Integration of Cognitive and Psychodynamic Approaches in the Psychotherapy of Somatoform Disorders

Abstract

From its very beginning (Duhrssen, 1985), many methodologists have regarded the cognitive branch of behavioral psychotherapy as a "bridge to psychoanalysis." The first postulates of cognitive psychotherapy were formulated, and then developed, as an integral current by the dissidents from psychoanalysis A. Ellis and A. Beck. The cognitive approach fertilized behaviorism and helped to overcome its crisis of ideas. The result was vigorous development of diverse cognitive-behavioral psychotherapeutic approaches (of which there were from 11 to as many as 17, depending on which classification is used [Mahoney, 1974; Mahoney & Arnkoff, 1978]). Rejected by psychoanalysis, the cognitive school went on to develop within the context of behaviorism, and is today striving for recognition as an independent area of specialization (Perris, 1988). The general trend is toward its ever greater integration into psychodynamic approaches (Dobson, 1988; Mahoney, 1988), though it retains its cognitive model of mental disorders a...