Methodological Schism of Modern Evidence-Based Psychotherapy: Problems and Ways Out. Part 1

Abstract

. The article discusses the situation of methodological schism in modern evidence-based psychotherapy and its consequences for practicing psychologists. The existing ways for overcoming this schism are analyzed. The aim of this paper is to develop a new paradigm of evidence-based psychotherapy not as identification with a method, but as the development of targeted methodologically substantiated programs of psychological assistance. Results. In the course of the analysis of the existing empirically substantiated therapeutic programs, methodological principles implicitly constituting their development are discovered. To structure these principles, the multilevel model of E.G. Yudin’s methodology is used in the work. In accordance with it, the principles are considered at several levels of methodology. The concrete scientific level is defined as the core one. In this article, the following are analysed from the identified central principles of the concrete scientific level of the methodology for the development of therapeutic programs: orientation toward adaptability to cultural and environmental conditions; dialectical unity of modes of acceptance and change; language as a factor of pathologization and an instrument of psychocorrection; taking into account the context of behaviour and thinking; orientation toward the processes supporting the problem or disorder. The remaining principles will be analysed in our next article in forthcoming issue of the journal, including: orientation toward the integration of tools that have emerged within the framework of different schools; integration of cognitive and metacognitive levels of work with thinking; orientation toward the verifiability of the program’s effectiveness and the predictability of its effects; targeting the program at solving specific problems; orientation toward awareness; transparency of the effects of psychotechniques used in the program; orientation towards mastering one’s own behaviour and thinking; client-centeredness; orientation towards an empirically substantiated model of the psyche.