Behaviour therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy: Basic conflict or reconciliation and integration?*

Abstract

As recently as 1970 the approaches of behaviour therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy (especially in the form of psychoanalysis) to the explanation and treatment of disorders of behaviour were acknowledged by most psychologists to be fundamentally different and irreconcilable. Sporadic earlier suggestions that reconciliation between and even integration of the two approaches might be possible have received strong support in the last decade from a number of sources. The literature relating to these developments is reviewed and it is concluded that a strong case appears to have been made out for reconciliation and integration. These 'paths of convergence' have been produced by both general and specific forces. However, critical voices (mainly from sympathetic but unconvinced psychoanalytically oriented therapists) have not been wanting. Their criticisms are reviewed as well as the fundamental issue of the relationship between theory and therapy in the two approaches. It is concluded that the case for the reconciliation and integration of behaviour therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy has not been satisfactorily established on empirical grounds and is very difficult, if not impossible, to establish on theoretical grounds.