Text: Page 39

Lester Luborsky et al. resurrected the symbol of the Dodo Bird Verdict, which was coined in 1936 by Saul Rosenzweig (1907–2004). After studying 500 psychotherapies, Rosenzweig believed that all confirmed equally effective psychotherapeutic outcomes. Rosenzweig used the 1865 Lewis Carroll book, Alice in Wonderland, to symbolize his view of research. When several characters in the story became wet, the Dodo Bird decided to have a competition that required that everyone run around the lake until they were dry. At the end of the race, no one measured how fast or far they had run; all that mattered was that everyone was dry. When the race was over, everyone asked Dodo who won. After thinking long and hard, he said everyone won and everyone deserved prizes. Rosenzweig argued that common factors in research were more important than specific technical differences and that all research produce equally important outcomes.