Invitation: Special Issues

Dear Friends, dear Colleagues, dear Professionals,

We are sending out an open invitation to invite various people to make a number of contributions on a particular topic that we hope will go to make up a special issue of the International Journal of Psychotherapy.

There has been

a special issue on 'Depression' (July 2009: Vol. 13 No. 2)
a special issue on 'R.D. Laing' (July 2011: Vol. 15, No. 2)
a special issue on Roberto Assagioli & Psychosynthesis (July 2012: Vol. 16, No. 3)

and we are now considering:

a special issue on Humanistic Psychotherapy (planned for July 2013)
a special issue on Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (planned possibly for July 2014)
possible special issues on ' The Place of Psychotherapy in the 21st Century' (see below);
and 'Psychotherapy & Psychosis'; 'Gestalt Psychotherapy'; 'Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis Today'; 'Techniques in Psychotherapy'.
Please submit articles and/or declare any interest in collecting and editing such Special Issues.

We are open to other suggestions for Special Issues.

Invitation for a Special Issue: "The Place of Psychotherapy in the 21st Century"

We are also asking people, like yourself, to write some short (1500-3000 words) and various, very succinct (simple and direct) articles addressing one - or more - of the points below. We need the best of these - about 10-12 for the special issue - with a deadline of 1st February 2012. A group within the EAP meeting about the 'Directions of Psychotherapy' has been meeting for 3 years ... some of these ideas come from there, but there are no answers yet.

The title of this special issue will be The Place of Psychotherapy in the 21st Century and the subtitle might be something like "We are at the place the profession of medicine was in 300 years ago, in about 1710, and both we (and they) haven't got it right yet"

> Some of the issues or topics that we would like you to consider, or that you might try to address, are something like:

> 60-75% of psychotherapy referrals don't really need psychotherapy - they need simple, straightforward help with difficult life issues

... what is the place of counsellor, psychiatric nurse, social worker, life coach, voluntary organisations, fellow sufferer, someone to talk to with a nice cup of tea, ...
... when that doesn't work, how does the person find the next level of intervention - appropriate care: hit and miss, Google, word of mouth, referrals, help lines, ...
... when does someone need to see a psychotherapist? a clinical psychologist? a psychiatrist?
... if they don't "vote with their feet" - walk away, don't come back, DNA, ... when and how are they 'discharged'; diagnosed as 'sane'; set free; refused further help; ...
... how do people who really need specialist psychotherapeutic help, get it quickly, easily, cheaply? Who decides? How? When?

> There is no system of proper differential diagnosis (triage) - someone comment on this, please.

> There is no proper consensus as to what the definition of psychotherapy really is: so ... can you accept mine, his, theirs, the 'others', ... does it matter?

... are we a number of 'blind people' describing an 'elephant' in the room? Diagrams and descriptions may be the 'map', but to explore the actual territory, you need ...
... there is an obsession with labels, mainstreams, modalities, methods, descriptions, philosophies, influences, approaches, techniques, mediums, settings, epistemology ...
... ordinary people say "psychotherapist", "psychologist" "psychiatrist" "psychoanalyst" "doctor" interchangeably - they may or may not feel safer with you in a white coat ...
... psychotherapy happens in hospitals, prisons, clinics, counselling rooms, surgeries, your office, patient smoking rooms, refugee camps, groups, ...
... it also happens over a bottle of wine, on the telephone to a friend, in dreams, from a book, after a workshop, because of a blazing row, after a sleepless night, ...
... systemic diagnoses, fill-in forms, tests, assessments, are just for our benefit: the recipient needs help, medication (?), sanctuary, advice, care, support, guidance ...

> There is no systemic research that benefits the whole profession ...

... Why does everyone else think that CBT is the only "evidence-based" psychotherapy?
... Why do government departments, universities, professional journals, and health ministries only want Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)?
... What are all they other methods of scientific research in psychotherapy systemically ignored?
... What really is 'appropriate' research methodology for the EAP's 'profession' of psychotherapy?
... Why have only a very, very few (real) psychotherapists actually been properly trained in psychotherapy research methodology?
... Is psychology research and psychiatry research appropriate - or irrelevant - for psychotherapy?

