Information, news and debate about psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapies
Adam Phillips explores the happiness myth - The Guardian, 4 September
Dora: The Girl Who Walked Out On Freud - Listen again, BBC Radio 4, 1 September
NHS trust criticised after psychologist is arrested over affair - The Independent on Sunday, 29 August
Safety in mind: 'patients deserve to be protected, not patronised by those who claim to know best' - Financial Times, 28 August
Breaking the taboo over the mental health crisis among Britain's gay men - The Observer, 22 August
Andrew Cooper defends psychoanalytic therapy for depression in The Guardian, 7 August
Great dynasties of the world: The Freuds, The Guardian, 7 August
My Life in Therapy: Daphne Merkin, New York Times 4 August
BACP survey: One in five Britons has consulted a counsellor or a psychotherapist - The Observer, 1 August
Darian Leader on the forthcoming DSM-V - The Guardian, 29 July
Many GPs fear being unable to take on role of providing services for patients with mental health problems - The Observer, 18 July
Interview with the author of 'Psychoanalytic Diagnosis' - Psychology Today, 13 June
Talking therapies are more effective than Prozac-type drugs, says scientist - The Times, 14 June
Darth Vader displays the signs of a borderline personality order - The Guardian, 10 June
Response to below: Psychological rehabilitation of offenders is not a lost cause - The Guardian, 3 June
£1m each spent on most dangerous killers 'about locking people up' - The Guardian, 26 May
Depression? It's just the new trendy illness! - Janet Street Porter, The Daily Mail 19 May
Response to JSP by Alastair Campbell: The reality of depression, The Mirror 21 May
Malcolm Allen and Darian Leader debate on Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’, 13 May (Listen Again)
'Psychotherapists must address this clear failure of self-regulation' - Malcolm Allen, The Guardian, 11 May
Sex scandals, rows and mavericks: is it time to regulate psychotherapy? - The Observer, 2 May 2010
Psychotherapy rebels consider rebranding to avoid state regulation - The Observer, 2 May 2010
Freud and Jung: A Meeting of Minds - The Independent, 24 April
Richard E. Grant: 'Freudian psychoanalysis "absolutely saved my life".' The Times, 21 April
21 March: GPs demand end to therapy delays for mentally ill children - The Guardian
BBC News, 9 March: Call to regulate therapy counsellors (video)
9 March: Brian Rock on 'In Treatment', The Guardian
3 March: Scientific American: 'Strongest evidence yet that psychodynamic psychotherapy works'
3 March: Clare Allan (the Guardian) shops for a psychotherapist
'Repression debunked' study fails to convince blogosphere - BPS Research Digest blog, 15 February
February 2010: Patrick Strudwick for the independent (1 Feb) and the Guardian (9 Feb) goes undercover to investigate conversion therapy
December 2009: Letters on the regulation of therapies, including from Nicola Barden and Andrew Samuels in response to article by Lucy Bannerman, The problems with therapy (The Times, 7 Dec)
22 November 2009: Divorcing couples to be offered counselling on the NHS, The Guardian
BBC, 12 October: Cat registered as hypnotherapist
4 October 2009 - The Observer reports that 'Only 400 therapists have been trained out of the 3,600 needed for the [IAPT] scheme'
Oliver James: Family Under the Microscope - 18 July 2009, The Guardian
Regulations must be extended to help stamp out abuse - 5 July 2009, Mind
Adam Phillips on excessive behaviour - The Guardian, 8 August 2009
Leading charity backs registration of counsellors and therapists - 1 July 2009: Angela Hussain (Psychminded)
Counselling and Psychotherapy must be state regulated (1 July) - Jonathan Coe
Why psychological therapies need a different style of regulation (1 July) - James Antrican
Thought policing (1 July) Mary O’Hara
The drugs don’t work (29 June) - Ed Halliwell
Psychotherapy of Depression Changes Biological Parameters - 24 June 2009: Read full article here
Antidepressant use soars as the recession bites (21 June) - Jamie Doward
Any one seeking help from Derek Draper needs therapy: Catherine Bennett (The Observer)
Dont judge us all by Draper's practices - 26 April 2009, The Observer
GP's are failing depressed patients' - 19 April 2009: Nina Lankhani (The Independent)
Jonathan Coe of Witness responds to Darian Leader (The Guardian, 17 April)
Julian Lousada's response to Darian Leader's 9 April article 'counselling doesn't fit the commoditised NHS model - The Guardian, 13 April 2009
The Independent (11 April) reports on the issue.
Counselling needs a legal basis for client protection - 11 April 2009, Phillip Hodson (BACP)
The Coalition Against Over-Regulation of Psychotherapy publishes its letter in The Guardian, 9 April.
The Guardian interviews Susie Orbach, 26 March (video feed)
'Talking' initiative good idea but flawed - 15 March 2009, responses to article 'victims of recession to get free therapy' (The Observer)
When it's bad to talk: 11 March 2009, Katie Hilpern (The Guardian)
Victims of recession to get free therapy - 8 March 2009, Toby Helm (The Observer)
The Guardian (Saturday 7 March) includes a special section on psychotherapy and psychology
- Article by Susie Orbach
- The ego, the superego and the id
- Brief descriptions of different therapies
Fit for purpose (on IAPT) - 18 February 2009, Laurence Pollock (The Guardian)
The Observer (23 November 2008) interviews Stan Ruszczynski and other staff at the Portman.
A meta-analysis of 23 studies has shown that long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for at least a year was more effective overall than other treatments in helping adult patients with personality disorders, chronic or multiple mental disorders, or complex depressive and anxiety disorders.
- Abstract in the Journal of the American Medical Association
- Review on MedPage Today
- Reuters carries the story as 'Long-term psychotherapy helps complex cases: study'
- Medical news portal for physicians recommends GPs explain the results to interested patients.
Darian Leader writes in the Guardian (9 September) against CBT and the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme. 'CBT's effort to ignore the effects of an individual's history in favour of a shallow analysis of the here and now sets a bleak example to those who believe that if the 20th century had any lesson, it was precisely not to deny the significance of human history and memory.'
'While some therapists do not dispute the need for some official regulation, many professional bodies are furious at these plans,' reports the Times ('Regulate this!', 15 July 2008). The BPC has had its response published (18 July - scroll down to third letter on the Times' page). Read the unedited version here and comment on it.
A subsequent letter from a service user (29 July) makes an unarguable case for regulation: 'The regulation of any service exists for the benefit of users, not providers.'
An earlier news article in the Sunday Telegraph (Freudians having bad dreams about the end of the couch; 13 July 2008) suggests that all psychoanalysts agree that impending state regulation will have negative consequences for psychotherapy. The BPC submitted a response but this was not published - read it here.
Experts debunk CBT 'myth', 7 July: 'CBT has not been proved to be better than other therapies and such perceptions could mislead the public and harm patient care.' Read the article here.
'Wake-up call for British psychiatry' (Requires BJP or Athens login): A recent article in the British Journal of Psychiatry arguing that the New Ways of Working initiative puts patients at risk because of its emphasis on talking therapies and other 'alternative' treatments.
Mary O'Hara reports in The Guardian (9 July 2008) on the responses to this statement, which suggest the article 'represents an attempt by some psychiatrists to reassert their dominance within mental health care.'
Media Round Up
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