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When reading the psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic research literature, it is hard to ignore the sometimes contentious and even disrespectful schism between investigators primarily interested in psychoanalytic process and those primarily interested in outcome. Outcome researchers lament that if process research does not include measures of outcome, we have no way of evaluating whether process is connected to therapeutic gain. Process researchers lament that outcome researchers, interested only in the study endpoint and not at all in understanding the mechanism of action of the treatments, cannot illuminate what is therapeutic about the psychoanalytic situation.
In “Therapeutic Interventions Related to Outcome in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Anxiety Disorder Patients,” Slavin-Mulford et al. report a robust association between certain techniques and therapeutic outcome in patients with anxiety disorders treated with psychodynamic psychotherapy. In this study, twenty-one patients were treated with once- or twice-weekly sessions in short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy; the mean number of sessions was twenty-four. The key features of the short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy model include “(1) Focus on affect and the expression of emotion; (2) The identification of patterns in actions, thoughts, feelings, experiences, and relationships with these patterns being explored/formulated using the core conflictual relationship theme format; (3) Emphasis on past experiences; (4) Focus on interpersonal experiences; (5) Emphasis on the therapeutic relationship/alliance; (6) Exploration of wishes, dreams, or fantasies; and (7) Exploration of attempts to avoid topics or engage in activities that may hinder the progress of therapy. In addition to these areas of treatment focus, case presentations and symptoms are conceptualized in the context of interpersonal/intrapsychic conflict.”