> Everyone is more interested in their piece of the 'pie', than being part of a whole new profession: discuss!

... we have some very real boundary and identity problems: where are the 'right' lines?
... what do we 'say' to expressive (art, music, dance, movement) 'therapies'; occupational therapies; body therapies; alternative health therapies? ...
... we all know who is currently 'in' psychotherapy (our clique) and we don't know who is 'out' - but we are not sure about "them" (or even if we want "them" in)

> We have very serious heirarchical issues:

... we (all / mostly) both respect and hate - psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors, social workers, counsellors, politicians - and ...
... new people with new ideas; old people with fixed ideas; politicians; health insurance companies, pharmacoloogical (drug) companies; ...
... anybody who says they have "The Answer"; anybody who says we have got it 'wrong'; anybody who doesn't use 'our' language; ...
... our trainers / therapists / supervisors; our parents; our partners; our clients/patients; our selves (?) ...

> We have really no idea of the shape or size of the profession - that we want to build for the future of psychotherapy - we just like lots of different little shapes

... every country, and every modality, wants it 'their' way, because "it works for us" ...
... we 'forget' that it probably doesn't work for the other people in our country, or in other countries, or in other modalities, or for our clients, or anybody else ...

> The motor car was invented about the same time that psychotherapy was 'invented': now - 120 years later, they have ...

... automobile engineers, car body repair shops, garage mechanics, custom-built cars, stock car racing, vintage & veteran car rallies ...
... motorways, autobahns, lay-bys, service stations, parking lots, clover-leaf junctions & fly-overs, petrol pumps, alternative fuels, electric & gas-driven cars ...
... films about cars, books about cars, magazines about cars, websites to buy/sell cars, get car insurance, find spare parts, chat-rooms, etc. ...
... oil companys; multi-national car industries; every manufacturer having several different models; each model having several different options; ...
... built-in redundancy; scrap dealers; car thieves; high-jackers; road-rage; Grand Prix racing; trans-national rallies; suicides and deaths in cars, with cars, and by cars: ...
... a multi-billion dollar industry that has changed the face of the planet and every bodies lives!
And psychotherapy has ... what ??? What have we got? Where did we go wrong? What do we need to do to get 'it' right?

> We don't speak (professionally) the same language and we don't speak with the same terminologies:

... our 'jargon' keeps us separate and mysterious; and we don't really speak with 'ordinary' people, just to them ...
... we argue with each other more about concepts and semantics, than about real issues, ...
... ordinary people experience us 'psychological' professionals as distant, uncaring and arrogant: someone please discuss!

> We are obsessed with being different from ... psychologists, counsellors, psychiatrists, cults & sects ... but we don't really know who we are the same as!

... each of these wants to protect 'their' bit, and take 'our' bit of the professional 'cake' - who wins? What does the client get? What are the crumbs?
... priests, mystics, shamans, medicine men, midwifes, herbalists, apothecaries, barber-surgeons, and spiritual healers used to 'heal' people for hundreds (thousands) of years ...
... before the medical profession recently labelled people as physically or mentally 'sick' and in need a 'professional' diagnosis and 'treatment' ...
... do we need to change the parameters and concepts of this comparative model? Is it really appropriate?

> Nobody really practices now in they way they were originally trained: our training(s) were NOT "fit for purpose" then, how do we make them so now?

... We are asking new psychotherapists to do things in their training that we never did: are we reformers, conservative purists, or hypocrites?
... Sitting at the feet of someone special, soaking up their thoughts and expertise ... the apprentice ... is the old model ...
... Training courses, hours, syllabus, examinations, lectures, notes, essays, thesis + supervised clinical practice + own therapy + ... - is another model ...
... Demonstrating that we have acquired core, specific and specialist professional competencies ... is another. Which is "fit for purpose" now?

> We all agree to and we all pay nominal 'lip service' to professional and ethical issues ... AND ...

... we have all broken at least one ethical 'rule' - possibly effectively and justifiably, yet we don't tell anyone!
... what really happens "behind closed doors". How do we attain greater transparency and openness?

