Beyond psychoanalysis: psychodynamic psychotherapy in a biomedical and behavioral world

Using in-depth interviews with psychodynamic psychotherapists, this chapter examines practitioners' ideas about the importance and relevance of their treatments in the current mental health landscape. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is increasingly evidence-based and shorter-term, yet it is still seen as less scientifically grounded and is far less often a substantive part of training compared to biomedical and behavioral treatments. Sociologists have largely overlooked mental health practitioners outside of the biomedical model or traditional psychoanalytic models. Yet these newer forms of talk therapy, which rely on basic principles like the importance of the relationship between patients and practitioners, transference, and defenses, are an important part of the landscape of mental health treatment. Smith explores practitioners' perspectives on the potential contributions of and roadblocks to the expanded use of psychodynamic psychotherapy and asks how this might impact the advanced state of medicalization in the mental health fields.