CH16 – Psychological Treatment

The below information is derived from the textbook “Psychology Themes & Variations”.

Resources

Multiple Choice Quiz	Q1 \| Q2 \| Q3 Notes Only
Matching Quiz	Treatment \| Meds
Podcast	Part 1 \| Part 2
Study Sessions	Mar 30 \| Apr 3 \| Apr 6 \| Apr 6p2

The Breakdown

Overlaps

Treatment options generally fall into two broad categories: biomedical therapy (using medication or medical procedures) and psychotherapy (talk-based approaches). Psychotherapy encompasses various approaches focusing on verbal interactions to enhance self-knowledge and promote change. Biomedical therapy involves interventions into a person’s biological functioning, primarily through drug therapy.
Historically, treatment evolved from ancient supernatural explanations involving trephination and exorcism to institutionalisation in asylums with poor conditions. The moral treatment movement in the 18th and 19th centuries advocated for humane care and the creation of mental hospitals. The 20th century saw the rise of structured approaches like psychoanalysis and behaviourism, followed by deinstitutionalisation shifting care to community-based settings. The modern era emphasizes psychopharmacology, neuroscience, and evidence-based therapies.
Psychopharmacology is the treatment of mental disorders with medication. Key drug categories include antidepressants for depression and anxiety, such as SSRIs (e.g., Prozac) and SNRIs (e.g., Effexor). Antipsychotics (e.g., Thorazine, Risperdal) are used for schizophrenia and severe mood disorders by affecting dopamine activity. Mood stabilisers (e.g., lithium, Depakote) are primarily for bipolar disorder, requiring careful monitoring due to potential toxicity. Anxiolytics (e.g., benzodiazepines like Xanax, non-benzodiazepines like Buspar) relieve tension and anxiety.
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) involves brief electrical stimulation of the brain under anaesthesia, primarily used for severe depression unresponsive to medication. While proponents cite its effectiveness for major depression, yielding remission rates around 75 percent, critics raise concerns about memory loss and other cognitive deficits. Its use peaked before widespread drug therapies and has since declined.
Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, includes various schools of thought. Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic therapy, founded by Sigmund Freud, focuses on uncovering unconscious conflicts through techniques like free association, dream analysis, and interpretation of resistance and transference. While traditional psychoanalysis is lengthy, modern psychodynamic therapy is more focused. Humanistic therapy, exemplified by client-centred therapy developed by Carl Rogers, emphasises personal growth, self-awareness, and providing a supportive emotional climate with genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and accurate empathy. Behavioural therapy applies learning principles to change maladaptive behaviours using classical conditioning techniques like exposure therapy and systematic desensitisation, as well as operant conditioning techniques. Cognitive therapy aims to correct habitual thinking errors underlying disorders, particularly effective for depression and anxiety by identifying and challenging negative thoughts. Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) combines cognitive and behavioural techniques for a comprehensive approach, using structured exercises like thought logs and behavioural activation, and has strong empirical support for various disorders. Group therapy involves multiple participants for social support and shared experiences. Family therapy examines relationship and communication patterns within the family unit.
The effectiveness of psychotherapy is evaluated through outcome studies, which generally indicate that insight therapy is superior to no treatment or placebo. However, judging therapeutic outcome is complex and subjective, with considerations for spontaneous remission, diverse patient problems, and varying therapeutic goals. Common factors across different therapy approaches, such as the therapeutic alliance, emotional support, hope, a rationale for problems, and opportunity to express feelings, are believed to contribute significantly to positive outcomes.
Cultural beliefs significantly influence how mental illness is perceived and treated. Cultural competence is essential for therapists to understand and respect diverse cultural backgrounds. Barriers to treatment for ethnic minorities include stigma, language differences, and lack of access to culturally appropriate care. There is a growing recognition of the need for multicultural counselling approaches and culturally adapted interventions, particularly for Indigenous Peoples, incorporating traditional practices.
Ethical considerations in therapy include confidentiality, with exceptions for harm; informed consent, ensuring clients understand their treatment and rights; competency and boundaries, maintaining professionalism; and mandatory reporting laws for suspected abuse or threats.
Future trends in psychological treatment include teletherapy, which has grown significantly, increasing access to care through phone and video conferencing. AI and mental health apps are emerging as supplemental support through chatbots and digital platforms. Personalised medicine, leveraging advances in genetics and neuroscience, may lead to more tailored treatments. Psychedelic-assisted therapy is an area of emerging research supporting substances like psilocybin and MDMA for treatment-resistant conditions.

