ABSTRACT
Erik Erikson a psychoanalyst of humanistic bent pointed out the inevitability of both subjectivity and discipline in any clinician's reasoning processes. Rather than apologizing or trying to eliminate subjectivity, he defined the core of the therapist's mental activity as 'disciplined subjectivity' thus highlighting the need to wed the two in one's inference-making efforts. Cognitive therapists speak of tuning into the patient's language, while at the same time actively generating hypotheses in a series of 'successive approximations' to the final model. Systemic therapists are simultaneously empathic with the patient while still maintaining and modeling a differentiated perspective. Biologically grounded biofeedback clinicians alternate between encouraging the client to experience a desired physiological shift. Trial interventions occur interchangeably with feedback during the diagnostic process. Feedback is a tool we use to share our models of each other with each other. The feedback process also offers one more chance to test the accuracy of one's therapy recommendations.
