The following letter from David Shapiro was published in the Guardian 26.ii.94
"A significant and growing number of psychotherapists, chiefly those with backgrounds in broader disciplines such as clinical psychology and psychiatry, are already engaged in the evaluative research advocated by Madeleine Bunting. The Society for Psychotherapy Research, is an international, multi-disciplinary organisation whose 1,000 members are committed to the scientific study and improvement of psychotherapy in all its forms.Opening psychotherapy and psychotherapists to public scrutiny and accountability is of course part and parcel of this mission.
In this country, psychotherapy research is supported by such agencies as the Medical Research Council and the Mental Health Foundation. Psychotherapy researchers are winning their long-term campaign to persuade all psychotherapists of the necessity and benefits of research in this field.
But research costs money. Psychotherapies are disadvantaged, in comparison with drug treatments, by the relative absence of commercial incentive to develop more effective psychological treatments. Resources for research hold the key to meeting the massive public demand for proven, safe, and effective psychotherapies."
Chris Evans C.Evans@sghms.ac.uk