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The Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis has inaugurated a new monograph series, Emotions and Behavior. In this first monograph, Schlessinger and Robbins present their research, carried out over the past decade, on the analytic process and the evaluation of analytic change and outcome—a most timely and significant topic. The study of the psychoanalytic process has been somewhat neglected by psychoanalytic educators, yet the concept involves basic issues of theory and technique, and it often mobilizes questioning and controversy among analysts.
Advanced candidates were offered a course on the assessment of completed analyses from the Institute Clinic. The course evolved into an ongoing group research project; their clinical studies and theoretical implications are the subject matter of the monograph.
The initial step in the research was to devise a method of assessment of the analytic process based on clinic investigation and follow-up research. The group decided to study the first few hours of the analysis, the point in analysis when termination was decided on, the last few hours in the analysis, and four to six follow-up sessions two to five years after termination. Measurements of intrapsychic change was based on a study of ego functions as viewed at these critical points in the analysis. The data were organized around the nature of the alliance, the Oedipus complex, the defense transference, and dreams. Fourteen