Leading international researchers to discuss data relevant to psychoanalytic treatment

Annual Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association

On Saturday, January 17, 2009, members of two research groups who are international leaders in the investigation of factors underlying change in psychoanalytic treatment will make presentations as part of the Winter 2009 Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) which will be held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, 301 Park Avenue in New York. More than 2,000 psychoanalysts, students, and other mental health professionals are expected to attend this annual meeting.

From 10:00 am to 12:00 noon, renowned Norwegian researchers Per Hoglend, Paul Johannson and Randi Ulberg will focus on effects of transference interpretations in dynamic psychotherapy and will examine their relationship to insight, and gender effects as follows:

• The long-term effects of transference interpretation in dynamic psychotherapy. Per Høgland M.D. Ph. D. (Oslo, Norway)
• Is the moderated long-term effect of transference interpretations mediated by an increased level of insight? Paul Johansson, Ph.D. (Oslo, Norway)
• The role of gender for short and long-term effects of transference interpretation. Randi Ulberg M.D. (Oslo, Norway)

For more information, see the article "Norwegian Study Demonstrates Effectiveness of Transference Interpretations" at http://www.apsa.org/Portals/1/docs/NEWS/Norwegian%20StudyTAPv42No3.pdf

From 1:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m., researchers Belgian researchers Patrick Luyten and Rudi Vermote and American researcher and honorary APsaA member John Auerbach will present current research on the anaclitic-introjective personality dimensions, including development of new measures, and applications in several clinical groups, including personality disorders, and pain and chronic fatigue syndromes as follows:

• The Kortenberg-Leuven process-outcome study of psychoanalytically oriented treatment for personality disorders. Rudi Vermote, Ph.D, M.D. (Leuven, Belgium)
• Differentiation and Relatedness in the Clinical Process John S. Auerbach, Ph.D. (Johnson City, TN)
• Widening the scope of research on anaclitic and introjective personality dimensions and the therapeutic process: Recent studies and future perspectives. Patrick Luyten, Ph.D. (Leuven, Belgium)

Patrick Luyten, Ph.D. will be presenting new data showing that anaclitic and introjective personality features not only predict treatment outcome in depressed and personality disordered patients, but also treatment outcome in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as well as in chronic pain in patients in a cognitive-behavioral therapy based treatment program in two new independent studies. He will be arguing based on a growing body of research is that psychodynamic formulations and research concerning personality development not only elucidate vulnerability for a wide range of psychopathology, but also increase our understanding of therapeutic change, in that there is increasing evidence that these personality dimensions predict outcome in a wide variety of psychiatric and functional somatic disorders, across different treatments, and also elucidate different processes of change during treatment. Hence, these formulations emphasize the continuity between normal and pathological development and the therapeutic process across a wide range of disorders.

In particular, they suggest that changes in mental representations of self and others, and particularly self-in-relation-to-others in the context of a therapeutic relationship, may prove to be the final common pathway along which all effective treatments produce change. Moreover, these formulations also warn against the currently very popular view, promoted by DSM and treatment manuals, that each disorder has its relatively unique etiology, and therefore also needs a relatively specific treatment, characterized by relatively unique processes of change. Hence, these formulations move away from the DSM-promoted disorder-centered approach towards a person-centered approach that is such a vital part of the psychoanalytic tradition. Perhaps these formulations might attract media attention given the fact that discussions concerning the next edition of the DSM, DSM V are currently underway, and have received much media attention. Luyten and honorary APsaA member Yale psychologist Sidney Blatt, Ph.D. have a number of papers about this issue underway, with a common theme of revitalizing the psychoanalytic approach to classification and treatment.

"Both these sets of presentations go 'beyond the psychiatric diagnosis'. Psychotherapy like all health service fields does better when they treat people, rather than just treat disorders- this is the special capability of psychodynamic or psychoanalytic treatments. And both sets provide systematic data on how to understand underlying psychological and interpersonal factors that are relevant to how to treat. These presentations focus in different ways on what the factors are that determine what works, how and for whom - what we call mediating and moderating variables -and point to the problems for mental health service delivery with the current simplistic emphasis on specific manualized treatments for specific psychiatric diagnoses, " remarked chair Wilma S. Bucci, Ph.D.

For more information regarding these sessions and other presentations open to the media during APsaA's Winter Meeting, please contact Dottie Jeffries, APsaA Public Affairs Director, at 212-752-0450, ext. 29 or via e-mail at djeffries@apsa.org.

The American Psychoanalytic Association is a professional organization of psychoanalysts throughout the United States and is comprised of approximately 3,300 members.

Visit www.apsa.org for more information.