Psychotherapy and the Single Synapse

Abstract

THE title of this lecture is at best premature and more likely absurd, but I have adopted it for two reasons. In the first place, I want to emphasize the continuing tension within psychiatry between biologic and psychologic explanations of behavior. Secondly, I want to consider the simplistic but perhaps useful idea that the ultimate level of resolution for understanding how psychotherapeutic intervention works is identical with the level at which we are currently seeking to understand how psychopharmacologic intervention works — the level of individual nerve cells and their synaptic connections.I will discuss the second issue later. First, . . .