Specific Memetic Therapies

Abstract

Existing formal psychotherapies including counseling are essentially memetic, i.e., memes are transmitted back and forth between the patient and the therapist through the process of talking. Psychotherapies work through meme manipulation in the brain of the patient. Nonspecific aspects of psychotherapy have specific memetic effects including (1) the therapist is ipso facto a role model, a model for imitation in thinking and behavior, a source of memes; (2) during the regular therapy session, the patient feels protected and supported, i.e., the meme pool to which the patient is exposed is benign and protective, and may neutralize the pathogenic memes in the brain; and (3) rational and critical thinking is encouraged during the sessions that enhance the brain’s meme-processing abilities.. Specific psychotherapies including Behavior Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy are discussed in memetic terms. Memetics can serve as a unifying concept of all psychotherapies and would lead to the development of new psychotherapeutic concepts and techniques. Such new techniques would include meme-constructive therapies through avatars and virtual psychodrama.