In Support of Technical Eclecticism

Abstract

It is argued that psychotherapists who function as eclectic theorists must inevitably embrace divergent and contradictory notions. To remain theoretically consistent does not require the rejection of promising techniques culled from other theoretical orientations. Technical eclecticism can enrich the practitioner's range of therapeutic effectiveness without violating his allegiance to a theoretical system which best satisfies his own subjective needs. The view upheld is that therapeutic competence depends upon an array of effective techniques rather than upon a mass of plausible theories.

Eklekticism och beteendeterapi

“…O l i k a s l a g av e k l e k t i d s m Mot denna bakgrund L r d e t i n t e fBrvinande a t t liknande argument f8r en e k l e k t i s k p o s i t i o n framf8rs inom den k l i n i s k a psykologin/ p s y k i a t r i n i d a g (Birk,1973; F e a t h e r , Rhoads ,1972a;Lazarus ,1967) niir en uppsj6 a v n e r e l l e r mindre " t e o r e t i s k a " s k o l o r , synsItt och metoder f l o r e r a r . De f l e s t a som h i s k u t e r a t denna f r d g a h a r a r b e t a t med en i n t e g r a t i o n av psykodynaniska (PD) , fBretr6des-v i s psykoanalytiska (PA), och b e t e e n d e t e r a p e u t i s k a (BT) stbndpunkter.…”

Behavioral Interventions and Compliance to Treatment Regimes

“…inferiority fe elings of self, and so on. Wolpe (123) reported that 78 out of 85 of his cases indicated at least an 80% reduction in anxiety while Lazarus (124) reported 190 successful cases out of 220. More recently, empirical studies have supported the effectiveness of systematic desensitization in the reduction of a variety of anxiety responses.…”

1995 Article

“…I had borrowed techniques from different disciplines but had remained firmly within the purview of social and cognitive learning theory (e.g., Bandura, 1986). This technical eclecticism (Lazarus, 1967(Lazarus, , 1989(Lazarus, , 1992Lazarus, Beutler, & Norcross, 1992;Lazarus & Beutler, 1993) permits one to select techniques from any discipline without necessarily endorsing any of the theories that spawned them. The trap lies in equating observations with theories (Lazarus, 1993b).…”