Slides Only

Ancient Treatments: Early civilisations viewed mental illness as supernatural possession. Treatments included trephination (drilling holes in the skull) to release spirits and exorcisms.
Middle Ages: The mentally ill were often institutionalised in asylums, where they faced poor conditions and neglect.
Moral Treatment Movement (18th–19th Century): Reformers like Philippe Pinel (France) and Dorothea Dix (U.S.) advocated for humane treatment, leading to the creation of mental hospitals.
20th Century: The introduction of psychoanalysis (Freud) and behaviorism (Watson, Skinner) brought structured approaches to treatment. The deinstitutionalization movement in the mid-20th century shifted care from hospitals to community-based settings.
Neurosurgery and Brain Stimulation: Rare but sometimes used for severe cases. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) show promise for conditions like OCD and depression.
Classical Conditioning Techniques in behavioural therapy include Exposure Therapy (for phobias, PTSD, OCD) gradually exposes a person to their fear, Systematic Desensitization pairs relaxation with gradually increasing anxiety-provoking stimuli, and Aversive Conditioning pairs unwanted behaviours (e.g., smoking) with unpleasant stimuli.
Operant Conditioning Techniques in behavioural therapy include Token Economies that reward desirable behaviours.
Cognitive therapy uses structured exercises, such as behavioural experiments and thought logs.
Group and family therapy involve multiple participants, offering social support and shared experiences. Family therapy examines relationships and communication patterns, particularly in cases of substance abuse or childhood disorders.
Growing recognition of multicultural counseling approaches.
In some jurisdictions, therapists have mandatory reporting laws: they must report suspected abuse or threats of harm.
AI and Mental Health Apps: Chatbots and digital platforms provide supplemental support.

