Eleven Blunders That Cripple Psychotherapy in America : A Remedial Unblundering

After a period of economic success and high regard in society, clinical psychology has fallen onto hard times, assert authors Nicholas Cummings and William O’Donohue. In the 1960s, clinical psychologists with doctorates were well paid in relation to comparable professions; today, starting salaries are lower than many jobs that require only a bachelor’s degree. Clinical psychology in the 1960s was preferred and valued over other fields as a profession; today it is not even on the list of top 20 fields for graduates to enter. Psychologists’ opinions on social issues are disregarded by the public. What was and continues to be the reason for the decline and continuing descent of clinical psychology? The authors posit that the profession blundered and has not adapted to the profound changes that have taken place in American society over the past 40 years. Psychotherapy practice is based on a 50-minute hour, yet mental health treatment must operate at a much briefer, more efficient pace. Clinicians ignore the findings of scientific research for effective treatments and favor the overblown pronouncements of gurus who preach without substance. Clinicians failed to adapt their practice to the needs of the healthcare industry and do not recognize that psychotherapy is health profession. An anti-business bias has contributed to training programs that ignore the economic realities of running a practice. The failure to secure prescription privileges, the invention of diagnoses, and political correctness are among the other blunders that pull the profession away from its primary mission -- mental health treatment -- and contribute to the low esteem in which psychologists are held. The authors enumerate and discuss the Eleven Blunders That Cripple Psychotherapy in America and offer remedies to correct the ongoing decline of the field. Front cover 1 Contents 6 Preface: The 50-Minute Hour in the Naosecond Era 8 Chapter 1. We Lost Our Economic Savvy 40 Chapter 2. We Turned Our Charismatic Leaders Into Gurus 78 Chapter 3. Don’t Worry; Managed Care Is a Passing Fad 100 Chapter 4. We Are Not a Healthcare Profession 128 Chapter 5. At War With Ourselves: Failure of the Profession to Own Its Training 154 Chapter 6. Our Antibusiness Bias: An Inadvertent Vow to Poverty 178 Chapter 7. Our Public Relations: Disaster or Just a Fiasco? 204 Chapter 8. Political Correctness: We No Longer Speak as a Science and Profession 226 Chapter 9. Creating Patients Where There Are None 268 Chapter 10. Diversity Fiddles While Practice Burns 302 Chapter 11. RxP: Is This Our Sole Economic Thrust? 330 Afterword: Hope for a Profession of Endearing Losers 362 Bibliography 378 About the Authors 386 Index 394 Back cover 404 We are economic illiterates We turned our charismatic leaders into gurus Don't worry, managed care is a passing fad We are not a healthcare profession At war with ourselves: failure of the profession to own its training Our anti-business bias: an inadvertent vow of poverty Our public relations: a disaster or just a fiasco? Political correctness: we no longer speak as a science and profession Creating patients where there are none Diversity fiddles while practice burns RxP: is this our sole economic thrust? Offers remedies to correct the ongoing decline of the field.Addresses the anti-business bias that has contributed to training programs that ignore the economic realities of running a business.Argues for viewing psychotherapy as a health profession.