The Differential Effect of Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis with Anaclitic and Introjective Patients

The Menninger Psychotherapy Research Project Revisited

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8335704
AutoresSidney J Blatt (Yale University, autor de correspondencia), Sidney Blatt (Yale University; Faculty, Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis)
Año1992
Volumen40
Número3
Páginas691-724
Fecha de publicación1992-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/000306519204000303
PMID1401718
OpenAlexW2343913632
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas35
Referencias citadas51

Analyses of the data from the Menninger Psychotherapy Research Project (MPRP) have consistently indicated little difference in the therapeutic outcome between patients seen in psychoanalysis and those seen in psychotherapy. Reanalysis of the data from the MPRP, utilizing a distinction between two broad configurations of psychopathology (Blatt, 1974, 1990a; Blatt and Shichman, 1983), however, indicates that patients whose pathology focuses primarily on disruptions of interpersonal relatedness and who use primarily avoidant defenses (anaclitic patients), and patients whose pathology focuses primarily on issues of self-definition, autonomy, and self-worth and who use primarily counteractive defenses (introjective patients) differ in their responsiveness to psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Based on recently developed procedures for systematically evaluating the quality of object representation on the Rorschach, reanalysis of the Menninger data reveals that anaclitic patients have significantly greater positive change in psychotherapy, while introjective patients have significantly greater positive change in psychoanalysis. These statistically significant patient-by-treatment interactions are discussed in terms of their clinical implications as well as the importance of differentiating among types of patients in studies of therapeutic outcome and of therapeutic process

Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychoanalytic Therapy · Psychodynamic psychotherapy · Psychotherapist · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Psychological Testing and Assessment · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications