Scientific progress in psychodynamic formulation.
This issue of psychiatry contains five papers describing or comparing five different methods for making a psychodynamic formulation (Luborsky and Crits-Christoph; Horowitz; Johnson et al.; Perry, Augusto, et al.; Perry, Luborsky, et al.). As Luborsky and Crits-Christoph make clear in their introduction, while the idea of the psychodynamic formulation originated with Freud, successful efforts to develop scientific methods for making a formulation are largely a phenomenon of the past decade. Indeed, since the introduction of the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme method (Luborsky 1977), around a dozen methods have been developed with the same overall aim. Let us consider why this is important.
Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Hospital, MA 02139.
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Perry
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011379:Prognosis; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D014167:Transference, Psychology