Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology

This valued resource helps practitioners and students evaluate the merits of popular yet controversial practices in clinical psychology and allied fields, and base treatment decisions on the best available research. Leading authorities review widely used therapies for a range of child, adolescent, and adult disorders, differentiating between those that can stand up to the rigors of science and those that cannot. Questionable assessment and diagnostic techniques and self-help models are also examined. The volume provides essential skills for thinking critically as a practitioner, evaluating the validity of scientific claims, and steering clear of treatments that are ineffective or even harmful.New to This Edition*Reflects the significant growth of evidence-based practices in the last decade.*Updated throughout with the latest treatment research.*Chapter on attachment therapy.*Chapter on controversial interventions for child and adolescent antisocial behavior.*Addresses changes in DSM-5.

About the Author

Scott O. Lilienfeld, PhD, until his death in 2020, was a Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University. He was Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Psychological Science and Associate Editor of Archives of Scientific Psychology, and served on the editorial boards of several other journals. Among Dr. Lilienfeld’s principal interests were cognitive biases and their relations to personality and psychopathology, scientific thinking and its application to psychology, the causes and assessment of personality disorders (especially psychopathic and narcissistic personality disorders), psychiatric classification and diagnosis, pseudoscience and clinical psychology, evidence-based clinical practice, and the philosophy of science and psychology. He was a recipient of the James McKeen Cattell Award for Distinguished Achievements in Applied Psychological Science from the Association for Psychological Science and served as president of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology and the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy. Steven Jay Lynn, PhD, ABPP, is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Binghamton University, State University of New York (SUNY), where he is Director of the Psychological Clinic. He has published more than 300 articles, books, and book chapters on topics including psychotherapy, hypnosis, science versus pseudoscience, psychopathology, and memory, and his research is widely cited in the media. Dr. Lynn is Founding Editor and Editor of the American Psychological Association journal Psychology of Consciousness. He is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. Jeffrey M. Lohr, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, where he has been on the faculty since 1975. His research interests include affective processes in anxiety and related disorders and pseudoscience in applied and clinical psychology. In the latter domain, he focuses primarily on the empirical analysis of treatment efficacy and the promotion of "fringe" treatments, especially as they relate to trauma and anxiety disorders. Dr. Lohr is Associate Editor of The Behavior Therapist.