Keats famously proposed ‘negative capability’ as a key attribute of those who are original in science and literature. Bion directed the attention of psychoanalysts to some of the implications of this stance for the psychoanalytic method. Although the methods of formal outcome study have very different antecedents they also aim at the ideal of ‘research equipoise’. In relation to experience with the Tavistock Depression Study3 this paper explores how these different approaches may be comparable, and how much in conflict, in an environment where there are many pressures operating, and where both types of research are conducted for economic, social and political motives as well as to sustain. It is suggested that the explicit recognition of these issues may help both researchers and clinicians to address the important practical matters concerning the design, planning and conduct of research into outcome in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.