In August, the American Psychological Association Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation released a report based on its systematic review of research on the effectiveness of sexual orientation change efforts.1 More »

who remarked that the problem with most new books he reads these days is that there is “too much space between the covers.” After all, he queried rhetorically, “Do I really need more than 250 pages or so on any one subject?” Days before this conversation, I had accepted an invitation to write a review of Psychotherapy Supervision and had received the 632-page tome by mail. More »

The prospect of using computers to deliver psychotherapy has been intriguing a number of investigators who have been studying innovative methods of bringing technology into clinical practice. More »

Although several studies indicate that psychotherapy (alone or in combination with medications) can help psychiatric patients reach recovery faster and stay well longer, a declining number of office-based psychiatrists are providing psychotherapy to their patients. More »

Unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating condition with a lifetime prevalence of 17%.1 Recent epidemiological evidence indicates that MDD is the fourth leading cause of disease burden and the leading cause of disability-adjusted life years. More »

I have been invited to write a clinical article on psychotherapeutic interventions for chronic depression. More »

The estimated number of patients with cancer in this country is 10.5 million. Close to a million and a half are new cases, and it is estimated that 560,000 people die of cancer each year.¹ There is clearly a large group of cancer patients and their families at high risk for serious psychiatric illness. In this article, I focus on the advantages of a psychodynamic approach and address how this approach is helpful in the liaison function and psychotherapy of cancer patients and their... More »

The practice of one human being helping another to feel better through the use of talk is as old as humanity itself. As a profession, however, psychiatry has existed for only 100 years. During that time, both the theory and the technique have evolved. Changes have been driven as often by politics and culture as by advances in knowledge. From the early days of psychoanalysis, many hoped that psychotherapy would be based in an empirical science, yet relatively little of its development has been... More »

Overcoming Resistant Personality Disorders is a provocative and well-reasoned, yet frustrating volume. In it, the authors challenge various authorities on the subject; for example, they criticize the DSM for its failure to "officially endorse an underlying set of principles that would interrelate and differentiate the categories in terms of their deeper principles" and for its current Axis II categories. More »

Both cognitive-behavioral^1-3 and pharmacological treatments for panic disorder have been found to be effective over the short term. Not all patients, however, can tolerate or fully respond to these approaches, and the effectiveness of these interventions over the long term remains unclear. More »