From the Editor
Earlier this month, the University of Toronto Department of Psychiatry held a one-day conference on the Future of Psychotherapy. Speakers included Harvard University’s Dr. Vikram Patel, who has worked to expand access to care in low-income countries, and the University of Oxford’s Dr. David Clark, who has co-led the world’s largest program to improve access to evidence-based psychotherapy.
Here in Ontario, the future of psychotherapy will be influenced by several factors, including government payment. The day after the conference, when Drs. Patel and Clark were travelling home, a long essay ran in The Globe and Mail discussing a provincial government proposal to limit physician compensation for psychotherapy to 24 sessions a year; currently, there are no restrictions on the number of psychotherapy sessions billable per patient, allowing public funding of psychoanalysis. Dr. Norman Doidge, a psychoanalyst with affiliation with both the University of Toronto and Columbia University, argues strongly against the proposal. Psychiatry, he writes, will be left with “diagnose, and adios” – or worse, “diagnose, overdose, and adios.” Dr. Doidge – a bestselling author who has written on topics as diverse as the Palestinian conflict and brain plasticity, and who wrote the introduction to Jordan Peterson’s popular book – puts forward a well-crafted case.
The past of psychotherapy – but not its future?
In this Reading, we consider Dr. Doidge’s essay and some responses to it.
DG
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