Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2019

The Process of Psychotherapy

Causation and Chance

  • Provides a complete overview of the current state of psychotherapy research
  • Offers state-of-the-art statistical tools that can be used to measure datasets and time series in psychotherapy processes
  • Explores the differences between deterministic and stochastic forces

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
  2. Psychopathological Problems and Disorders

    • Wolfgang Tschacher, Hermann Haken
    Pages 21-30
  3. Interventions in Psychotherapy

    • Wolfgang Tschacher, Hermann Haken
    Pages 31-40
  4. The Fokker-Planck Equation

    • Wolfgang Tschacher, Hermann Haken
    Pages 41-58
  5. Application to Psychotherapy: Deterministic Interventions

    • Wolfgang Tschacher, Hermann Haken
    Pages 59-70
  6. Application to Psychotherapy: Chance Interventions

    • Wolfgang Tschacher, Hermann Haken
    Pages 71-80
  7. The One- and Two-Dimensional Fokker-Planck Equation

    • Wolfgang Tschacher, Hermann Haken
    Pages 93-119
  8. Modeling Empirical Time Series

    • Wolfgang Tschacher, Hermann Haken
    Pages 121-152
  9. Outlook

    • Wolfgang Tschacher, Hermann Haken
    Pages 153-167
  10. Back Matter

    Pages 169-172

About this book

This book describes an encompassing modeling approach to psychotherapy, created with the most recent research in the field. Therapeutic interventions are staged within a therapist-client relationship ('alliance'), and become effective by the interplay of deterministic ('causation') and stochastic ('chance') forces. The authors use a Fokker-Planck approach complemented by a structural-mathematical framework from complexity theory. 


Chapters present statistical tools, which can be applied to analyze the differing time series that depict therapeutic processes. Chapters include examples of how to use these tools within research. The approach adopted in the book – contemporary psychotherapy terminology combined with a systems-theoretical model and algorithms for quantitative psychotherapy research – has the potential to become the new benchmark in psychotherapy. 


The Process of Psychotherapy is an informative and sophisticated resource for all levels of students, from undergraduate through post-doctoral studies, in the fields of psychology, cognitive psychology, and psychotherapy.




Authors and Affiliations

  • Universitätsklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitäre Psychiatrische, Dienste Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Wolfgang Tschacher

  • Institut für Theoretische Physik und Synergetik, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Hermann Haken

About the authors

Wolfgang Tschacher: received his PhD in psychology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Psychotherapy training in systemic therapy. Habilitation in psychology and Venia legendi at University of Bern, Switzerland, professorship in 2002. He is based at the University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Bern, where he founded the department of psychotherapy research, and currently is head of the Experimental Psychology group. His main interests are in quantitative psychotherapy research, time-series methods and experimental psychopathology, with an emphasis on dynamical systems, embodied cognition, and phenomena of cognitive self-organization. He acted as president of the European chapter of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR), and is member of the directorate of the Society for Mind-Matter Research. He has been the organizer of the 'Herbstakademie' conference series on systems theory in psychology. Dr. Tschacher has published about 200 scientific publications, 16 monographs, and edited volumes on psychology, psychiatry and cognitive science (WT is still proud to have been, in 1992, the main editor of "Self-Organization and Clinical Psychology" in the Springer synergetics series.)

Hermann Haken: studied mathematics and physics in Halle and Erlangen, Germany, where he completed his dissertation in mathematics. Habilitation at the University of Stuttgart, where he became a professor of theoretical physics and director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Synergetics. His fields of work comprise laser physics and nonlinear optics, solid state physics, statistical physics, group theory, and bifurcation theory. He is the founder of the interdisciplinary field of synergetics, which elaborates on self-organization as an emergent quality of complex dynamical systems throughout the sciences. About 600 scientific publications, 26 textbooks and monographs on physics, synergetics and complexity science, psychology, and neuroscience. His work has been translated into Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and further languages. He received multiple awards as well as honorary doctorates from universities in Germany, Spain, China, and the USA.


Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access