Anthony Ryle obituary
In recent years the National Health Service has made much greater use of talking therapies for people with mental health problems. However, first-line approaches to more complex disorders, based crudely around diagnostic labels, are frequently ineffective. An alternative approach to such disorders is cognitive analytic therapy (CAT), developed by Anthony Ryle, who has died aged 89. For these, it is recognised as an effective and user-friendly treatment.
CAT looks beyond the initially identified problems to the whole person, and to that person's coping patterns, which will in turn have arisen from earlier formative relational experiences with care-givers and significant others ("reciprocal roles"). Though he acknowledged biological factors, Tony also noted that arguably our most important biological predisposition is to be socially formed. He based CAT around a concept of a predominantly relationally and socially formed self, with a style of therapy to match. CAT depends on an active collaboration between the patient and an overtly compassionate therapist to enable change, and makes use of "psychological tools" - narrative summary letters and descriptive maps of these reciprocal roles and their consequences, often counterproductive.
Continue reading...