Transference patterns in the psychotherapy of personality disorders: empirical investigation.
BACKGROUND
The concept of transference has broadened to a recognition that patients often express enduring relational patterns in the therapeutic relationship.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the structure of patient relational patterns in psychotherapy and their relation with DSM-IV personality disorder symptoms.


METHODS
A random sample of psychologists and psychiatrists (n=181) completed a battery of instruments on a randomly selected patient in their care.


RESULTS
Exploratory factor analysis identified five transference dimensions: angry/entitled, anxious/preoccupied, avoidant/counterdependent, secure/engaged and sexualised. These were associated in predictable ways with Axis II pathology; four mapped on to adult attachment styles. An aggregated portrait of transference patterns in narcissistic patients provided a clinically rich, empirically based description of transference processes that strongly resembled clinical theories.


CONCLUSIONS
The ways patients interact with their therapists can provide important data about their personality, attachment patterns and interpersonal functioning. These processes can be measured in clinically sophisticated and psychometrically sound ways. Such processes are relatively independent of clinicians' theoretical orientation.
Bradley
Rebekah
R
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Heim
Amy Kegley
AK
Westen
Drew
D
D000328:Adult; D015982:Bias; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014167:Transference, Psychology