A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “psychotherapy”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott Alexander explores conflicting descriptions of Internal Family Systems therapy, questioning whether it involves trance-like states and real internal entities or more mundane visualization techniques.
Scott Alexander reviews a book on Internal Family Systems therapy that controversially claims some mental health issues are caused by literal demons.
Scott Alexander provides a comprehensive guide on ketamine as a depression treatment, covering administration methods, effectiveness, safety, dosage, and potential side effects.
Scott Alexander examines a theory proposing that depression, anxiety, and trauma are characterized by low precision of sensory evidence, leading to overreliance on negative priors.
The post explores how emotional learning creates hard-to-update mental models, drawing parallels between psychotherapy, psychedelics, and rationality techniques in overcoming these 'mental mountains'.
Scott Alexander critiques therapy books, highlighting their exaggerated claims and questioning the validity of their approaches, based on his clinical experience and historical misdiagnoses in psychology.
Scott Alexander presents survey results on people's satisfaction with mental health care, showing varied preferences across different types of therapy and conditions.
Scott Alexander reviews three books: a controversial psychotherapy text, an introduction to Lacan's philosophy, and a rationalist-themed fantasy novel.
Scott Alexander reviews Jordan Peterson's 'Twelve Rules For Life', finding it surprisingly insightful and impactful despite some philosophical criticisms.
Scott Alexander shares his experiences and reflections as a final-year psychiatric resident, discussing communication techniques, challenges in psychotherapy, and the anxiety of managing patient risks.
Scott Alexander examines a study comparing the effectiveness of drugs and therapy for psychiatric disorders, discussing the results and methodological limitations of the research.
Scott examines phatic communication and anti-inductive systems, exploring their roles in social interactions, job-seeking, and psychotherapy, and suggests the value of balancing both approaches.
Scott analyzes various criticisms of antidepressants, concluding they have modest but real benefits over placebo, with important considerations about side effects and efficacy.
Scott Alexander examines a study showing no significant difference between CBT and psychodynamic therapy, challenging the idea that CBT is superior and exploring the possibility that most psychotherapies work through non-specific factors.
Scott Alexander presents a roundup of recent scientific and medical studies, covering topics from hallucinations to obesity genetics to schizophrenia treatment.