ABSTRACT
There are so many different perspectives on psychotherapy that it is easy to find cartoons about it in the popular press. Their pervasiveness provides testimony to the importance of psychotherapy within Western culture. From an array of more than 50 therapy approaches, the cognitive and behavioral perspectives seem to be most often taught in graduate schools and medical centers. Today’s students are less likely to be taught dynamic psychotherapies, probably because their efficacy has not been so well documented. Yet, many members of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) seek to address the problem of how to apply methods of science to study dynamic reconstructive psychotherapy. It is that version of therapy, the one that seeks to change the underlying structure of personality, that I would like to discuss. In the process, I will sketch a generic theory of psychotherapy that presumes to pinpoint the “heart of darkness,” the point where personality change ultimately does or does not occur.
