The ties between a basic science of language and cognition and clinical applications

• Applying the scientist–practitioner model is difficult in practice.
• Middle-level terms are often used as clinical shortcuts.
• A top-down approach to science can be problematic.
• Relational Frame Theory is a basic behavioral and contextualistic approach to language and cognition.
• A bottom-up approach (basic science) to ‘the human condition’ will likely yield a better understanding of psychological suffering.

In psychology, there has been on-going advocacy of the scientist–practitioner model as the gold-standard approach to treatment development and administration. While this approach has much merit, it has made little real headway. In the current paper, we argue that this lack of traction results from limitations in the scientific concepts we have at our disposal, and we use functional-analytic psychology to illustrate this. Specifically, we highlight the difficulties in integrating basic science with clinical application and outline problems in how this is currently done. In summary, we conclude that basic research concepts need not make conceptual sacrifices for clinical purposes.