ACCURATE INTERPRETATIONS AND BRIEF PSYCHOTHERAPY OUTCOME

Weiss has proposed (1986) that a patient in therapy works in accord wi th a plan to disconfirm certain pathogenic beliefs and attain certain goals. Weiss's plan concept provides clinician and research investigat or with case-specific criteria for evaluating the accuracy of interpre tations, An interpretation that is judged likely to help a patient car ry out his/her plan is called ''plan compatible.'' Independent judges using the patient's history and a formulation of his/her plan were abl e to achieve high interrater reliability about the plan compatibility of interpretations in seven brief therapy cases. There was low variabi lity among ratings in six of the seven cases. In this sample, a high a nd statistically significant correlation was found between plan compat ibility of interpretations and outcome immediately after therapy, and six months later. This finding suggests the predictive power of the pl an concept, and shows that this concept may be a useful guide to the t herapist.