Key Learning Goals

Identify the three major categories of therapy, and discuss patterns of treatment seeking: The three major categories of therapy are insight therapies, which aim to enhance self-knowledge; behaviour therapies, which focus on changing maladaptive behaviours through learning principles; and biomedical therapies, which involve physiological interventions like drug therapy. Patterns of treatment seeking indicate that the likelihood of receiving treatment is greater among women, white people, those who are well-educated, and those with insurance. People vary in their willingness to seek therapy, and many who need it do not receive it.
Identify the various types of mental health professionals involved in the provision of therapy: Various mental health professionals provide therapy, including clinical and counselling psychologists, who specialise in diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and everyday problems. Psychiatrists are physicians who specialise in diagnosis and treatment, often focusing on severe disorders and using biomedical therapies. Other providers include clinical social workers, psychiatric nurses, counsellors, and marriage and family therapists, each with different educational backgrounds and typical roles.
Explain the logic of psychoanalysis and the techniques by which analysts probe the unconscious: The logic of psychoanalysis, developed by Freud, posits that neurotic problems stem from unconscious conflicts, often rooted in early childhood experiences, involving battles among the id, ego, and superego over sexual and aggressive impulses. Defence mechanisms are used to avoid these conflicts, but they can lead to self-defeating behaviour. Analysts probe the unconscious using techniques like free association, where clients spontaneously express thoughts and feelings with minimal censorship, and dream analysis, where the symbolic meaning of dreams is interpreted as a direct route to unconscious conflicts, wishes, and impulses.
Understand the role of therapeutic climate and therapeutic process in client-centred therapy: In client-centred therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, the therapeutic climate is crucial and requires three conditions: genuineness (honest communication), unconditional positive regard (non-judgmental acceptance), and accurate empathy (understanding the client’s perspective). Research supports the importance of these elements for positive therapy outcomes. The therapeutic process in client-centred therapy involves the client and therapist working as equals, with the therapist providing minimal guidance, interpretation, or advice, and primarily focusing on clarification of the client’s feelings by reflecting statements back with enhanced clarity to promote self-awareness and insight.
Explain how group therapy, couples therapy, and family therapy are generally conducted: Group therapy involves the simultaneous treatment of several clients (typically 4-12) who function as therapists for one another by sharing problems, viewpoints, experiences, and coping strategies, providing acceptance and emotional support. The therapist selects participants, sets goals, and maintains the therapeutic process. Couples therapy treats both partners in a committed relationship, focusing on relationship issues and aiming to understand entrenched patterns of interaction and improve communication. Family therapy treats the entire family unit, focusing on family dynamics and communication, viewing individuals as part of a family ecosystem and aiming to improve communication and healthier interaction patterns.
Assess the efficacy of insight therapies and the role of common factors in therapy: Evaluating the efficacy of insight therapies is complex due to spontaneous remission, diverse goals, and subjective outcome measures. However, numerous outcome studies suggest that insight therapy is superior to no treatment or placebo, with reasonably durable effects. Many theorists believe that common factors shared across different therapy approaches, such as the therapeutic alliance, emotional support, fostering hope, providing a rationale, and opportunities for expression and insight, account for a significant portion of the progress clients make in therapy.
Describe the procedures of systematic desensitization and social skills training: Systematic desensitization, a behaviour therapy for phobias, involves three steps: building an anxiety hierarchy of fear-arousing stimuli, relaxation training in deep muscle relaxation, and gradually working through the hierarchy by imagining each stimulus while staying relaxed, weakening the association between the conditioned stimulus and anxiety. Social skills training uses behavioural techniques to teach clients new behaviours aimed at enhancing the quality of their interactions with others. This often involves modelling, behavioural rehearsal, and shaping, with clients gradually tackling more challenging social situations.
Articulate the goals and techniques of cognitive therapy, and evaluate the efficacy of behaviour therapies: The goal of cognitive therapy is to change clients’ negative thoughts and maladaptive beliefs that underlie various disorders like depression. Techniques include teaching clients to detect automatic negative thoughts, challenge and refute these thoughts, and engage in homework assignments to change overt behaviours and monitor pleasure and accomplishment. Behaviour therapies have been extensively researched and generally show favourable evidence for the efficacy of most widely used interventions. Cognitive-behavioural and cognitive therapies can effectively treat phobias, OCD, sexual dysfunction, schizophrenia, drug-related problems, eating disorders, and other conditions.
Summarize the therapeutic actions and side effects of four categories of psychiatric drugs: Antianxiety drugs relieve tension, nervousness, and apprehension, with common side effects including drowsiness and potential for dependence. Antipsychotic drugs gradually reduce psychotic symptoms like hyperactivity, hallucinations, and delusions by decreasing dopamine activity, but can have side effects such as tardive dyskinesia. Antidepressant drugs elevate mood and reduce symptoms of depression, with SSRIs being widely used and having fewer side effects than older antidepressants, though side effects can include nausea, dry mouth, sexual difficulties, and potentially increased suicidal thinking. Mood-stabilizing drugs, primarily lithium, are used to prevent future episodes of mania or depression in bipolar disorders, but require careful monitoring due to potential toxicity and kidney/thyroid complications.
