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Healing Psychology's Own Motivational Conflicts: A Comment on Miller's “Ethics of Motivational Intervention”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Martin Seager
Affiliation:
Princess Alexandra Hospital, Essex

Abstract

In an earlier edition of this journal (vol. 22, 111–123) William R. Miller persuasively defends his motivational interviewing approach (Miller, 1983) against the claim that it is “manipulative”, at least in the pejorative sense of that term. This critique of Miller's methods and his response to it is explored as a new manifestation of a longstanding conflict between (cognitive) behaviourism and psychoanalysis, a conflict that seems to lie at the very heart of psychological science, restricting the professional development of us all. It is argued that our own discipline could benefit from some form of motivational intervention to enable cognitive-behaviourists and psychodynamicists to communicate genuinely and more fully with each other. Some suggestions for steps in this direction are provided.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1995

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References

Miller, W. R. (1983). Motivational interviewing with problem drinkers. Behavioural Psychotherapy 11, 147162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, W. R. (1994). Motivational interviewing: III. On the ethics of motivational intervention. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 22, 111123.Google Scholar
Wachtel, P. L. (1977). Psychoanalysis and behaviour therapy: toward an integration. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
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