Dear Nick and other members of the CaFTR list.
I read the paper by J Golding that you sent out a month ago. Unfortunately, I do not share your enthusiasm. I have no training in CBT (and little personal enthusiasm for it), a substantial training in psychoanalysis (and a long-lasting fascination), and a reasonably good training in and profound respect of formal research. It’s the researcher in me that revolts against Golding’s paper. She picks up all the pro-PDT papers and squeezes out some pro-PDT evidence that I did not find overwhelming (as in the meta by Abbass and you et al.). If a CBT therapist would read it, s/he could pick up scores of papers substantiating his/her camp. I think more and more studies are indicating that we must focus on therapist and patient factors, not on method factors.
It is another matter, and a serious problem, that the CBT “camp” has occupied media and the public agenda, with serious repercussions on funding for therapies and research. I am looking for a new way of promoting “simply good psychotherapy/therapists” to politicians and other decision makers, rather than waging war between methods. How to do it, I don’t know.
Best,
Björn Salomonsson