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\\u201cTalk is powerful medicine.\\u201d Renowned researcher and clinician Jonathan Shedler, Ph.D., joins us to discuss the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy. While so-called evidence-based therapies\\u2014brief treatments conducted by instruction manuals\\u2014offer benefits for some, their status as the \\u201cgold standard\\u201d of treatment for mental distress is undeserved.

Dr. Shedler\\u2019s 2010 paper, \\u201cThe Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy,\\u201d is the most widely read psychoanalytic paper of our time. It\\u2019s been downloaded more than a quarter of a million times and has been cited by thousands. He discusses this influential work with us, including the finding that those who engage in psychodynamic psychotherapy not only improve by the end of treatment but continue to make gains even years after therapy is finished. According to Shedler, \\u201cpsychodynamic therapy sets in motion psychological processes that lead to ongoing change, even after therapy has ended.\\u201d Jung tells us that we don\\u2019t solve our problems so much as grow larger than them. There is good empirical evidence that psychodynamic psychotherapy does indeed help us to grow.\\xa0

Here\\u2019s the dream we analyze:

\\u201cI am in a snowy place with my mom. We are leaving one chalet to go to a different one to meet up with other family members. While packing up to leave, I am preoccupied with a lost sweater. My mom is angry at me for wasting time. I love the sweater; it\\u2019s beautiful, and I wanted it for a long time before I got it. I gradually accept that the sweater is now gone, but I\\u2019m really sad about it. Then we get into the car. We are both in the back seat of the car talking to each other, and it takes a few minutes before we realize that the car is driving itself. I am not bothered by this; I seem to intuit that the car will take us to the right place, or at least that it knows where it\\u2019s going. But my mom is once again angry at me for not driving it. I cannot drive it because my leg is injured. It is this anger--as she realizes that I\\u2019m not driving the car--that seems to make the car stop, and then we are stranded in the middle of the road.\\u201d

RESOURCES:

Dr. Shedler\\u2019s website

Seven Principles of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (video)

That was then, this is now: An introduction to contemporary psychodynamic therapy

The tyranny of time: How long does effective therapy really take?\\xa0

The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Follow Dr. Shedler on Twitter

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