> How do we - in Europe - as professional psychotherapists - properly begin to address some of the serious bio-psycho-socio-political issues like: ...

... terrorism; freedom fighters; political dissidents; animal rights activists; gypsies; football hooligans; road rage; tax evaders; ...
... asylum seekers; the dispossessed; victims of war; ethnic cleansing; victims of natural or man-made disasters; AIDS victims; ...
... Ritalin for children with ADHT; teenagers committing school killings; serial killers; criminal profiling; psychological testing for school-children in careers guidance; job interviews; ...
... homeless street people; kids in slums; organised gang cultures; protectionism and cartels; multi-nationals; whistle-blowers; ...
... sex slaves; drug addicts; systemic unemployment; refugees; the flood of non-Europeans into Europe; economic migrants; scroungers; ...
... disparate 'social care' structures; overburdened health systems; profitable (not-affordable) health insurance for the few, inadequate for the many; ...
... multi-cultural issues; globalisation; consumerism; the increasing rich - poor divide; the West - East divide; the North - South divide; ...
... the denigration of religion; the baby-boomers wanting unaffordable old age pensions & health care; the collapse of consensual value systems; ...
... environmental pollution; global warming; economic crashes; population control; ...
... the hegonomy of human beings living too tightly together on a polluted planet all wanting increasingly scarce resources; ...
... and so on: the real issues!

Where are our (the EAP) 'Working Groups' on these topics?

> Why do we 'revere' people: Aristotle, Plato, Freud, Jung, Heidegger, Hummerl, Reich, Lacan, Foucault, Klein, Rogers, Beck, Laing, Bion, Frankl, ... etc., etc.?

... They are all dead and their 'worlds' are long gone. ...
... Do they have anything relevant to 'say' to us - now?
... Why is everyone obsessed with advances in neuroscience? The client isn't really helped by this at all.

> What do we ... as modern professionals in psychotherapy ... think nowadays about ...

... Freud's Structural Theory, his Meta-psychological assumptions, and the Libido and Thanatos theories? (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freudian_psychology)...
... Carl Roger's 19 Propositions? and the Fully Functioning Person? (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers) ...
... Michel Foucault's works: viz: History of Sexuality; Madness & Civilisation; The Birth of the Clinic; Death & the Labyrinth; The Order of Things; Discipline & Punishment; etc. ... (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault) ...
... John Bowlby => Allan Schore's "Attachment Theory" (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Attachment_theory) ...
... Behaviourism, Functional Analysis and Conditioning (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Behaviorism) ...
... etc. - fill in lots more, if you want to.

> How relevant is modern technology to psychotherapy? ...

... internet psychotherapy; e-mail therapy & supervision; Skype; telephone & video conferences; tape or videos of sessions for supervision; ...
... computer based CBT; psychological assessment tests - Beck's BDI, BAI; MMPI; HADS; CORE; etc. etc. ...
... internet training courses; CD-ROMs of trainers and training, demonstration therapy sessions, lectures and seminars; PowerPoint; ...

> As professional psychotherapists, what is the 'proper' place of ... or 'proper' work with ...

... antidepressants; psychopharmacology; neuroscience; supposedly 'scientific' research; RCTs; the 'medical model';
... liberal 'humane' value systems; the "Rights" Charter; free health care; a free labour market; a centralised Euro-"state"; laws on psychotherapy; ...
... mind-altering drugs; altered states of consciousness; visions and channelling; 'womb', peri-natal, and 'near death' experiences; ...
... transcendental states of consciousness; ecstatic states; sartori; "descent into the dark"; spiritual emergencies; ...
... the search for 'meaning'; the 'God' delusion; an atheistic universe filled with 'dark' matter; a holographic universe; multiple universes; alien abductions; ...

These may be some of the issues for an issue on "Psychotherapy in the 21st Century".

We are sure that you can think of lots more unanswered questions or relevant professional issues.

Please do so ... and write to us with them.

If you don't, someone else might - we hope!

Yours
Courtenay Young, Tom Ormay, Alexander Filz, and Theodore Itten
Editors, IJP; Feb 2012