| Abstract: | Reviews the book, Between conviction and uncertainty: Philosophical guidelines for practicing psychotherapists by Jerry N. Downing (see record 2000-08722-000). In this book, the author aims to provide a meta-analysis of the array of theories available to the practicing psychotherapist: that is, to provide a "theory about theories" in the hope of giving the psychotherapist a guide for better understanding what it is that goes on in therapy. Downing begins by working through several basic questions. First, he considers what therapists actually know about therapy. Downing concludes that theories of psychotherapy are likely to continue to evade scientific proof, mainly because they do not easily lend themselves to disproof. This bleak view of what we actually know about what we do in psychotherapy leads Downing to reflect on what it is that we could possibly discover or know about therapy, and here his inquiry turns epistemological. Downing suggests that therapists are guided by a kind of epistemology in action. That is, therapists may best be described as loosely following an organizing scheme throughout a therapy. Downing refers to these six schemes as lived modes of knowing. Downing then discusses each of the six, providing illustrations of what they might mean in practice. Downing presents a plausible account of what may occur in therapy and of how many therapists may work. However, his argument seems to be unnecessarily drawn out. Unfortunately, rather than lend support and inform, the breadth of topics and issues obscures his project. And, beneath it all, we are left wondering what we actually know about psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
