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These four authors conducted a survey study of analysts rating their own personal analytic experiences as patients. The research was designed to identify: 1) the specific behaviours and qualities of psychoanalysts that are deemed most helpful or even hurtful by analysands; 2) the relationships between those analyst characteristics and overall change during treatment; and 3) which analysts’ behaviours and qualities are predictive of overall patient change in treatment. They collected results from 75 analysts in New York (William Alanson White Institute) and Oslo, Norway (a response rate of 12.5% from the pool of 600 questionnaires sent out). They used two questionnaires that examined analysts’ behaviours and interventions as well as changes that occurred in the analysands from their analyses. The average length of the analytic treatment was 5.29 years. The authors report that psychological improvements did occur and that there was a preference for active interventions by the analyst within the context of a supporting relationship. Within the respondent group, there was a self assessment that 40% had a depressive character style, which by far was the highest chosen (obsessive-compulsive style was next at 14%).
The authors provide an illuminating overview of prior research on psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. They note that interpretations, which we recognize as an essential tool of analytic work, are ‘not related to positive outcome’. Further, they cite evidence that increased use of transference interpretations is associated with poorer outcomes. Another recent survey of psychoanalysts found that 28% of the sample was dissatisfied with their personal analysis, a result that is quite high given the intensity, focus and commitment required to become an analyst. The authors speculate that a more accurate picture of patients’ attitudes toward psychoanalysis is difficult to ascertain because the psychoanalytic literature favours the publication of largely successful treatm