Editorial: New Generation of Psychotherapies Inspired by Cognitive Neuroscience Development: Emergence of Neurocognitive Therapies

Abstract

Psychological interventions, which have been designed to change human interactions with themselves and the environment, have a long history. Currently, more than 500 schools exist in the field of psychotherapeutic interventions (Roth & Fonagy, 2005). Design, innovation, introduction, and intervention method of each school are based on some theoretical frameworks and experimental evidence. This empirical evidence might be derived from the personal experiences of one therapist or a group of therapists, through scientific experimental trial(s), or organized networks of evidence–based empirical knowledge (Walker, 1957). Perhaps the “behavioral interventions” based on the rules of classical and operant conditioning are the best example for this type of “evidence–based” interventions with a background of well–established empirical studies. Owning to the complexity of the human brain and its cognitive processes as well as the influences of environmental factors such as family, language, and culture, the community of psychotherapists have neglected “behavioral interventions” as the dominant stream despite their well–structured scientific methodologies (Donohue & Fryling, 2007). However, interventions based on the individual experiences of elite therapists (such as analytical psychological interventions) have gained more attention in the community (Fonagy, 2003). The emergence of cognitive–behavioral intervention and its emphasize on values, perceptions, and thoughts was an innovation in the field of psychotherapy to address the complexities of human cognition. It was also a response to inductive reasoning of conventional behavioral therapy (Wilson & Clarck, 1999). Behavioral interventions might be considered as the first wave of evidence–based psychotherapy, versus cognitive–behavioral interventions which was the second wave. Incomplete definition of “cognition” in the second wave created the ground for emerging a new branch of psychotherapy that further studied and refined different concepts such as insight or language (Kovescses & Radden, 2009; Hatfield, 2009; MacKay, 1987). Practically, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is the most popular school among followers of this new movement (Zettle, 2005). The authors of this article do not consider a third wave in the context of this group of psychotherapies and believe that this new group can be regarded as the continuation of the second wave. Over recent years, development of the cognitive sciences and utilization of new technologies such as brain mapping and stimulation, has empowered psychologists to acquire vast amount of knowledge about the brain and its functions. Cognition is no more considered a separate determinant of human behavior in accompany with personality, affection, language, and values. Now, cogrtition includes all data being processed and produced in the human brain. It also comprises the development of data outside the human brain and its processing in the human body and environment (Stufflebeam & Rosen, 2007). Although the methods of brain mapping are still in their initial stages of development, many believe that the revolutionary role of brain mapping on decoding the science of psychology likens the effect of using microscope in biology or telescope in astronomy (Myers & De Wall, 2015). The authors of this editorial believe that further research in cognitive neuroscience with emphasis on its multidisciplinary nature with anthropology and linguistics can set the basis for a new generation of scientific–based psychotherapies that is neither narrow–banded like behavioral therapy nor affected by the weak points of cognitive–behavioral therapies. Perhaps this third generation can be called “neurocognitive psychotherapy”. The ability to enter the “black box” of human mind and introduction of “science of change”, will provide a new generation of psychotherapies with the ten following features: