How Do We Decide Which of Two Case Formulations Is Correct? Commentary on Westerman and Critchfield et al.

Authors

  • Stanley B. Messer

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14713/pcsp.v17i1.2090

Keywords:

comparing case formulations, truth-value of clinical formulations, correspondence, coherence and pragmatic theories of truth, Interpersonal Defense Theory, Interpersonal Reconstructive Theory (IRT), case study, clinical case study

Abstract

This commentary takes a meta-view of the articles in this module by Westerman (2021a), and by Critchfield, Dobner-Pereira and Stucker (2021a), which offer two overlapping but also different formulations of the same case. It raises the question of whether there is only one true formulation of a clinical case (correspondence theory), or whether any one of several would qualify as accurate (coherence theory). A third alternative is that the truth-value of a formulation is a function of its ability to predict which therapist interventions will most help the client (pragmatic theory). A study is described in which the relative accuracy of two different formulations of the same case was put to the test in predicting which therapist interventions led to client progress. I propose that the current authors compare the pragmatic value of their formulations in a similar manner.

Author Biography

Stanley B. Messer

Stanley B. Messer

Downloads

Published

04/19/2021

How to Cite

Messer, S. B. (2021). How Do We Decide Which of Two Case Formulations Is Correct? Commentary on Westerman and Critchfield et al. Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy, 17(1), 104–108. https://doi.org/10.14713/pcsp.v17i1.2090