Last week, I came across an interview on Time’s website in which Alan Kazdin, former president of the American Psychological Association and Yale psychology professor, suggested that individual therapy is outdated and needed to be essentially eliminated as a method of providing mental health care. I reviewed the article as I was preparing to write about it only to find that it had been updated and given a new title.
Instead of “Yale Psychologist Calls for the End of Individual Therapy,” the last phrase now reads: “Calls for Radical Change in Therapy.” In the updated version, Kazdin dials back his call for the death of psychotherapy, perhaps in response to the many comments that the article received that were very critical of Kazdin’s view, including comments by the current president of the APA and a candidate for the next president of the APA.
Kazdin denies the importance of research showing the importance of the relationship between therapist and patient in psychotherapy and suggests an alternative method of online self-administered treatment. He suggests that “government could help people find the appropriate consortium of online services.”
Kazdin does concede that people experiencing depression or grief might benefit from meeting with a psychotherapist, though I believe that this is an addition that wasn’t included in the original article.
The Kazdin article contrasts sharply with an article today in the Ottawa Citizen called, Talk Therapy, which suggests that many people are turning back from simply relying on medication to seeking out a relationship with a psychotherapist. As the article states, “The first step toward seeking help is the realization that ennui cannot be cured with Xanax, red wine or a fresh warm body.”
Or, I would add, “a consortium of online services.”