What Works for People With Mental Retardation? Critical Commentary on Cognitive–Behavioral and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Research

In What Works for Whom, Roth and Fonagy (1996) provided a critical review of the evidence base for psychotherapy. The key findings are that there is good evidence for the efficacy of psychotherapies, but there was more evidence for cognitive–behavioral than for psychodynamic psychotherapy. References to research with people who have mental retardation, however, were notably absent from the review. The Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change (Bergin & Garfield, 1994), published 2 years earlier, did not contain any reference to people with mental retardation at all. There is a statement in Roth and Fonagy in relation to people with mental retardation: “Although there are reports of effective psychodynamic treatment (e.g., Sinason, 1992), systematic outcome research has focused on behavioral training techniques” (Target & Fonagy, 1996, p. 312). There was no comment on cognitive–behavioral psychotherapy or any other approaches, which probably reflects the state of...