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Although there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence supporting the effectiveness of psychoanalysis in changing people's lives for the better, the lack of compelling and rigorous quantitative research demonstrating this impact, as well as the absence of systematic demon- stration of effects of psychoanalytic approaches used in leading to such benefits, has contributed to its underutilization. Moreover, the field has seen fragmentation in terms of both the theory and the technique of psychoanalysis.
One step toward overcoming some of the obstacles hampering research into the process and outcome of psychoanalysis is the development of instruments and methods that can reliably and accurately capture and operationalize the complexities involved. Research into the effectiveness of psychoanalysis has gained momentum in recent years. Yet a great deal of work remains to be done to address a spectrum of questions about process and outcome that both interest and plague our field.
The purpose of this study was to contribute to the development and application of two recently developed measures of “psychological structure,” the Scales of Psychological Capacities (SPC) and the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure 200 (SWAP-200) (Shedler and Westen 1998). These two instruments were designed to address methodological problems inherent in psychoanalytic research and also to further efforts to demonstrate the effectiveness of these approaches (Wallerstein 1988; Shedler and Westen 1998). Our study assessed interrater reliability in a new context, specifically in terms of ratings of psychoanalytic process from audiotapes and transcripts. The study also examined change, as reflected in these instruments applied to three psychoanalyses.