The difficulties of evaluation research in the psychoanalytical field are well known and have been discussed at some length in a previous paper (Boston, 1989). In that paper a pilot project exploring a new method for assessing the results of psychoanalytical psychotherapy with children was outlined and we should like to share our experience of carrying out this project and to consider further implications for methodology.

Evaluation research has been defined as the activity of relating results to objectives (Fonagy and Higgitt, 1989). It is not at all easy, however, to define in any simple, researchable way the objectives of psychoanalytical work. It is even more difficult to assess the achievement of complicated