Evaluate the overall efficacy of drug treatments, and discuss controversies surrounding pharmaceutical research: Drug therapies can produce clear therapeutic gains, especially for severe disorders. However, controversies exist, with critics arguing they are not always as effective as advertised, offer superficial relief, have substantial relapse rates, and are often overprescribed. Concerns also exist about the pharmaceutical industry’s influence over research, including funding biases, selective publication of results, and research designs that may exaggerate positive effects and minimise negative ones.
Describe electroconvulsive therapy, and assess its therapeutic effects and risks: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) involves inducing a brief cortical seizure through electrical stimulation while the patient is under anaesthesia. Therapeutically, it is considered very effective for major depression with remission rates around 75 percent, particularly for severe cases unresponsive to medication. Risks associated with ECT include memory losses (retrograde amnesia for autobiographical information can be persistent), impaired attention, and other cognitive deficits, though proponents argue these are generally mild and temporary.
Analyse the barriers that lead to underutilisation of mental health services by ethnic minorities and possible solutions: Barriers include cultural factors, where Western therapies may not align with diverse cultural values and beliefs, and cultural misunderstandings between therapists and clients can hinder the therapeutic alliance. Language barriers impede effective communication, as many facilities lack therapists who speak the languages of minority groups. Institutional barriers refer to services not being adapted to the needs of ethnic minority clients, leading to low rates of use. Possible solutions involve recruiting and training more therapists from diverse backgrounds, as clients are more likely to attend facilities with staff sharing their background. Promoting cultural competence and cultural humility among therapists is crucial, as is further investigation into adapting traditional and contemporary therapies to be more compatible with specific cultural groups’ attitudes, values, norms, and traditions, including incorporating Indigenous healing practices.
Discuss efforts to expand the delivery of clinical services through technology: Efforts to expand access include delivering therapy over the phone for individual and group sessions, proving effective for conditions like adolescent OCD and stress in cancer patients. Videoconferencing technology is also used for individual and group therapy, with research suggesting clinical outcomes are similar to face-to-face therapy. Computer-based online interactive programs, often adaptations of CBT, provide psychoeducation and cognitive strategies with practice exercises and homework, showing promise for various disorders like substance abuse, depression, and anxiety, sometimes with limited therapist contact or fully automated.
Explain why people grew disenchanted with mental hospitals, and discuss the resultant change in mental health care: Disenchantment with mental hospitals arose due to overcrowding, understaffing, dehumanising conditions, and the limited effectiveness of available treatments in the mid-20th century. This led to the deinstitutionalisation movement, aiming to shift care from large institutions to community-based settings, facilitated by the development of antipsychotic medications.
Assess the effects of the deinstitutionalisation movement: While deinstitutionalisation aimed to provide more humane and community-integrated care, it has had mixed effects. A significant decrease in the number of psychiatric hospital beds occurred. However, it also contributed to the “revolving door” phenomenon, where individuals with severe mental illness are repeatedly hospitalised, discharged, and then become homeless or incarcerated due to a lack of adequate community support and resources. Homeless shelters and jails have become de facto elements of the mental health care system for many.
Identify the two unifying themes highlighted in this chapter: The two unifying themes highlighted are the value of theoretical diversity in understanding and treating psychological disorders, as different perspectives lead to a wider range of therapeutic approaches to address diverse problems. The second theme is the importance of culture in influencing psychological processes and the applicability of Western-developed therapies to other cultural groups, including ethnic minorities.
Identify the key issues in selecting the right therapist: Selecting a therapist is complex and crucial for effective treatment. Key issues include where to find services (private practice, community mental health centres, hospitals, human service agencies, schools, workplaces). The therapist’s profession (psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, etc.) has not been reliably associated with efficacy, nor has their sex. Fees vary depending on the setting and profession. While different theoretical approaches show similar overall effectiveness, some may be more effective for specific problems. Ultimately, the individual therapist’s personal skills and the therapeutic alliance are critical factors. Asking prospective therapists about their training, approach, and fees is reasonable.
Understand how placebo effects and regression toward the mean can complicate the evaluation of therapy: Placebo effects occur when people experience changes due to their expectations of a treatment, even if it’s fake, making it difficult to determine the actual efficacy of therapy. Regression toward the mean is a statistical phenomenon where individuals with extreme scores on a trait tend to score closer to the average upon re-measurement, which can falsely suggest improvement due to therapy when it might just be a statistical tendency, particularly when people enter therapy during a crisis. Researchers use control groups, random assignment, placebo conditions, and statistical adjustments to account for these effects when evaluating therapy efficacy.

