Free will and agency.

Comments on R. Williams's (see record 1992-34951-001) proposed solution to the free will–determinism debate. A. A. Sappington contends that Williams too quickly dismissed the concept of agency in the sense of people being in some way the cause of their own actions, and finds fault with Williams's definition of freedom in terms of "truthful living." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Free will and psychotherapy: Complaints of the draughtsmen's daughters.

Free will is discussed from a feminist/social constructionist perspective, especially in relationship to therapy. According to many psychological studies, women are perceived as less likely to exercise their free will and to suffer serious psychological consequences. Feminist critiques challenge this argument and the underlying liberal humanist image of the fully human being as an individual who is endowed with free will. It is stressed that within the binary construction of gender difference, the qualities associated with the free willed individual are identical with those associated with men; women become the inferior other. An alternative construction of human ideal is advocated: relational selves. This repositioning dislocates other formulations, including free will, and changes the notion of therapy into a relational activity, suggesting that it may be as liberating to men as to women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Free will in absentia: Dennett on free will and determinism.

Mark Crooks (see record 2004-18788-002) has given a helpful discussion of Daniel Dennett's "philosophical abolition of mind," adding to the list of reasons why many philosophers jokingly say Dennett should have titled his 1991 book "Consciousness Explained Away". As Crooks argues, Dennett really is committed 'to our phenomenal experience, beliefs, desires, etc. as all being illusory in the strongest possible sense. Yet, when it comes to free will, Dennett fights hard to maintain that free will is something more than an illusion, that it is a capacity our neurophysiological machinery has. Dennett's new book-like his writings on mind and consciousness-is short on argument and long on rhetoric and cute stories. And herein lies Dennett's greatest strength, to seemingly make palatable ideas that many people think stand no chance. This, however, is also his greatest weakness in that ultimately the rhetoric fails to carry the day under closer scrutiny. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Free will: An automatic response.

Comments on the article by I. Kirsch and S. J. Lynn (see record 1999-05760-005), which concerned the effects of expectancy in clinical behavior change. Kirsch and Lynn reviewed several meta-analyses of placebo-controlled trials of antidepressants, and examined areas of research in which response expectancies have been shown to affect experience, behavior, and physiology: placebo effects, the effects of false biofeedback on sexual arousal, and the alteration of perceptual and cognitive functions by hypnotic and nonhypnotic suggestion. Furthermore, Kirsch and Lynn suggested ways in which the use and adaptation of response sets may facilitate behavior change in therapy. The present author argues against these propositions, which seem to imply that an individual's actions, despite having seemingly been initiated through conscious choice, are actually automated responses. Does the fact that humans display automated response sets in some situations deprive humankind of the possibility of free will? What use is psychotherapy to a client if the therapist effects a minor behavior change but fails to assist the client in developing his or her own agency to determine the course of his or her own life? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Free will or choice.

Comments on the article by Tyler entitled "Toward a Workable Psychology of Individuality" (see record 196003597-001), stating that it seems as though she should have mentioned in connection with her notion of choice Hartman's and Bellak's contribution. They speak of the 'relatively conflict free sphere of the ego.' This appears especially appropriate since she states: 'To understand an individual we must know how conscious he is of the choices he is making.' (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathic relational bonds and personal agency in psychotherapy: Implications for psychotherapy supervision, practice, and research.

Although psychotherapy researchers have become increasingly interested in identifying common factors that contribute to effective therapeutic practices, across psycho-diagnostic categories and treatment approaches, relatively little attention to date has been focused on the impact of these research findings for psychotherapy supervision and training programs. To address this gap, in this article we describe key components of an integrative psychotherapy supervision and training program that focuses on the development of a strong therapeutic alliance as an empirically supported, common principle of change in psychotherapy. We review empirical research evidence that addresses the contributions of therapist empathic engagement for the development of secure, relational bonds, heightened client agency, and the development of strong therapeutic alliances, and we discuss the implications of these findings for therapy practice and supervision training. We conclude with specific recommendations for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Free will and time: That "stuck" feeling.

Clarifies the central elements of the "stuckness" feeling in the traditional framework for free will and determinism in psychology, based on the inherent dependence on context and the assumed need of free will to be independent of context. These central elements are examined from the relatively overlooked perspective of time. A large part of the stuckness is revealed to stem from the linear assumption of time, rather than the linear nature of causality, as usually assumed. Suggestions are offered for overcoming this overlooked perspective to overcome the stuckness. Alternative assumptions of time are shown to offer a fresh framework for resolving the free will/determinism problem. It is suggested that nonlinear approaches to time offer several advantages in the framing of the issues, including the integration of possibility and the past, without time and causality being sacrificed in the process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of psychotherapy with children: Developmental psychotherapy.

Discusses the concept of developmental psychotherapy for children as a way of integrating information about human development, basic biological processes, and psychopathology with knowledge gained from studies of therapeutic change. In developmental psychotherapy, rather than trying to provide a permanent cure, the therapist tries using a variety of methods to help the child regain a footing on a developmental pathway more likely to lead to adequate adaptation in subsequent periods of life. Research in this field should concentrate on continuing refinement of models for developmental pathways leading to specific outcomes in a number of domains, particularly those involving externalizing disorders and substance abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Free will: An exercise in metaphysical truth or psychological consequences.

