Comments on: The Clinical Significance of Long-Term Psychoanalytic Treatment http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/2009/06/10/the-clinical-significance-of-long-term-psychoanalytic-treatment/ A psychoanalytic slant on the world...with support from the American Psychoanalytic Foundation Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:06:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Fredmsander http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/2009/06/10/the-clinical-significance-of-long-term-psychoanalytic-treatment/comment-page-1/#comment-43396 Fredmsander Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:26:01 +0000 http://internationalpsychoanalysis.net/?p=5975#comment-43396 While I was neither able to read the entire study nor have the sophistication of a researcher in outcome research, the sentence on p. 11 indicating that these were not controlled samples made me wonder the following. Clinically I believe that patients chosen for psychoanalytic treatment have some degree of "analyzability" and those patients deemed less optimistically are often given psychotherapy. Comparing the two treatments would in a sense be comparing patients with milder cardiovascular pathology treated with angioplasty with more serious cardiac pathology with by-pass surgery. The first group might have better outcomes suggesting angioplasty as a more successful treatment. My musings raise all sorts of questions about the equivalency of psychological diagnoses and physical diagnoses, the equivalency of the training of psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, a rather controversial subject these days. I'l stop here as the topic is too vast and complex to do it full justice. My compliments to the authors for their efforts. Fred Sander While I was neither able to read the entire study nor have the sophistication of a researcher in outcome research, the sentence on p. 11 indicating that these were not controlled samples made me wonder the following. Clinically I believe that patients chosen for psychoanalytic treatment have some degree of “analyzability” and those patients deemed less optimistically are often given psychotherapy. Comparing the two treatments would in a sense be comparing
patients with milder cardiovascular pathology treated with angioplasty with more serious
cardiac pathology with by-pass surgery. The first group might have better outcomes suggesting angioplasty as a more successful treatment.

My musings raise all sorts of questions about the equivalency of psychological diagnoses and physical diagnoses, the equivalency of the training of psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, a rather controversial subject these days. I’l stop here as the topic is too vast and complex to do it full justice. My compliments to the authors for their efforts.

Fred Sander

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