Depression Will Be Beated

While all the research on brain chemistry has been attracting most of the attention in mental health over the past few years, major changes have been taking place in the practice of psychotherapy as well. When I was in graduate school, I had classes taught by Freudians, behaviorists, and family therapists. Freudians wore suits and ties, behaviorists lab coats, and family therapists wore sportswear. The Freudians and behaviorists could barely disguise their contempt for each other—it was interesting to watch them when they had to pretend to be colleagues, for example, at faculty cocktail parties. The family therapists were polite but condescending to each camp, trying to apply their
point of view to campus politics, while the Freudians and the behaviorists largely ignored them. From the viewpoint of the advancement of science, it was extremely unfortunate. The different camps didn’t even talk to each other, let alone read each others literature. You would find interesting and potentially helpful articles and books on subjects like depression or empathy that didn’t even agree on definitions. There was no way for one point of view to inform another.
What’s happened since that time is a withdrawal from those extreme doctrinaire positions. Effective therapists today will use an amalgam of methods that have their roots in different theories, but their combination makes for effective, humane psychotherapy, often short-term in nature. We don’t assume that the patient is in ignorance about the true nature of his problems, but instead that the patient’s expressed pain and needs are the natural focus of treatment. The therapist does not have to be a silent presence behind the couch or a rat-runner in a lab coat, but instead can be a human person with some special expertise whose understanding and advice are freely given. Patients are much better off for the change.