When Psychotherapy Fails

Brechje Dandachi-Fitzgerald; Henry Otgaar; Harald Merckelbach

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-14332-8_16

When Psychotherapy Fails

Brechje Dandachi-Fitzgerald, Henry Otgaar, Harald Merckelbach^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic

Abstract

Psychotherapy aims to make patients better. As is true for any type of treatment, psychotherapy regularly fails to achieve this goal. Therapeutic failures may take many forms, and the list of possible reasons for failure is similarly extensive. As we will explain in this chapter, there is no conclusive definition of psychotherapeutic failure. Also, failures are sometimes inevitable and thus, cannot always be blamed on the therapist. This chapter is about failures, mistakes, adverse events, and disappointing outcomes during or after psychotherapy. Obviously, these are uncomfortable topics, as it is far more glorious to discuss treatment successes. Still, much can be done about psychotherapeutic failures, but remedies start with acknowledging that harmful therapy effects and therapeutic failures do exist and are important research subjects in their own right.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Toward a Science of Clinical Psychology: A Tribute to the Life and Works of Scott O. Lilienfeld
Publisher	Springer International Publishing
Pages	301-319
Number of pages	19
ISBN (Electronic)	9783031143328
ISBN (Print)	9783031143311
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14332-8_16
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2023

Keywords

Adverse events
Negative side effects
Potentially harmful treatments
Therapy failure

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-031-14332-8_16

Cite this

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