Core processes of psychopathology and recovery: 'Does the Dodo bird effect have wings?'

This editorial proposes that the task of identifying common processes across disorders and across psychotherapies will be the most fruitful way to develop efficient, easily trainable and coherent psychological interventions. The article adapts the concept of the 'Dodo Bird Effect' to argue for a mechanistic, testable account of functioning, akin to other unified approaches in science. The articles in the special issue complement this perspective in several ways: (1) three articles identify common processes across disorders within the domains of anger dysregulation, sleep disruption and perfectionism; (2) one article emphasises a case conceptualisation approach that is applied across different disorders and integrates theoretical approaches; (3) three articles focus on the utility of a control theory approach to understand the core processes of maintenance and change. Critically, there is a consensus that change involves facilitating the integration within the client's awareness of higher level, self-determined goals (e.g. insight; cognitive reappraisal) with their lower level regulation of present-moment experience (e.g. emotional openness; exposure). Taken together, these articles illustrate the benefits of a convergent rather than divergent approach to the science and practice of psychological therapy, and they strive to identify common ground across psychotherapies and across widely different presentations of psychopathology. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.