In response to the thoughtful comments of Navah Kaplan and Peter Dunn [TAP 44/3] on the value of assessing ego-strength in determining analyzability, I would call to their attention the two books of Robert Wallerstein and the late Stephen Appelbaum, which report on the findings of the Psychotherapy Research Project, carried out at the Menninger Clinic over a 30-year period, during its existence in Topeka, Kansas.
The two books, Forty-two Lives in Treatment, by Wallertstein (Guilford, 1986) and The Anatomy of Change, by Appelbaum (Plenum Press, 1977) document the unmatched value of the diagnostic psychological test battery, (as developed by David Rapaport, Roy Schafer, Martin Mayman, and Merton Gill) in predicting therapeutic and analytic outcome.
TAP welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be less than 350 words long. Letters will be printed as space allows and at the discretion of the editorial board.
Put simply, treatment outcome predications based solely on the diagnostic psychological tests, interpreted blind, proved more accurate forecasters of treatment outcome than other pre-treatment data, including psychiatric interviews and family history.
We hear much these days about “evidence-based treatment,” but the three-decade-long Menninger research project clearly demonstrated the unsurpassed efficacy of “evidence-based diagnosis” and the unique role of testing in formulating treatment recommendations.
Given the misguided refusal of many insurers to adequately pay for such diagnostic testing, its use is fast becoming “a dying art” and its loss to our patients and our field is incalculable.
Irwin C. Rosen, Ph.D.
Topeka, Kansas