There has been several references to Sharon Begley's new book. I would
highly recommend her earlier text with Jeff Schwartz:

The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force by
Jeffrey Schwartz MD & Sharon Begley published in 2002 by
Regan Books-HarperCollins.

Schwartz, at UCLA School of Medicine, was one of the first to demonstrate
that psychosocial treatment with severe OCD patients normalizes brain function
(PET scans) as well as SSRIs (fluoxetine).

In a posting from long ago, I noted:

The most frequently cited studies on changes of brain function following
psychotherapy has been done by Baxter et al (1992) and repeated by the
same group (Schwartz et al 1996).Severe OCD patients were compared on an
SSRI (Prozac) or a CBT approach. PET scans were performed pre-and
post-treatment (at a ten week interval). According to this group, OCD
consists of a self-reinforcing loop between orbitofrontal cortex, caudate
nucleus, and thalamus which is difficult to interrupt. Consistent with
their theory, both treatments led to metabolic decreases in the head of
the right caudate nucleus and orbitofrontal cortex.

Brian Koehler