Abstract

This is the second of two papers charting the decline of psychoanalysis and the ascendancy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). In this paper, which adopts the methodology of integrated history and philosophy of science (HPS), I consider the impact of psychopharmaceuticals on the decline of psychoanalysis and the ascendancy of CBT. I argue that contrary to certain accounts given of this period where psychopharmaceuticals straightforwardly supplanted psychoanalysis, their influence was largely related to the introduction of a new evidential standard, namely, clinical trials. It is only once clinical trials become the accepted evidential standard and become institutionally entrenched that CBT rises to prominence. The paper concludes by considering the impact of this evidential shift on contemporary research on talking therapy and offers some methodological reflections.