Is psychotherapy effective? Which of the many types is best? Are certain therapies better suited to treat certain problems? How can you rationally choose a therapist? Is it better to pick a psychiatrist, a psychologist, or some other type of counselor? There is a veritable cornucopia of individuals offering advice about mental health issues, from celebrities to life coaches to pastors to concerned friends, some with formal training and some with no credentials at all. Does psychotherapy ever make patients worse? What is the risk-benefit ratio?
We are handicapped by a lack of information. In his recent book Fads, Fakes and Frauds, the Polish psychologist Tomasz Witkowski likens the current situation to the old Indian fable of the blind men trying to describe an elephant. One feels the trunk and says an elephant is like a snake, another feels the knee and says an elephant is like a tree, a third feels the tail and says an elephant is like a rope, and so on. They only knew about the part they had touched, and they couldn’t accept the conflicting reports of the other blind men, so they remained ignorant of the full picture of the animal.