RELATIONSHIP PATTERNS AS PREDICTORS IN IN PATIENT PSYCHOTHERAPY

Interpersonal patterns are of major importance in psychotherapy and th ere is a need for valid instruments to measure relational styles. A sa mple of 15 female psychotherapy in-patients was divided in two groups with a rather good and a rather poor outcome (according to global rati ngs and selfadministered questionnaires). These were then studied for predictive interpersonal patterns and changes in these patterns after therapy. Relationship-Anecdote-Paradigm (RAP)-Interviews were carried through in the first and the last week of a three to four month stay. In these interviews patients tell a number of spontaneously remembered recent or past stories of interactions with significant others. Patie nts with poor outcome showed comparable more negative interactions bef ore therapy. Negative reactions of self (especially feeling helpless a nd anxious) have more predictive power than other pretherapy variables like severity of symptoms and structural level of personality. Freque ncies of single categories reveal, that furthermore some patients expr essed strong wishes for distance before therapy and end with a feeling of distance and a poor outcome. Also accepting reactions of others be fore therapy are much more frequent in the group with good outcome. On the other hand relationship episodes show no significant decrease in the number of negative reactions of self and others after therapy in b oth groups.