From the tower of babel to therapeutic Esperanto. Notes on Research and Integration in Psychotherapy

Abstract

In recent years, perhaps the most characteristic trend in the realm of psychotherapy has been the beginning of a dialogue among traditionally antagonistic schools, and concomitant efforts toward integration. The main reason for this situation seems to be the existence of more than 400 different schools with equivalent results (those that have been submited to empirical scrutiny) as far as therapeutic outcomes are concerned. The author, based on the present situation of psychotherapy research, stresses the importance of conducting studies aimed not only at the identification of the active principles common to all theoretical orientations, but also at identifying their differential contributions. The target of such an enterprise would be the construction of a new conceptual and integrative system, likely to optimize clinical decision making in being able to account for the selection of the interventions that seem more effective with different clinical populations. Some difficulties and suggestions regarding such a project are also made.