Is it possible for psychotherapy to change the brain?

Autor analizuje źródła trudności w określeniu wpływu psychoterapii na funkcjonowanie mózgu zwracając uwagę między innymi na ograniczenia związane z doborem metod badawczych. Wskazuje na wyniki aktualnych badań nad efektami psychoterapii w różnych zaburzeniach psychicznych jak schizofrenia, zaburzenia depresyjne czy zaburzenia związane ze stresem.The presumption that psychotherapy leads to changes in the mind and behaviour is based on another one: on the separateness of the mind and body. Since at least, the publication of Popper and Eccles The Self and Its Brain, the close relation between the mental (emotions, cognition, behaviour, self) and somatic (brain) has been noted. For the last 35 years the knowledge on the brain activity relation to what is being described as mental and behavioural has been significantly expanded. Nevertheless not all questions have been answered. Methods of brain studies have been changing, and since they keep influencing research designs, the results of a growing number of publications on psychotherapy influence on the brain are inconclusive. Review of recent research publications illustrate the conclusion, that what seems to be obvious is (sometimes) difficult to prove