Theories and frameworks

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory posits that unconscious conflicts, often stemming from early childhood and involving sexual and aggressive impulses and the interplay of the id, ego, and superego, are the root of neurotic disorders. Defence mechanisms are employed to manage these conflicts. This theory is relevant as it launched modern psychotherapy and influenced subsequent therapeutic approaches.
Rogers’s client-centred therapy, rooted in a humanistic perspective, proposes that personal distress arises from incongruence between a person’s self-concept and reality, leading to feelings of threat and defensive tendencies. The theory emphasises the importance of a supportive therapeutic climate with genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and accurate empathy to facilitate personal growth. This framework shifted the focus to the client’s subjective experience and the therapeutic relationship.
The principles of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning from learning theory are foundational to behaviour therapies. These principles explain how maladaptive behaviours are learned and can be unlearned through techniques like systematic desensitisation, exposure therapy, aversive conditioning, reinforcement, and shaping. This provided a more empirical and action-oriented approach to treatment.
Beck’s cognitive theory suggests that depression and other disorders are caused by “errors” in thinking, such as blaming setbacks on personal inadequacies, selectively focusing on negative events, making pessimistic projections, and drawing negative conclusions about self-worth. Cognitive therapy aims to identify and correct these negative thought patterns. This framework highlighted the role of cognitive processes in mental health.
The positive psychology movement, with key figures like Martin Seligman, shifts focus from pathology and suffering to positive aspects of human existence like well-being, strengths, and positive emotions. This has inspired new insight therapy approaches like well-being therapy and positive psychotherapy, which aim to enhance self-acceptance, purpose, recognise strengths, and savour positive experiences. This provides a more strengths-based perspective on mental health treatment.
The concept of common factors in psychotherapy proposes that diverse therapeutic approaches achieve benefits through shared elements rather than specific techniques. These factors include the therapeutic alliance, emotional support, instilling hope, providing a rationale, and opportunities for emotional expression and gaining new insights. This framework helps understand the general effectiveness of therapy across different modalities.

Research

Breuer’s treatment of Anna O around 1880, a landmark case involving a patient with various physical maladies, inspired Freud’s development of psychoanalysis. Breuer used a form of “talking cure.” While Breuer treated Anna O, Freud is widely credited with launching modern psychotherapy based on this case, highlighting the power of verbal exploration of psychological distress.
Seligman et al. (2006) compared positive psychotherapy, treatment as usual, and treatment as usual with medication for depression. The study measured mean depression scores at the end of the study. The results showed that positive psychotherapy could be an effective treatment for depression, sometimes comparable to or even slightly better than other approaches in reducing depression scores. This research provided initial empirical support for positive psychology interventions in treating mental disorders.
Lambert, Hansen, and Finch (2001) analysed data from over 6000 patients to map the relationship between recovery and the duration of psychotherapy. The study found that about half of the patients experienced clinically significant recovery after 20 weekly sessions, and about 70 percent recovered after 45 sessions. This research provided data on the typical time course of recovery in psychotherapy, informing expectations for treatment duration.
Olfson et al. (2014) tracked prescription trends for psychiatric drugs over 15 years, showing the percentage of office visits to psychiatrists resulting in prescriptions for antianxiety, antipsychotic, antidepressant, and mood-stabilizing drugs. The data revealed an increase in the reliance on all four categories of psychiatric drugs over this period. This research documented the increasing trend of psychopharmacological treatment in psychiatry.
Cole, Goldberg, and Davis (1966) conducted a study on the time course of antipsychotic drug effects, comparing patients receiving antipsychotics to those receiving placebo. The results showed that antipsychotic drugs gradually reduce psychotic symptoms over weeks, while placebo showed little improvement. This research provided empirical evidence for the gradual therapeutic effects of antipsychotic medication.
Bridge et al. (2007) conducted a meta-analysis that concluded antidepressants might lead to a slight elevation in the risk of suicidal behaviour. However, Gibbons et al. (2012) performed another meta-analysis of antidepressant drug trials and failed to find an increase in suicidal risk. These conflicting findings highlight the complexity and ongoing debate surrounding the potential link between antidepressant use and suicidality, especially in younger populations.
Kocovski et al. (2015) conducted a study comparing mindfulness and acceptance-based group therapy and traditional cognitive behavioural group therapy for social anxiety disorder, examining the mechanisms of change in mindfulness therapy. This research aimed to understand how mindfulness-based approaches lead to therapeutic benefits for social anxiety.

