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With competition getting fiercer on the psychotherapeutic market and public funding cutbacks the order of the day, increasing pressure is being brought to bear on psychoanalysis to provide evidence of concrete medical improvement. In presenting a sample of all clients who completed courses of treatment with analysts of the German Psychoanalytic Association (DPV) between 1990 and 1993, the authors of this article square up to the challenge of providing empirical evidence of the long-term effects of psychoanalyses and psychoanalytic therapies. In so doing, they by no means neglect the fundamental objections that can be leveled at such studies of success measurement, such as: Can psychotherapy success be empirically verified at all? Who judges the results of psychotherapy? Are randomized, controlled outcome studies ethical? The resulting study takes a critical look at questions of method, and combines qualitative analytic observations from follow-up interviews with quantitative approaches, delineating a position on statistical design and representativeness, and on study design and methodological matters. The findings on changes effected by treatment, patient satisfaction and treatment costs impressively demonstrate this study's significance.