PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH-SICKNESS (PHS) AS A PREDICTOR OF OUTCOMES IN DYNAMIC AND OTHER PSYCHOTHERAPIES

This is the first dedicated review of quantitative studies on Sigmund Freud's proposition that the poorer the psychological health, the more limited are the benefits from treatment. Since observer-rated scales for psychological health-sickness were developed in 1949, many studies have applied them, and the majority show significant prediction of ou tcomes of psychotherapy, with correlations between .2 and .35. This ar ticle reviews (a) the main methods of measurement, (b) the record of p redictive success, (c) validity studies, (d) the relation to psychiatr ic diagnosis, (e) prediction in forms of treatment other than psychoth erapy, and (e) theories of why psychological health predicts outcomes of psychotherapy.