„Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure“ (SWAP-200)

International research on operationalization of psychoanalytical constructs has brought up several instruments which are often refused by non-psychoanalytical research because they stick too close to psychoanalytical terms. Furthermore, for all of these instruments intensive training is needed to achieve reliability, and some of them pertain only to certain parts of personality functioning. Recently, a new diagnostic instrument, the Shedler-Westen assessment procedure (SWAP-200) gained strong influence on the US American research on personality disorders. The SWAP authors claim to create a universal and empirically derived language to describe personality pathology. The Q-sort-based procedure is supposed to bridge the gap between empirical research and clinical practice, to overcome DSM-IV with its reduction to symptoms while ignoring inner psychic phenomena, as well as to build a foundation for psychoanalytic case formulation. The relevance of SWAP-200 for the German speaking region is discussed and its procedure is demonstrated by the presentation of one case. Due to positive outcomes of previous validation studies it could be reasonable to implement SWAP in Germany after further independent testing.     

BEFORE ATTACHMENT THEORY: SEPARATION RESEARCH AT THE TAVISTOCK CLINIC, 1948–1956

This article traces the formation of attachment theory to the pioneering research program of Bowlby and his colleagues at the Tavistock Clinic between 1948 and 1956. Through a discussion of the concepts and practices that informed Bowlby's program, I examine the efforts of his team to reconstruct psychoanalytic objects according to preventive objectives and operational criteria. I discuss how the exploratory techniques that Bowlby and his colleagues were developing during these years ultimately led to the establishment of a hybrid investigative framework, in which the prophylactic requirements of mental hygiene, the psychometric model of personality disturbances, the psychoanalytic theory of object relations, and a direct‐observational methodology were brought to bear on the problem of the psychological consequences of early separation experiences. I further claim that this shift in investigative practice was crucial for the succeeding theoretical developments that eventually gave rise to the statistically validated constructs of attachment theory.     

Transference focused psychotherapy: overview and update

This paper describes a specific psychoanalytic psychotherapy for patients with severe personality disorders, its technical approach and specific research projects establishing empirical evidence supporting its efficacy. This treatment derives from the findings of the Menninger Foundation Psychotherapy Research project, and applies a model of contemporary psychoanalytic object relations theory as its theoretical foundation. The paper differentiates this treatment from alternative psychoanalytic approaches, including other types of psychoanalytic psychotherapy as well as standard psychoanalysis, and from three alternative non-analytical treatments prevalent in the treatment of borderline patients, namely, dialectic behavior therapy, supportive psychotherapy based on psychoanalytic theory, and schema focused therapy. It concludes with indications and contraindications to this particular therapeutic approach derived from the clinical experience that evolved in the course of the sequence of research projects leading to the empirical establishment of its efficacy.     

Toward a tripartite vision of supervision for psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapies: alliance, transference-countertransference configuration, and real relationship

The psychoanalytic supervision relationship is examined as a tripartite phenomenon, comprised of the supervisory alliance, transference-countertransference configuration, and real relationship. While most supervisory analysts would readily acknowledge that a real (or personal) relationship element exists in analytic supervision, that facet of the supervision relationship has not routinely been incorporated into considerations of psychoanalytic supervision. In this vision of supervision, real relationship, supervisory alliance, and transference-countertransference configuration are presented as integral and complementary constructs that define psychoanalytic supervision. Each of those three components is examined briefly with regard to its beginnings, evolution, and contemporary status; each component is also considered from an empirical perspective. While we have a growing quantitative and qualitative research foundation that supports psychoanalytic practice, psychoanalytic supervision has largely been ignored as a subject and object of scientific study. Supervisory alliance, transference-countertransference configuration, and real relationship are explored as research ready variables. Some clinical hypotheses--eminently testable and worthy of investigation--are proposed with regard to each component of the model, and some ideas--albeit tentative and preliminary--about how to initiate such inquiries are offered.     

A Fundamental Polarity in Psychoanalysis: Implications for Personality Development,Psychopathology, and the Therapeutic Process

Interpersonal relatedness (attachment) and self-definition (separation) are fundamental psychological dimensions that are central to psychoanalytic thought, beginning with Freud, as well as in a wide range of nonpsychoanalytic formulations. These constructs provide a theoretical matrix that facilitates identifying continuities among personality development, variations in normal personality or character formation, concepts of psychopathology, and mechanisms of therapeutic action. The identification of these continuities enables us to consider many forms of psychopathology, not as diseases with assumed but as yet undocumented biological origins, but as distortions that derive from variations and disruptions of normal psychological development. Likewise, the identification of these continuities enables us to consider the relationship of mechanisms of therapeutic action to psychological development more generally. Validation of aspects of these formulations have been found in studies of depression and personality disorders as well as in systematic investigations of therapeutic change.     

