Readers wandering the ever-expanding orchard of psychological therapies often encounter the neat, convenient fruit of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT, we are told, is “evidence-based”; it promises rapid symptom relief and proudly touts studies, data, and what is breathlessly called “scientific validation.” Psychoanalysis, by contrast, is portrayed as the gnarled old tree at the edge of the field: tangled, time-consuming, and (if we’re honest) treated as faintly archaic in a world addicted to results.

Let us pause and consider what is really being promised, and what might be missed.

CBT’s credibility rests substantially on its “scientific validation.” The logic proceeds thus: CBT defines “depression” or “

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