Psychologically Minded

Dare to go deep

Jonathan Shedler Ph.D.

Mind or Brain?

It’s Time for Psychology to Lead, Not Follow

Psychology should not be more like medicine. Psychology should be like psychology.

This Is Talk Therapy

Therapist and patient may have the illusion that they have completed therapy when real therapy never even started.

A Psychiatric Diagnosis Is Not a Disease

Saying anxiety is caused by generalized anxiety disorder makes as much sense as saying anxiety is caused by anxiety.

Selling Bad Therapy to Trauma Victims

It takes more than 20 sessions, or about six months of weekly therapy, before therapy patients start to improve.

How to Choose a Therapist

Beware of therapists who are too identified with a therapy “brand.” They have already decided how to treat you before they have met you, let alone understand you.

The Therapy Relationship in Psychodynamic Therapy versus CBT

Some therapists have no idea what a "therapeutic alliance" means

Antidepressant Superstition

Why do people become dependent on drugs that are no more effective than sugar pills?

Don’t Tell Me to Call 911

Therapists don't need voice mail messages that demean their patients.

Genius and Depression from the Same Well?

Robin Williams’s suicide was no surprise. Both the source of his genius and the source of his depression had been on display all along.

Psychodynamic Therapy 101

Sometimes people think they have completed psychotherapy when they never even started.

Bamboozled by Bad Science

Claims that “evidence-based” therapy is more effective than real-world therapy lack scientific basis. Academic researchers are selling a myth.

Is NIMH Brilliant, Stupid, or Both? Part 2

In the first half of the 20th century, American psychiatry was virtually ‘brainless’… In the second half of the 20th century, psychiatry became virtually ‘mindless.’

Is NIMH Brilliant, Stupid, or Both?

The fundamental premise of DSM-5—that mental health conditions can be classified meaningfully on the basis of overt symptoms—is flat out wrong.

Where is the Evidence for Evidence-Based Therapies?

Something would be seriously amiss if experienced clinicians practiced like beginners, following an instruction manual like a consumer trying to assemble an appliance.

Doublethink Diagnosis 2.0

One of the most helpful things about our struggling students is that in their moments of concreteness, they hold up a mirror to the hypocrisies in our field. The mental health professions are guilty of pervasive doublethink.

Choosing the Right Therapist

Beware of therapists who are too identified with a therapy “brand.” They have already decided how to treat you before they have met you, let alone understand you.