Hallmarks of the adaptive approach - Reply to Bornstein (2005) and Goodheart (2005)

The discussants of the author's article have given him much food for thought. In responding, he proposes that the human mind has several different unconscious adaptive processing systems, each with its own domain of operations. He also acknowledges that the hallmark of the strong adaptive approach is the thesis that death and death anxiety are the fundamental issues in human emotional life and its psychotherapies. He is prompted as well to enter the debate regarding the presence of universal structures in the emotion-processing mind and does so by offering a variety of scientific data and clinical observations that speak clearly for their existence. Finally, he presents some comparative clinical material to highlight the dramatic differences in the mental realms and level of insights negotiated by strong adaptive psychotherapists as compared with those who work in any other manner.