Luyten, P;
(2015)
Psychotherapy and psychotherapy research: Quo vadis?
Journal of Psychotherapy Integration
, 25
(4)
pp. 338-345.
10.1037/int0000011.
Preview |
Text
Luyten_Commentary_Carrere_FINAL.pdf - Accepted Version Download (158kB) | Preview |
Abstract
This article comments on Tullio Carere-Comes’s (see record 2014-43477-001) article, which addresses some of the key issues of the future of psychotherapy integration and psychotherapy as such. The present author will discuss two key issues raised by Carere-Comes. First, whether there indeed is a “prescriptive movement” driven by naive scientism, as Carere-Comes argues. Second, whether the dialogic–dialectic model he then proposes offers a viable alternative. The author strongly believes that what the profession needs now is a thorough but balanced reflection on where we want the field of psychotherapy, and psychotherapy research, to move to in the future. This reflective exercise needs to be informed by both scientific findings and clinical wisdom. In fact, in contrast to Carere-Comes, and like many others, I do not see the two as distinct, but rather as part of a broader critical and reflective attitude that characterizes any scientific enterprise. In this sense the times are changing as well, as more and more researchers and clinicians share this view. The author believes it is highly unfortunate that some continue to depict research and clinical practice as separate endeavors, thereby perpetuating an unhelpful distinction between them. Most of the leading scientists in this domain are simultaneously involved in theory building, clinical practice, and research. They are far from the naive scientists Carere-Comes desperately wants us to believe they are, that is, researchers who feel superior and who look down from their ivory tower on mere clinicians (because they themselves are clinicians in the first place and are also involved in the development and dissemination of their treatments). The author will argue that this is why both proponents of scientism in the domain of psychotherapy and those who hold the view that scientific findings are of little or no relevance for psychotherapists—like Carere-Comes—are mistaken. Their views both originate in the false and increasingly obsolete dichotomy between science and clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
