The “Grawe effect”: from polemic to catalysis of positive evolvements in the field of psychotherapy

Abstract

The impact offindings gained in empirical psy-choanalytic research and outcome studies on the psycho-therapeutic treatment is reported. The importance of the empirical psychoanalytic research for the treatment of pa-tients with personality disorders is shown in different natu-ralistic efficacy studies. Interpretation of the dominating affect and of the transference-relationship-dyad could be confirmed as essential for the treatment progress. The empirical studies point at the necessity of interpreting affect-regulatory parameters, such as the hostile-externalizing-dysphoric parameter, from the very beginning of the treatment on. Acknowledgement and recognition of externaliz-ing and projective mechanisms should be trained in the psychotherapeutic routine treatment in order to establish a stable working alliance with the patient. The assessment of counter-transference as an additional parameter for evaluation of psychoanalytic process is focused and a model for evaluation (“notation") of psychotherapeutic treatments is reported.

Keywords Empirical psychoanalytic research, personality disorders, psychotherapeutic practice, treatment technique, notation and evaluation.