title: [Changes in emotional experience during the course of psychoanalytic therapy].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Does the subjective emotional experience of patients change in the course of psychoanalytic treatment?
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten patients were interviewed four times during their first two years in psychoanalytic therapy. Interviews were coded with regard to the patients' subjective emotional experience. Changes in individual emotion profiles were then tested for associations with therapy outcome using a hierarchical linear model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Better therapy outcome was associated with an increase in emotional variability and a decrease in the proportion of negative emotions. In contrast, neither the number of emotions verbalized by the patients nor the frequencies of specific emotion categories were associated with therapy outcome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Remarkable changes of emotional experience during the course of psychoanalytic treatment could be demonstrated. Particularly, a more variable emotional experience proved to be closely associated with improvement in mental health.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Psychologie, Bayerische Julius Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. leising@mail.uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leising
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rudolf
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Oberbracht
authors.forename: Tilman
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Grande
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D016014:Linear Models; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011379:Prognosis; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy