Measuring Changes in the Quality of Object Representations during Psychoanalytic Treatment

A Pilot Study in The Netherlands

Authors

  • Jos Dirkx
  • Jolien Zevalkink

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30820/1664-9583-2023-2-29

Keywords:

Object representations, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, structural change

Abstract

In this pilot study, we followed 22 patients during their psychoanalytic psychotherapy to monitor changes in the quality of their object representations (father, mother, partner/best friend, self) and level of psychopathology (OQ-45). The Differentiation-Relatedness Scale (DR-S) was used in two semi-structured interviews: Object Relation Inventory (ORI) and two questions of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Results showed that the DR-S ratings are comparable in both interviews for father and mother, with significant changes during therapy for father using the ORI and mother using the AAI. The level of psychopathology also changed significantly during treatment. Despite some shortcomings, the DR-S in combination with the ORI and AAI-questions seems a useful instrument for clinicians to monitor structural change in personality functioning during psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Author Biographies

Jos Dirkx

Jos Dirkx, MD, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, psychotherapist in private practice. He is a training and supervising psychoanalyst in the Dutch Psychoanalytical Society (NPaV). For the present research, he is affiliated PhD student at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is chief editor of the Tijdschrift voor Psychoanalyse en haar toepassingen. He used to work at the Netherlands Psychoanalytic Institute (NPI) in Utrecht where the research was conducted. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0604-5173

Jolien Zevalkink

Jolien Zevalkink, PhD, is senior lecturer at the Department of Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is a developmental psychologist and social anthropologist. While working at NPI, she developed a routine outcome monitoring system that aims to follow the progress of patients before and during psychoanalytic treatment. She is the author of several papers in the field of developmental psychology and psychotherapy research. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8625-4604
029-035 31238

Downloads

How to Cite

Dirkx, J., & Zevalkink, J. (2023). Measuring Changes in the Quality of Object Representations during Psychoanalytic Treatment: A Pilot Study in The Netherlands. Psychotherapie-Wissenschaft, 13(2), 29–35. https://doi.org/10.30820/1664-9583-2023-2-29

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2023): Paradigmenwechsel in der Psychotherapieforschung

Section

Special Issue

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.

This journal provides open access to its content in accordance with the basic premise that the free public availability of research benefits the exchange of knowledge throughout the world.

Authors wishing to publish in this journal agree to the following:

  1. The author/s retain/s the copyrights and consent/s to initial publication of the work in the journal under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, which allows third parties to use the work by citing the name/s of the author/s and this journal as initial publisher (in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 DE-Licence).
  1. The author/s can enter into additional contracts for the non-exclusive distribution (e.g. publish in a collection or book) of the version published in the journal, if the journal is cited as initial publisher.