Positive Side Effects: Plea for Assessing the Multifinality of Psychotherapy

We argue that the analysis of the side effects of psychotherapy should include not only negative but also positive side effects and by-products, since only such a broadened perspective allows us to describe the effects of psychotherapy comprehensively. The concept of side effects was originally derived from the classic medical model and cannot be simply transferred to psychological interventions, which have a bio-psycho-social orientation. Psychotherapy does not affect circumscribed psychological variables or causal etiological factors in isolation, but rather interacting psychological and social conditions, which are associated with the symptoms and syndromes of mental disorder. Directly or indirectly, it promotes modes of experiencing and behavior, which are constituents of mental health. We discuss a number of positive side effects of psychotherapy: the improvement of habitual mood and quality of life, the improvement of somatic parameters, including those of the immune system, positive changes in the social domain, the realization of career opportunities, as well as gains in terms of psychological competencies and resilience. We propose to develop research designs that incorporate a multivariate framework of outcomes and make it possible to test [author: edits ok?] what side effects are specific, that is, more pronounced following psychotherapy than following other forms of interventions (such as self-help, medical treatments, etc.) or after naturally occurring change processes.