Open Door Review

;*(%)&B7($)*!()!(#0!"#$%&!'&$($)*!

The second edition of the Open Door Review published in 2002 review has been a considerable success. That document was produced by a collaborative effort of the Research Committee of the International Psychoanalytic Association (main editor: Peter Fonagy). It covered many of the studies of the outcome of psychoanalytic treatment carried out in Europe and North America over the past decades. The document was intended as a resource to those who wish to further their knowledge of the area. It did not pretend to be much more than a collection of abstracts of work carried out by psychoanalytic researchers. It did not, for example, claim to provide a coherent integrated narrative of outcome research nor does it intend to offer conclusions concerning the efficacy of psychoanalysis as a form of treatment for mental disorder. Since then many years have passed without providing an update. Now the Research Committee of the IPA headed now by Mark Solms has commissioned a third edition and invited us to take care of this task. Inspired by the success of the previous versions, we have shouldered this task. Our policy was guided by the idea that the main addressees are the clinicians of psychoanalysis that should be encouraged to sift through the growing bulk of outcome and process studies that have been performed during the last decade. Although the focus of the Open Door Review remains on process and outcome research in psychoanalysis, we would like to pronounce that contemporary psychoanalysis research can not be restricted to these two domains. As Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber discusses in her introductory chapter: In the hundred years of psychoanalysis not only a plurality of theories has been developed but also a plurality of research procedures, which is an indicator for any mature scientific discipline. Dominique Scarfone elaborates this point of view in his introductory chapter on conceptual research in psychoanalysis referring to the French tradition in psychoanalysis. Ricardo Bernardi summarizes some of the research traditions in South America illustrating that we also have a plurality of different research cultures within the IPA. These contributions are gathered in part 1. In part 2 Peter Fonagy provides an excellent overview of methodological and epistemological challenges in process and outcome research. Part 3 presents under a variety of sub-headings psychoanalytic research projects by authors who have followed our invitation. It is obvious, especially the genre of sophisticated outcome studies has become more powerful in its scope and clinicial relevance. Research reports have appeared in prestigious peer-reviewed psychiatric and psychological journals, and advances in measurement and statistical technology have been made. There is no doubt that psychoanalytic research is – due to its specific research subject, unconscious fantasies and processes – more complex and challenging compared to other schools of psychotherapy. It is nevertheless a surprising fact that whenever the effectiveness of the method is fairly and appropriately assessed, it yields effect sizes comparable with other therapeutic approaches. No doubt, the Mental Health institutions in many countries demand to meet the challenge of costs and increasingly undertake cost- benefit and cost effectiveness analyses. If you look at the sections of the third edition, we hope you will agree with us that a new edition was the only way to go. Considerable progress has been made over the years, and we felt this should be reflected in the review. We decided to summarized outcome and process studies which had been published after 2000 (for earlier studies: see Second Edition). We also include some few examples of systematic clinical research, conceptual research, some clinical case studies and some studies from the growing field of neuropsychoanalysis (part 3,e.f,g.h). We decided not to include the large field of psychoanalytical studies in developmental and prevention research.

8666

.01230/1.40/5&&'67894/0/571.8/5&&/6648./1.40&

Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator