Are all psychological therapies equally effective? Don't ask the dodo | Daniel and Jason Freeman

The claim that all forms of psychotherapy for mental illness are winners, known as the Dodo Bird Verdict, has been dealt a blow"Everybody has won and all must have prizes," declared the dodo in Alice in Wonderland when asked to judge the winner of a race around a lake. As judgements go, it is admirably even-handed and optimistic. But in the world of mental health the dodo's decision has come to symbolise a bitter dispute that strikes at the very heart of psychotherapy.The "Dodo Bird Verdict", first suggested in the 1930s by the American psychologist Saul Rosenzweig, proposes that the many and various forms of psychological therapy are all equally effective. It makes no difference whether, for example, a person is being treated with techniques drawn from psychoanalysis, neurolinguistic programming, or cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). What really helps a patient to recover are straightforward factors such as the opportunity to discuss their worries with a skilled and sympathetic therapist or the degree to which they are prepared to engage with the treatment.Understandably, the Dodo Bird Verdict has ruffled many feathers within the profession, and provoked a slew of studies aiming to corroborate or disprove the idea. Are some types of psychotherapy really more effective than others for particular conditions? There is plentiful data to suggest that the answer to that question – contrary to Rosenzweig's theory – is "yes". But that data tends to come from research conducted b...
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