A little discussed effect of therapy: it changes personality (2017)

A little discussed effect of therapy: it changes personality (2017)

The analysis has found that just a few weeks of therapy is associated with significant and long-lasting changes in clients’ personalities, especially reductions in the trait of Neuroticism and increases in Extraversion. Other details to emerge from the analysis: extent of observed personality change was about the same for different kinds of therapy, for instance be that CBT or psychodynamic (though hospitalisation was associated with the least amount of change); clients diagnosed with depression or personality disorders exhibited the greatest personality change compared with other conditions; and the size of the effects were the same across gender and age. The research also leaves unanswered a big question for the future: just how is psychotherapy enacting these personality trait changes?

Source: digest.bps.org.uk