Science, politics, and the politics of science: The use and misuse of empirically validated treatment research

This paper examines the possible long-term negative effects of the Empirically Validated Treatment (EVT) movement. It is suggested that the EVT approach runs the risk of reducing the quality of training and narrowing clinical treatment options, and gives even greater power to third-party payers as de facto untrained supervisors. Furthermore, the research model fostered by the EVT paradigm may disseminate findings that lead to little advance in knowledge, and may actually discourage empirical research in some areas such as Axis II disorders. It is argued that the EVT movement tacitly ignores the bulk of empirical results generated by decades of psychotherapy research, and serves only to entrench an outmoded set of experimental designs that have outlived their pragmatic, heuristic, and epistemological utility. The reasons for this situation are discussed within the framework of the politics of science clashing with the actual results and implications of previous scientific research.