[lbo-talk] manna for anti-Freudians

[Matthew Snyder]

Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
> >> Albert Ellis, the founder of cognitive behavioral therapy, has spent the
> >> past 50 years encouraging patients to "forget their goddamn past!" The best
> >> way to cure people's unhappiness, he says, is to just tell them-firmly-to
> >> stop acting irrationally.
[snip]


> Yep.  And strangely, it's one of the most effective forms of therapy
> for depression and anxiety (often more effective than anti-depressants
> like Paxil or Prozac)!

My understanding is that all "mainstream" treatments for depression
(can't speak for anxiety) are about 2/3 effective, but that the
fraction of patients that each type of treatment helps does not
perfectly overlap.  So a patient who does respond well to cognitive
therapy may not be helped by Paxil, and vice versa.  The success rate
of each is about equal, though.

I can't tell for sure if you're saying that cognitive therapy is "on
the whole" often more effective than SSRIs, if you're only talking
about success for specific patients.   Would you mind elaborating?

--
Matthew Snyder
Philadelphia, PA