Open AccessEvaluating the talking cure
Author(s) -
Megha Verma
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
uwomj/medical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2560-8274
pISSN - 0042-0336
DOI - 10.5206/uwomj.v88i2.7300
Subject(s) - panacea (medicine) , skepticism , mental illness , zeitgeist , psychotherapist , psychology , randomized controlled trial , gold standard (test) , cognition , psychiatry , alternative medicine , medicine , mental health , epistemology , philosophy , surgery , pathology
It would seem that a disorder as complex as a mental illness would require equally complex solutions. “Talking cures”, known today as psychotherapies, were lauded as unscientific for a very long time.1 Today, cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic technique that has shown considerable success in improving the prognosis for many mental illnesses using the scientific method. It is considered a panacea by some for mental illness amidst the zeitgeist of skepticism for pharmacology. This article explores the philosophical foundations of CBT and explains how a technique considered as unscientific is now the gold-standard in mental illness treatment. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) will also be discussed to examine its validity on psychotherapy and determine whether efficiency studies may be more suitable to adequately compare psychotherapies.