This special issue talks about the history of psychotherapy. It was inspired by the events of a 3-day conference, “From Moral Treatments to Psychotherapeutics: Histories of Psychotherapy From the York Retreat to the Present Day”. The conference was small and the ideas were exciting. It was clear that enthusiasm was high for exploring possibilities in something called “the history of psychotherapy”. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)