What I sampled from the smorgasbord of therapeutic modalities-from family and couples therapy to psychodynamic methods and cognitive-behavioral approaches-seemed to inhabit a world separate from important developments in the broader scientific community-in fields like neurobiology, child development, evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, anthropology, sociology-that might advance the craft of psychotherapy.Īt that time, we were taught that the brain was fully formed by adulthood. Still, as I started my training, first in pediatrics and then in adult, adolescent, and child psychiatry, I struggled to find a way to combine my fascination with science with what I was learning as a psychotherapy student.
Back then, little was known about the workings of the living, dynamic brain, but by the mid-’80s, technology in the form of CAT scans and MRIs enabled us to see some aspects of neural structure and function inside our previously opaque skull. In 1978, when the Psychotherapy Networker was born, I was just beginning medical school.
Editor's Note: In the January 2017 issue, a group of innovators and leaders look back over different realms of therapeutic practice and offer their view of the eureka moments, the mistakes and misdirections, and the inevitable trial-and-error processes that have shaped the evolution of different specialty areas within the field. Here's one reflection.
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