Are psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapies effective?: A review of empirical data

There is a need for empirical outcome research in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapy. However, both the approach of empirically supported therapies (EST) and the procedures of evidence‐based medicine (EBM) have severe limitations making randomised controlled trials (RCTs) an absolute standard. After a critical discussion of this approach, the author reviews the empirical evidence for the efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy in specific psychiatric disorders. The review aims to identify for which psychiatric disorders RCTs of specific models of psychodynamic psychotherapy are available and for which they are lacking, thus providing a basis for planning further research. In addition, results of process research of psychodynamic psychotherapy are presented. As the methodology of RCTs is not appropriate for psychoanalytic therapy, effectiveness studies of psychoanalytic therapy are reviewed as well. Studies of psychodynamic psychotherapy published between 1960 and 2004 were identifed by a computerised search using Medline, PsycINFO and Current Contents. In addition, textbooks and journal articles were used. Twenty‐two RCTs were identifed of which 64% had not been included in the 1998 report by Chambless and Hollon. According to the results, for the following psychiatric disorders at least one RCT providing evidence for the efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy was identifed: depressive disorders (4 RCTs), anxiety disorders (1 RCT), post‐traumatic stress disorder (1 RCT), somatoform disorder (4 RCTs), bulimia nervosa (3 RCTs), anorexia nervosa (2 RCTs), borderline personality disorder (2 RCTs), Cluster C personality disorder (1 RCT), and substance‐related disorders (4 RCTs). According to results of process research, outcome in psychodynamic psychotherapy is related to the competent delivery of therapeutic techniques and to the development of a therapeutic alliance. With regard to psychoanalytic therapy, controlled quasi‐experimental effectiveness studies provide evidence that psychoanalytic therapy is (1) more effective than no treatment or treatment as usual, and (2) more effective than shorter forms of psychodynamic therapy. Conclusions are drawn for future research.     

From dictators to avatars: Furthering social and personality psychology through game methods

From football to the ultimatum game to chess to World of Warcraft, games have been used in social and personality psychology research for decades. Games are a unique and powerful method: They are engaging and have the potential to both manipulate and measure psychological constructs. In fact, researchers have used physical games, board games, behavioral economics games, and digital games to study a range of individual differences, interpersonal processes, and social cognitive processes. Furthermore, researchers have the opportunity to create their own games that can be targeted directly toward their topic of interest. Our review provides a primer for social and personality psychologists interested in using existing games or creating new games for their research as a method for understanding attitudes, behaviors, emotions, cognitions, and perceptions.     

EXPLICATING THE IMPLICIT: THE LOCAL LEVEL AND THE MICROPROCESS OF CHANGE IN THE ANALYTIC SITUATION

This paper proposes a method of examining the micro-events of the analytic process that borrows heavily from developmental research. The increasing importance of illuminating the microprocess of interaction to understanding the process of change in analytic treatment is emphasised. A set of constructs and terminology is proposed for the study of the moment-to-moment interactive process in psychoanalytic therapy referred to as the local level. A theory of therapeutic action based on 'local-level' process is then explicated. Its central element involves a step-by-step process of 'fitting together', which leads to changes in implicit knowing through alteration of emotional procedures.     

Personality facets and RIASEC interests: An integrated model

Research examining links between personality and interest have typically focused on links between measures of the five factor model and Holland’s RIASEC types. However, the five factor model of personality can be divided in to a larger set of narrow domain personality scales measuring facets of the ‘big five’ traits. Research in a number of fields indicates that facet scales are effective for clarifying the relationship between personality and other broad constructs, including academic achievement, job performance, stress and coping, and achievement motivation. In the present study links between personality facets and the RIASEC model were examined using property vector fitting. Obtained results are consistent with previous research suggesting that the use of facet-level personality measures can clarify relations between personality and other constructs, and provides new information linking personality facets and interests. The use of facet-level measures of personality expands the range of personality concepts that can be presented to individuals who are exploring career options.     