Proposes distinctions between the metaphysical, theoretical or strategic, and psychological aspects of free will. It is argued that the 1st is not the business of psychologists, the 2nd is the concern of the careful theoretician, while the 3rd is an empirical problem. In an effort to illuminate the experience of free will as a consequence of psychological processes, several examples of the experience are presented, and a model for their interpretation is proposed. The relationship between the model and existing areas of psychological research is discussed. (French summary) (57 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effectiveness of psychotherapy: The perennial controversy.

Reviews a number of important reviews of research on outcome in psychotherapy and evaluates the various critiques of these reviews and the issues involved. Although a number of important limitations in both existing research and the reviews of research are indicated, it is claimed that the different evaluations of the effectiveness of psychotherapy are influenced in part by the personal views of the individuals involved. It is argued that what is needed to help resolve past and current controversies is research that leads to a better understanding of the variables that produce change. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The illusion of external agency.

People typically underestimate their capacity to generate satisfaction with future outcomes. When people experience such self-generated satisfaction, they may mistakenly conclude that it was caused by an influential, insightful, and benevolent external agent. In three laboratory experiments, participants who were allowed to generate satisfaction with their outcomes were especially likely to conclude that an external agent had subliminally influenced their choice of partners (Study 1), had insight into their musical preferences (Study 2), and had benevolent intentions when giving them a stuffed animal (Study 3). These results suggest that belief in omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent external agents, such as God, may derive in part from people's failure to recognize that they have generated their own satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of psychotherapy: An evaluation.

(This reprinted article originally appeared in Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1952, Vol 16, 319–324. The following abstract of the original article appeared in PA, Vol 27:5921.) A survey was made of reports on the improvement of neurotic patients after psychotherapy, and the results compared with the best available estimates of recovery without benefit of such therapy. The figures fail to support the hypothesis that psychotherapy facilitates recovery from neurotic disorder. In view of the many difficulties attending such actuarial comparisons, no further conclusions could be derived from the data whose shortcomings highlight the necessity of properly planned and executed experimental studies into this important field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The human context of agency.

The issue of human agency has been confused with the question of determinism vs indeterminism. The author takes the position that to argue for agency is not necessarily to argue for indeterminism. Once the agentive position is freed from the burden of indeterminism, it becomes a serious possibility. It is further argued that the notion of freedom as choice from among alternatives is conceptually flawed. A conception of freedom as "having the world truthfully" is presented as an alternative to freedom conceived as choice. This view of agency, drawing chiefly on the philosophy of M. Heidegger and E. Levinas, suggests that the proper grounding for the understanding of human freedom is in morality, rather than in the "metaphysic of things." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychiatric will: II. Whose will is it anyway?

Reports that, in light of the present author's proposal of a "psychiatric will" (see record 1983-05532-001), P. S. Appelbaum (1979) has proposed an alternative solution to the involuntary commitment/patients' rights dilemma that would guarantee the psychiatrist's power to commit. Appelbaum's communication illustrates how the language of coercive psychiatry precludes the psychiatrist from formulating any other policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Free will in psychology—In search of a geniuin compatibilism.

Attempts to develop a genuine compatabilist model of the free will and to implement this model into psychology. The task of the model is to present an alternative to those versions of the compatabilist notion, which rightly seen are nothing but soft versions of determinism. This alternative is (1) based on an integration of a soft version of determinism with a soft version of indeterminism, and (2) based on a nonmystical and scientific concept of downward causality, and thereby is placed in the domain of science and in a materialist ontology. This leads to a hierarchical multi-layer model, the core notion of which is the soft deterministic concept of bottom-up constituting dynamics and the soft indeterministic concept of top-down organizational dynamics. It is in this existential tension field between constitutional and organizational dynamics that our very human nature in general, and free will in particular, develop. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cries and whispers: The psychotherapy of Anne Sexton.

Comments on D. W. Middlebrook's (see record 1993-16895-001) discussion of relationships between poet Anne Sexton's creativity and her psychotherapy. R. T. Hare-Mustin states that while there has been a professional outcry about the ethical issues of confidentiality in the release of therapy tapes to Sexton's biographer, there has been hardly a whisper about sexual abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of psychotherapy.

This "article" contains two blank pages, as an indication of G. W. Albee's concerns about the future of psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The rape of psychotherapy.

Changes in the marketplace, along with highly negative presentations of psychotherapy in the media regarding some controversial clinical practices, are combining to pose threats to the practice of psychotherapy and the psychological profession. Five marketplace changes that the author believes pose the greatest threats to psychology are identified and possible remedies presented. This is followed by a discussion of the controversies surrounding so-called false memories, the subsequent negative depiction of psychotherapy in the media, and what the profession might do to prevent the erosion of public confidence in psychological practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cost of psychotherapy.

Examines the relationship between psychotherapy funding policies and concepts of mental health. Three levels of mental health (necessity, improvement, and potentiality) are proposed. Necessity represents basic adaptation, the current dominant level illustrated by brief psychotherapy funded through managed mental health care. Improvement is the phase beyond necessity aimed at prevention and heightened quality of life, and potentiality is the ideal. The latter 2 now receive limited funding and emphasis. At question are both economic and social policies that endorse a narrow rather than a broad conception of mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual psychotherapy. Institutional psychotherapy: theoretical-practical aspect

The author describes his experience in institutional psychotherapy, at the Clínica Hospital of Villahermosa, Tabasco. He mentions factors in the patient, in the psychiatrist, in the institution and in the culture, as fostering the success or the failure of institutional psychotherapy. He shows the effectiveness of this type of treatment in this enviroment and describes ways of improving this kind of work.