Bulletin of the Psychoanalytic Research Society, Volume V, Number 1, Spring, 1996
Broadly speaking, empirical research on psychoanalytic concepts can be divided into two domains -- studies assessing aspects of psychoanalytic theory, and investigations of psychoanalytic therapy. The two Featured Articles that appear in this issue of the Bulletin have much to say about the importance of empirical research assessing psychoanalytic process and outcome. Listed below are a selection of recent papers and books in this area. These important works confirm that we have learned a great deal about the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy in recent years, but that many questions in this area remain unresolved.
Beutler, L., & Crago, M. (1991). Psychotherapy research: An international review of programmatic studies. Washington, DC: APA Books.
Blatt, S. J. (1992). The differential effect of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis on anaclitic and introjective patients: The Menninger Psychotherapy Research Project revisited. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 40, 691-724.
Blatt, S. J., & Ford, R. Q. (1992). Therapeutic change: An object relations perspective. NY: Plenum Press.
Bornstein, R. F. (1993). Implicit perception, implicit memory, and the recovery of unconscious material in psychotherapy. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 181, 337-344.
Crits-Christoph, P., et al. (1988). Clinicians can agree in assessing relationship patterns in psychotherapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 1001-1004.
Dahl, H., Kachele, H., & Thoma, H. (1988). Psychoanalytic process research strategies. NY: Springer.
Diamond, D., Kaslow, N., Coonerty, S., & Blatt, S. J. (1990). Changes in separation-individuation and intersubjectivity in long-term treatment. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 7, 363-397.
Fretter, P., Bucci, W., Broitman, J., Silberschatz, G., & Curtis, J. (1994). How the patient's plan relates to the concept of transference. Psychotherapy Research, 4, 58-72.
Greenberg, L. S., & Pinsoff, W. M. (1986). The psychotherapeutic process: A research handbook. NY: Guilford Press.
Gruen, R. J., & Blatt, S. J. (1990). Changes in self and object representation during long-term psychodynamically-oriented treatment. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 7, 399-422.
Horowitz, M. J., et al. (1984). Brief psychotherapy of bereavement reactions: The relationship of process to outcome. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 438-448.
Jones, E. E., & Pulos, S. M. (1993). Comparing the process in psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral therapies. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 306-316.
Langs, R. J., Bucci, W., Udoff, A. L., Cramer, G., & Thomson, L. (1993). Two methods of assessing unconscious communication in therapy. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 10, 1-16.
Lecours, S., Bouchard, M. A., & Normandin, L. (1995). Countertransference as the therapist's mental activity: Experience and gender differences among psychoanalytically-oriented psychologists. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 12, 259-279.
Luborsky, L. (1988). Who will benefit from psychotherapy? NY: Basic Books.
Luborsky, L., & Crits-Christoph, P. (1990). Understanding transference: The core conflictual relationship theme method. NY: Basic Books.
Piper, W. E., Azim, H. F. A., Joyce, A. S., & McCallum, M. (1991). Transference interpretations, therapeutic alliance, and outcome in short-term individual psychotherapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 946-953.
Shapiro, T., & Emde, R. N. (1995). Research in psychoanalysis: Process, development, outcome. NY: International Universities Press.
Silberschatz, G., & Curtis, J. (1993). Measuring the therapist's impact on the patient's therapeutic progress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 401-411.
Spence, D. P., Dahl, H., & Jones, E. (1993). Impact of interpretation on associative freedom. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61, 395-402.
Weinberger, J. (1995). Common factors aren't so common: The common factors dilemma. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 2, 45-69.
Weiss, J., Sampson, H., & the Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group (1986). The psychoanalytic process: Theory, clinical observation and empirical research. NY: Guilford Press.