Signal and Noise in Psychotherapy
- 1 August 1989
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Royal College of Psychiatrists in The British Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 155 (2) , 239-245
- https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.155.2.239
Abstract
Four major categories of nonspecific or common factors are systematically analysed: relationship, expectancy, reorganising, and impact factors. The placebo control method should be discarded in psychotherapy research for two reasons: (a) sham treatment controls are unworkable because common factors in treatment are manifest only when real treatment is administered; and (b) the very events which were once thought of as ‘nonspecific’ noise are now recognised as active therapeutic factors common to many schools.Keywords
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