Death Anxiety and the Evolution of the Mind

Abstract

By adopting a new way of listening and formulating the material of the therapeutic interaction, the strong adaptive approach has come upon a vast array of new clinical and theoretical findings and ideas that hold great promise to advance both the theory and practice of psychotherapy. Notwithstanding these advances, adaptive therapists also came upon a number of seemingly inexplicable or unsolved clinical puzzles (Kuhn, 1962) which engendered theoretical and therapeutic uncertainties that challenged the tenets of the approach. While this was a frustrating state of affairs, we also took our ability to recognize our limitations and uncertainties as a sign of the viability of the adaptive position. And because the solution to these puzzles did not emerge with repeated clinical investigations, it proved necessary to turn to new avenues of study in the hope of resolving these dilemmas using ideas drawn from, developed outside of, the therapeutic arena. As we shall see, these ventures proved to be quite rewarding.