Re: Construing Psychotherapy Outcomes
RASKINJ@HARPO.TNSTATE.EDU
Tue, 02 Apr 1996 15:27:55 -0600 (CST)
Tim Anderson recently posted some interesting thoughts on PCT and process/
outcome research. In the spirit of constructivism, I alway wonder whether
the questions we ask are at least (if not more) important than the answers
that we give to them. That is, when we ask questions re: the outcome of
psychotherapy (i.e. therapy's effectiveness), what does this say about our
perception(s) of what psychotherapy happens to be? As Tim seemed to imply,
do we have to think of outcome in regards to how effective our therapy
"techniques" are? If psychotherapy is construed as a complex interpersonal
interaction rather than a set of techniques applied in order to fix disordered
patients, then how does this alter our conception of what useful process/
outcome research might be? Further, what chaos might such a change in outlook
bring to insurance companies, who seem to more and more be focused on how
therapists can choose the "correct" (or. more technically, most efficacious)
therapeutic technique to treat any given DSM disorder?
JON
Jonathan D. Raskin, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Tennessee State University
3500 John A. Merritt Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37209-1561
tel (615) 963-5158
fax (615) 963-5140
e-mail: raskinj@HARPO.TNSTATE.EDU
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%