Personality facets and RIASEC interests: An integrated model

Research examining links between personality and interest have typically focused on links between measures of the five factor model and Holland’s RIASEC types. However, the five factor model of personality can be divided in to a larger set of narrow domain personality scales measuring facets of the ‘big five’ traits. Research in a number of fields indicates that facet scales are effective for clarifying the relationship between personality and other broad constructs, including academic achievement, job performance, stress and coping, and achievement motivation. In the present study links between personality facets and the RIASEC model were examined using property vector fitting. Obtained results are consistent with previous research suggesting that the use of facet-level personality measures can clarify relations between personality and other constructs, and provides new information linking personality facets and interests. The use of facet-level measures of personality expands the range of personality concepts that can be presented to individuals who are exploring career options.     

The primary personality factors of Hawaiian, middle adolescents

To determine whether the primary personality factors of Hawaiian, middle adolescents were the same as those Cattell postulated in 1970, for adolescents on the mainland of the United States, and in 1974 for adolescents in Germany, a personality questionnaire representing those factors completed by 694 Hawaiian, middle adolescents (M age = 15.9 yr.) was factor analyzed. Despite the analysis adhering closely to the recommendations of Cattell stated in 1973 and 1978, the eight factors derived are not the set of primary factors postulated for the other populations. Six of them do appear to be, however, primary factors within a set of seven reported in 1988 for a younger population of Hawaiian, early adolescents. In addition, these six factors also appear to be similar to the major constructs in the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Horney.     

The scientific status of unconscious processes: is Freud really dead?

At regular intervals for over half a century, critiques of Freud and psychoanalysis have emerged in the popular media and in intellectual circles, usually declaring that Freud has died some new and agonizing death, and that the enterprise he created should be buried along with him like the artifacts in the tomb of an Egyptian king. Although the critiques take many forms, a central claim has long been that unconscious processes, like other psychoanalytic constructs, lack any basis in scientific research. In recent years, however, a large body of experimental research has emerged in a number of independent literatures. This work documents the most fundamental tenet of psychoanalysis--that much of mental life is unconscious, including cognitive, affective, and motivational processes. This body of research suggests some important revisions in the psychoanalytic understanding of unconscious processes, but it also points to the conclusion that, based on controlled scientific investigations alone (that is, without even considering clinical data), the repeated broadside attacks on psychoanalysis are no longer tenable.     

Validity of the M Test: Simulation-Design and Natural-Group Approaches

This article attempts to demonstrate the value of using a psychoanalytic theory of personality for psychological testing. This approach has more clinical utility than a solely research-based one. It recasts test data into conceptually related constructs that have internal consistency to each other and are directly relevant to psychotherapeutic treatment. Such theoretical recasting serves an organizing function, an integrative function, a clarification function, and a predictive function for the clinical inference process. Furthermore, a psychoanalytically oriented approach to testing allows for the expansion in sources of data that one considers in the testing situation. Five different sources of data emerge from the testing situation once one refocuses on theoretical constructs rather than test signs. These include test scores, test content, the patient-examiner interaction, patient behavior, and examiner countertransference.     

Where's the beef? Putting personality back into personality assessment

This article attempts to demonstrate the value of using a psychoanalytic theory of personality for psychological testing. This approach has more clinical utility than a solely research-based one. It recasts test data into conceptually related constructs that have internal consistency to each other and are directly relevant to psychotherapeutic treatment. Such theoretical recasting serves an organizing function, an integrative function, a clarification function, and a predictive function for the clinical inference process. Furthermore, a psychoanalytically oriented approach to testing allows for the expansion in sources of data that one considers in the testing situation. Five different sources of data emerge from the testing situation once one refocuses on theoretical constructs rather than test signs. These include test scores, test content, the patient-examiner interaction, patient behavior, and examiner countertransference.     

‘The essay method’ a qualitative method for studying therapeutic dialogues

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a qualitative research method for analysing therapeutic dialogues called ‘the essay method’. A central part of the method uses the format of the literary essay as a model. The method consists of a close monitoring of clinical material guided by an overall psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theoretical frame. It combines both clinical details and global patterns of clinical material and is especially fitted for studying relational qualities of psychotherapeutic dialogues. In this paper, the background for qualitative analysis in studying psychoanalytic material is discussed, and the procedures for using the method are demonstrated. A study of therapeutic competence in a group of student therapists is used as an example of the method in practice, demonstrating that the essay method may have potential for revising theory and establishing new concepts based on empirical findings. The essay method is compared with other qualitative methods, and it is argued that it is suitable for psychoanalytic research.     

