Geoffrey W. Sutton PhD, Psychology and Culture

Photo credit Dennis Jarvis  2016 Many of us have noticed the biblical connection between music and symptom relief in the story of David and King Saul of ancient Israel. More than some 2,000 years ago, David, the man credited with writing many psalms played a lyre for his king (See 1 Samuel 16). Apparently, the people had observed the connection between music and relief because they offered to find a musician for Saul. David was called into service based on his reputation. When he played the lyre or harp, Saul experienced relief from his torment attributed to an evil spirit from God. Although some Christians view Saul's distress as caused by a literal supernatural being, others view the story as an ancient way of understanding mental illness. Obviously, it's speculative to make a diagnosis on limited descriptions from thousands of years ago.  It's tempting to view Saul's distress as a cyclical mood disorder. Regardless of Saul's biopsychological condition, the value ...

Power of Psychotherapy I was a psychotherapist for many years. Like others of my era, we went to conferences, watched demonstrations, and read books in an effort to become better therapists. Many of us had years of supervision during school and after graduation. We believed that new research would uncover effective treatments or new components of treatments that would help our clients get well. Several other factors came into play: medications and managed care. As  medications  became more specific for the treatment of common conditions like depression and anxiety, I and others began to wonder about the value of psychotherapy- especially if medication was better or equal to psychotherapy and cost less. In this light, I began to take courses in psychopharmacology in the hope that psychologists could prescribe medication. I worked with others to pass legislation before I decided to retire from psychotherapy. The second factor was the emergence of  managed car...