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CCPX 4038: Comparative Psychotherapies Fall, 2020

Professor Barry A. Farber (email: farber@tc.edu)
TA:

This primary aim of this class is for you to become familiar with the major modalities of
psychotherapy, in particular the three major orientations: psychodynamic, CBT, and
humanistic. By the end of the semester you should be able to identify the similarities and
differences among the different psychotherapies, and understand the arguments for and
against the “Dodo Bird” hypothesis (i.e., all psychotherapies are essentially equivalent).

Required Texts:

-Farber, B. A., Brink, D. C., & Raskin, P. M. (1996). The Psychotherapy of Carl Rogers:
Cases and commentary. NY: Guilford.
-Messer, S. B., & Gurman, A. S. (2011). Essential psychotherapies (Third Edition). NY:
Guilford.
-Wampold, B. & Imel, Z. (2015). The Great psychotherapy debate (Second Edition). NY:
Routledge.

Recommended (Optional) Books:

-Gottlieb, L. (2019). Maybe you should talk to someone: A therapist, HER therapist, an
our lives revealed. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
-Yalom, I. (1989). Love’s Executioner. New York: Basic Books.
-Yalom, I. (2015). Creatures of a day: And other tales of psychotherapy. New York:
Basic Books.

Requirements:

-Reading: Prepare for class by familiarizing yourself with the readings for that class.

-Midterm Paper (due 4/15): Compare and contrast two distinct psychotherapies by
using the same case and creating two therapeutic dialogues to “treat” this case. More
specifically: a) choose two distinct psychotherapies to compare; b) create a case—you
could choose a fictional character (e.g., from a book, movie, TV show, or play); someone
you know, including perhaps yourself (disguising the details); or create a client with a
problem that could be profitably discussed in therapy. Take a page or so to describe this
person, including the nature of his/her problems that mandate treatment; c) write 3-4
pages of dialogue from within each of these therapeutic modalities (i.e., a total of 6-8
pages); d) write 2-3 pages comparing and contrasting your approaches: which of these
approaches seem to have worked “best” with this client with this set of problems? Why?
What were the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches? Even with the
“best” of these approaches, were there limitations in what could be accomplished?
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-Final (in class) Exam (covering all readings and class discussions; 5/6): Identification
of major concepts and short essays.

Syllabus

1/22 Introduction: The Nature of Psychotherapy; Major Systems

1/29 Common Elements (to all approaches):

Readings for this Class:
-Wampold & Zimel, chapter 1-6
-Horvath, A. O. (2000). The therapeutic relationship: From transference
to alliance. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56, 163-173.

-Norcross, J. C., & Lambert, M. J. (2019). What works in the

psychotherapy relationship: Results, conclusions, and practices. In J.C. Norcross
& M. J. Lambert (Eds.), Psychotherapy relationships that work (3rd edition) (pp.
631-646). New York: Oxford.

2/5 What happens in a psychotherapeutic session? What does psychotherapy feel

like?
-Psychodynamic Psychotherapy:
http://www.psychotherapy.net/data/uploads/52315fd6bb78d.pdf (pp. 16-77).
-CBT:
https://ryecast.ryerson.ca/Content/attachments/Archive/5515/IPE-
CBT_CBT_Simulation_with_Julie_Beginning_(Session_1).pdf

-Person-Centered (Humanistic): Farber et al. book on Rogers: Ch. 4, p. 74-

83.

2/12 Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy I

-Messer & Gurman, Chaps. 1-2
-Momigliano, L, N. (1987). A spell in Vienna—but was Freud a Freudian?
International Review of Psycho-Analysis, 14, 373-388.

2/19 Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy II

-Messer & Gurman, chap. 3
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-McWilliams, N. (2005). Preserving our humanity as therapists.

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice & Training, 42, 139-151.

-Markin, R. D. (2014). Toward a common identity for relationally oriented

clinicians. Psychotherapy, 51, 327-333.

2/26 Behavior Therapy

-Messer & Gurman, chap. 4
-Messer, S. B., & Winokur, M. (1980). Some limits to the integration of
psychoanalytic and behavior therapy. American Psychologist, 35, 818-
827.

-Messer, S. B. (1986). Behavioral and psychoanalytic perspectives at

therapeutic choice points. American Psychologist, 41, 1261-1272.

3/4 Cognitive Therapy & CBT

-Messer & Gurman, chap. 5
- Goldfried, M.R., Raue, P.J., & Castonguay, L.G. (1998). The
therapeutic focus in significant sessions of master therapists: A
comparison of cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic-interpersonal
interventions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 803-
811.

-An overview of CBT: http://www.integration.samhsa.gov/clinical-

practice/sbirt/CBT_Overview_Part_1.pdf.

3/11 CBT (Third Wave)

-Hayes, S. C. (2004). Acceptance and commitment therapy, relational
frame theory, and the third wave of behavioral and cognitive therapies.
Behavior Therapy, 35, 638-665.

-Hofmann, S. G., & Asmundson, G. J. (2008). Acceptance and

mindfulness-based therapy: New wave or old hat? Clinical Psychology
Review, 28(1), 2-16.

- Van Dam, N. T., van Vugt, M. K., Vago, D. R., et al (2018). Mind the
hype: A critical evaluation and prescriptive agenda for research on
mindfulness and meditation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13,
36-61.
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3/18 SPRING BREAK

3/25 DBT
-Carey, B. (2011, June 23). Expert on mental illness reveals her own fight.
The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/health/23lives.html.

-What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy?

https://behavioraltech.org/resources/faqs/dialectical-behavior-therapy-dbt/

- Burckell, L. A., & McMain, S. (2011). Contrasting clients in Dialectical

Behavior Therapy for borderline personality disorder: “Marie” and
“Dean,” two cases with different alliance trajectories & outcomes.
Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy, 7, 246-267.
http://pcsp.libraries.rutgers.edu.

4/1 Humanistic Therapy (Rogers) I

-Messer & Gurman, chap. 7
- Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of
therapeutic personality change. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 21, 95-
103.

- Farber, B. A. (2007). On the enduring and substantial influence of Carl

Rogers’ not-quite essential nor necessary conditions. Psychotherapy:
Theory, Research, Practice, and Training, 44, 289-294.

4/8 Humanistic Therapy II

-Farber et al. (Rogers book): Chaps. 1 (Intro), 3, 5

4/15 Humanistic/Existential Therapy III

-Farber et al. (Rogers book): Chaps. 6, 7, 8, 10
-Messer & Gurman, chap. 8

4/22 Emotion-focused Therapy

-Greenberg, L. S. (2004). Emotion-focused therapy. Clinical Psychology
and Psychotherapy, 11, 3-16.

-Goldman, R. N. (2017). The emotion-focused therapeutic relationship:

Genuineness, warmth, and acceptance are not neutral: Comment on Gelso
and Kanninen (2017). Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 27, 350-35.
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4/29 Alternative Therapies & Conclusion

-Beyerstein, B. L. (1997). Why bogus therapies seem to work. Skeptical
Inquirer, 21.
http://www.csicop.org/SI/show/why_bogus_therapies_seem_to_work/.

-Hall, H. (2008). Gary Schwartz’ energy healing experiments; The

emperor’s new clothes? Skeptical Inquirer, 32.
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/gary_schwartzrsquos_energy_healing_exp
eriments_the_emperorrsquos_new_clothe/

-Kashdan, T. B. (2014). Why are Deepak Chopra and EMDR important

for science and life? Psychology Today.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/curious/201402/why-are-deepak-
chopra-emdr-important-science-and-life.

-Wampold & Imel, chaps. 7-9

5/6 Final Exam

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