Redecision Therapy: Underappreciated Developmental, Relational, and Neuroconstructive Processes

Abstract

This article invites readers to consider the following questions: Why did Robert and Mary Goulding insist that redecisions be made in a Free Child ego state? What are the developmental prerequisites for redeciding an earlier decision? Does the redecision process apply only to verbalizable decisions subserved by explicit memory, or may there be other types subserved by implicit or procedural memory? How does a redecision make a difference both in people's verbalizable life narratives and in their actual lives? What are the characteristics of a healthy life narrative, and how can these be understood in terms of mind and brain functioning? Why is the final stage of the redecision process-which involves the processes of reevaluation, decision refinement, and maintenance planning-so important and so often neglected?

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Notes on contributors

James R. Allen

James Allen, M.D., M.P.H., Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (psychotherapy), is currently vice chair, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Rainbolt Family Chair in Child Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A. He is an Eric Berne Memorial Award recipient, a diplomate of the International Redecision Therapy Association, and a past president of the ITAA. He can be reached at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, OUHSC, PO Box 26901, Oklahoma City, OK 73126-0901, U.S.A.; email: [email protected]. This article is an expanded version of parts of a keynote address given at the International Redecision Therapy Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A., in November 2009