The Feasibility Of Doing Empirical Research in the Psychoanalytic Training Clinic

Margaret S. Hamilton, Eve Caligor, Verna MacCornack, and Steven P. Roose (Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research)

In a recent article, Gabbard, Gunderson, and Fonagy (2002) propose a program for a multisite study in which all analytic control cases at participating institutes become subjects in a rudimentary outcome study. While these authors make a strong case for the desirability of such a project, they do not address the question of feasibility. Earlier work (Vaughan et al. 2000) looking at the feasibility of doing research in the analytic clinic of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research concluded that the research was negatively impacted due to low recruitment rates. The researchers hypothesized that the low recruitment rate in the psychoanalytic clinic may have stemmed from several factors, including a lack of conviction about the relevance of research and concern about the impact of the research on the treatment process among the psychoanalytic clinicians. Vaughan and colleagues