Amer. Journ. Psychiatry, 1948, Vol. 105, No. 3, p. 229.

A therapist's first obligation is to his patient. While treatment is still in progress the therapist cannot free himself from the emotional pressure of his therapeutic responsibilities; even after the therapeutic aim has been reached and his obligations as a physician have been discharged, he more or less continuously focuses his interest on evaluating his efforts as a therapist, and, therefore, always has difficulties to evaluate properly the therapeutic techniques he has employed.

Research in psychotherapy should not be confused with evaluation of therapeutic results. There is a true reason why it is practically impossible to learn from the usual statistical methods. Comparing the patient's behaviour symptoms before and after treatment is far different from trying to describe what actually happened during psychotherapy. To conduct an experiment in therapy, a special