, it is a dead end, because you cannot get from this artificially induced state back to normal. There are simply no psychotropic drugs that are capable of this. Their effects are quite unspecific and comprehensive.
Psychological psychotherapy aims to enhance the normal brain functions, thereby creating as normal reactions as possible to the challenges life offers. Many mental disorders involve the patient responding inappropriately to traumas and emotional swings, and it therefore makes sense to teach the patient to think and react more appropriately. It can also make a lot of sense to change the patient’s environment, but this is often overlooked.
Chemical psychotherapy does the opposite. Psychiatric drugs disable a number of important brain functions and can lead to decreased interest in life in general (apathy), withdrawal from social relationships, lack of empathy and care for themselves and others, and at worst emotional numbness. Empathy helps us recognize the suffering we inflict on others through impulsive actions, and thus empathy helps restrain us. 1 A reduction of empathy is one of the mechanisms whereby psychiatric drugs can cause suicide and violence, and at worst homicide.