The Kitchen Sink

The history of treatment for psychological disorders has had a controversial side, with changing ideas about the nature of these disorders leading to varied treatment approaches, not all of which were positive. For instance, LSD was used in treatment programs in the 1960s, with controversial outcomes and ethical concerns raised.
Evidence-based treatment involves making recommendations and providing treatment based on sound scientific processes and research findings, integrating clinical expertise and client characteristics. Evaluating the effectiveness of psychotherapy types requires care.
Mental health treatment is sought for a full range of human problems, including anxiety, depression, relationship issues, and troublesome habits. Many people report their mental health needs are only partially met or not met at all, particularly those with co-occurring mental and physical health issues.
In providing therapy, psychologists use either insight or behavioural approaches and are more likely than psychiatrists to use behavioural techniques and less likely to use psychoanalytic methods. Clinical and counselling psychologists also conduct psychological testing and research. Psychiatrists, compared to psychologists, often devote more time to severe disorders and are increasingly reliant on medication.
Sigmund Freud is widely credited with launching modern psychotherapy and questioning the view of humans as purely logical beings.
Resistance refers to largely unconscious defensive manoeuvres intended to hinder therapy progress, assumed to be an inevitable part of psychoanalysis as clients avoid confronting painful unconscious conflicts. Analysts use various strategies to handle resistance, including addressing transference.
Transference occurs when clients start relating to their therapist in ways that mimic critical relationships in their lives. Handling transference effectively is a key consideration in psychoanalytic therapy.
Undergoing psychoanalysis can be a slow, painful, and lengthy process of self-examination, typically requiring several years of work.
Modern psychodynamic therapies focus on emotional experience, avoidance of distressing thoughts, recurring life patterns, past experiences, interpersonal relationships, the therapeutic relationship itself, and fantasy life. Research suggests psychodynamic approaches can help with diverse disorders.
Emotion-focused couples therapy, developed by Les Greenberg and Sue Johnson, assumes relationship problems stem from unmet attachment needs and focuses on identifying underlying emotions and needs to facilitate solutions.
There is ongoing debate about the mechanisms of action underlying the positive effects of insight therapy, with some attributing benefits to specific methods of each approach, while others emphasise common factors.
Behaviour therapists view the symptoms as the problem themselves, rather than signs of an underlying issue, and thus directly target maladaptive behaviours using learning principles. Cognitive-behavioural therapy is an exception, integrating both insight and behavioural techniques.
Aversion therapy uses classical conditioning to create an aversion to stimuli that elicit problematic behaviour, such as pairing alcohol with nausea-inducing drugs.
Cognitive-behavioural treatments use combinations of verbal interventions and behaviour modification techniques.
Donald Meichenbaum is an important innovator of cognitive-behavioural therapy, developing techniques like self-instructional training to help clients cope with difficult contexts.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, pioneered by Zindel Segal, integrates cognitive-behavioural techniques with mindfulness meditation to heighten self-awareness of thoughts and emotions, preventing relapse in depression. Mindfulness emphasises attention regulation and an open, accepting approach to one’s thoughts and experiences without judgment.
Cognitive bias modification involves computer training programs to reduce attention, interpretation, and prediction biases associated with various disorders.
The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) accredits graduate doctoral programs in various psychology fields and has a taskforce on evidence-based practice.
The Canadian government announced a national mental health strategy in 2012, acknowledging the needs of Indigenous Peoples and the importance of culturally appropriate resources.
The Canadian Psychological Association has an Indigenous Peoples Psychology section to address historical and political issues impacting Indigenous mental health and advocate for culturally appropriate research and practice.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clients also require mental health interventions sensitive to their unique experiences.
The deinstitutionalisation movement has been continuous in Canada for several decades.
Dorothea Dix campaigned in the 19th century for the building of mental hospitals in North America.
The task of finding an appropriate therapist is complex, with various professional backgrounds and therapy types to consider. Treatment can sometimes have harmful effects, so selecting a skilled therapist is important.
Private practitioners, community mental health centres, and hospitals are principal sources of therapeutic services.
The dodo bird verdict suggests that improvement rates for various theoretical orientations of therapy are fairly similar overall. However, for specific problems, certain approaches may be more effective. Effective therapy requires skill and creativity, balancing science and art.
Arnold Lazarus devised multimodal therapy, emphasising the balance between science and art in therapy.
Placebo effects and regression toward the mean are factors that complicate the evaluation of therapy efficacy, but researchers use methodological controls to address these issues. Regression toward the mean is a statistical tendency for extreme scores to move closer to the average upon retesting.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a new technique to temporarily enhance or depress activity in specific brain areas, showing promise for treating depression with minimal side effects. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) involves surgically implanting electrodes in the brain and has proven valuable for motor disturbances, with research exploring its use for depression and OCD in treatment-resistant patients.