Personality and psychopathology: working toward the bigger picture

There are systematic and meaningful links among normal and abnormal personality traits and Axis I and II constructs from the DSM. Nevertheless, much research in this area focuses on pairs of constructs (e.g., the link between personality traits and a specific Axis I disorder), rather than on the broader multivariate structure of the personality-psychopathology domain. We underscore the need for this broader perspective, a perspective that would transcend largely artificial boundaries between current constructs (e.g., normal and abnormal personality). We outline our approach to research from this perspective and we emphasize the internalizing (mood and anxiety) and externalizing (substance use and antisocial behavior) spectra as promising foci for initial research on the joint structure of personality and psychopathology.     

Assessing personality in the DSM-5: the utility of bipolar constructs

All previous editions of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have described and assessed personality solely in terms of pathological categories. Nonetheless, there is compelling evidence that normal-range personality traits also provide clinically useful information, emphasizing the importance of thoroughly assessing both adaptive and maladaptive aspects of personality within a clinical context. The proposed inclusion of a dimensional trait model in the upcoming DSM-5 represents an important shift in the understanding of personality pathology and provides an ideal opportunity to integrate the assessment of normal personality into clinical practice. Building on research conceptualizing personality disorders as maladaptive, extreme variants of general personality traits, it is proposed that both normal and abnormal personality can be assessed within the same dimensional model using bipolar constructs. The inclusion of bipolar traits, such as a continuum ranging from introversion to extraversion, would hold numerous advantages for a dimensional model. These benefits include a strong foundation of existing validity research, comprehensive coverage of personality pathology, and the ability to provide useful information about all individuals. Despite potential complexities, the adoption of bipolar constructs within DSM-5's dimensional model presents the greatest opportunity to maximize efficiency, validity, and clinical utility.     

Conflict in psychoanalysis and in life

Abstract

Unconscious conflicts are at the center of Freudian psychoanalytic inquiry, in the psychoanalytic situation as well as in the theory of personality and pathogenesis. The core dynamic formulation, intrapsychic conflict resulting in new psychic formation, is addressed in the paper in the following steps.

First, the development of the concept of conflict throughout the history of Freudian psychoanalysis is reviewed. Next, the analytic and synthetic aspects of conflict theory are explored and the role of conflict in the development of personality organization and pathogenesis is clarified. Then, the contemporary extensions and elaborations of structural theory are presented.

To illustrate analysis focused on conflict, clinical material covering the phases of psychoanalytic process is highlighted. From the beginning stage of analyzing the patient's initial diffuse state of indifference and “weirdness”, analysis proceeds to address primary and secondary symptoms of impotence and exhibitionism and underlying passive-phallic personality organization with conflict around aggression. This leads to the patient's sense of mastery over previously enslaving and “immobilizing” internal turmoil.     

Exploring Personality with the Interpersonal Circumplex

The interpersonal circumplex can serve as both companion and guide for those interested in exploring the interpersonal domain of personality. This article offers a relatively nontechnical overview of the model and its various applications in the study of personality. I begin by defining the interpersonal circumplex, its structure and in what sense it is 'interpersonal'. As part of that, I will briefly consider how circumplex measures of personality, such as the Interpersonal Adjective Scales, are typically evaluated for fit to the model. I will next describe applications of the model for exploring both the idiographic (person-centered) and nomothetic (variable-centered) realms of personality. In person-centered research, the circumplex leads to useful ways of summarizing the basic interpersonal features of a given individual. In variable-centered research, the circumplex can help elucidate the essential interpersonal meaning of personality constructs such as traits, problems, and motives. To explain how the circumplex can help us explore personality – idiographically and nomothetically – I will draw on a variety of studies, including several recent studies that extend the model in new ways.     

The shaping of personality: genes, environments, and chance encounters

I started my career as a clinical psychologist with an interest in personality assessment. But a loss of faith in psychoanalytic theory, projective tests, and clinical case studies in general led to a shift in my interests to personality research. Subsequent jobs at research institutes and universities allowed me to indulge in science. I developed the trait-state concept and its application in tests for affect measurement. For 10 years I did experimental research in the field of sensory deprivation. The sensation seeking idea and tests evolved from this work but soon expanded to many other areas. Research in the biological basis of sensation seeking started with genetic and psychophysiological research, but research conducted in other laboratories also pointed to a psychopharmacological basis for the trait. Over the last several decades, I have formulated a psychobiological model for personality. I have used factor analysis and the biosocial model to develop an "alternative-five" factorial trait structure for personality.