EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE AND FACIAL BEHAVIOR DURING THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTICPROCESS AND ITS RELATION TO TREATMENT OUTCOME - A PILOT-STUDY

This study examined emotionality and affective exchange during psychot herapeutic treatments by investigating how these processes are related to each other and to treatment outcome. Facial expressions of emotion and its temporal sequence were described using the Emotional Facial A ction Coding System (EMFACS) for two videotaped brief psychoanalytic t reatments, a successful one and a therapeutic failure. Patient and the rapist affective experience were measured with the Differentielle Affe kt-Skala (DAS). High correlations were found between facial expression s of emotion and affective experience. Some correlations were the same in both dyads, but most were dyad-specific. Furthermore, aspects of f acial behavior and the interaction partner's responses were both good predictors of affective experience. interpretation of the meaning of f acial behavior and the measurement of affective experience provides in sights into the nature of the psychotherapeutic process and its relati on to success and failure. The two treatments differed in their networ k of facial behavior and affective experience, with the successful the rapist reacting complementarily and the less successful therapist resp onding reciprocally to the patient's behavior.