Notable individuals

Sigmund Freud: Founder of psychoanalysis.
Josef Breuer: Freud’s colleague whose treatment of Anna O inspired psychoanalysis.
Anna O (Bertha Pappenheim): Patient whose case inspired psychoanalysis.
Aldous Huxley: Writer who had his first experience with hallucinogens through Humphry Osmond.
Elliot Barker: Designed an innovative treatment program for psychopaths using LSD.
Carl Rogers: Developed client-centred therapy.
Les Greenberg: Influential Canadian psychologist who developed emotion-focused couples therapy.
Sue Johnson: Developed emotion-focused couples therapy with Les Greenberg.
Giovanni Fava: Developed well-being therapy.
Martin Seligman: Key figure in the positive psychology movement and developer of positive psychotherapy.
Myriam Mongrain: Canadian psychologist researching vulnerability factors for depression and implications of positive psychology interventions.
Joseph Wolpe: Developed systematic desensitization.
Aaron Beck: Developed cognitive therapy.
Zindel Segal: Instrumental in the development of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
Donald Meichenbaum: Important innovator of cognitive-behavioural therapy and self-instructional training.
Dorothea Dix: Advocated for humane treatment of the mentally ill and the creation of mental hospitals.
Philippe Pinel: Reformer who advocated for humane treatment in France.
Stanley Sue: Researcher on cultural factors in psychotherapy.
Nolan Zane: Researcher on cultural factors in psychotherapy.
Laurence Kirmayer: McGill University researcher on mental health in Indigenous Peoples.
Wendy Funk: Canadian who wrote about her concerns over ECT treatment.
Norman Endler: Canadian psychologist who wrote a supportive account of his own ECT treatment.
Andy Barrie: Radio host who received deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease.
Keith Dobson: Clinical psychologist at the University of Calgary researching cognitive models of depression and diversity training.
Jerome Frank: Researcher on the effectiveness of psychotherapy.
Lester Luborsky: Researcher on the effectiveness of psychotherapy.
Arnold Lazarus: Devised multimodal therapy.