>I remember taking psychology, in both high school and college. I remember >that every issue we confronted, we would investigate what the different >philosophies believed were the causes and treatments for the various >issues....the humanists, the behaviorists, the cognitive folks, the >psychoanalytic thought, etc. etc. > >Each "branch" if you will, always had their own incomplete way of viewing >and treating psychological issues. At the end of every section, there was >always the obligatory "A combined approach that utilizes humanist, >behavioral, psychoanalytical and biological treatments produces the best >results." It got so repetitive that I dismissed the whole exercise as >pointless. At one point I finally asked the instructors "Are there still >psychologists out there that wholly subscribe to only one philosophy?"
Not quite. The research is starting to show that there are some therapies that are considerably better than others. Starting in the 1980's with Smith and Glass's work on the effectiveness of psychotherapy, some things are quite clear. Freudian approaches don't really work very well, neither does so called Reality Therapy. Behavioral approaches and (especially) Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approaches are the most effective forms of psychotherapy. My own work (see http://www.lyonsmorris.com/lyons/maret/RETstudy1.htm for an on-line version of this study) confirmed that. Since then its been confirmed more than once. Generally CBT is the most effective, in some cases more effective than drugs for depression for instance. Overall those treatments that are empirically supported tend to have the greatest effectiveness. Here's a listing of some of the published analysis over the last 10 years that have looked at the issue: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=effectiveness+of+psychotherapy&num=100&btnG=Search+Scholar&as_epq=&as_oq=meta-analysis&as_eq=&as_occt=any&as_sauthors=&as_publication=&as_ylo=1997&as_yhi=&as_allsubj=some&as_subj=bio&as_subj=soc&hl=en&lr= > >I feel that same frustration with politics: "Are there still people that >really believe a conservative or a liberal philosophy can stand on it's own >as the best way to govern?" > >Sorry for the long tangent, but this issue just comes back the simple point >that exclusivity is rarely a good thing, and usually leads to incompleteness >at best, and ignorance and outright failure at worst. > >On 4/16/07, William Bowen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Deploy Web Applications Quickly across the enterprise with ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2 Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:232668 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
