The achievement of greater selfhood: The application of theme-analysis to a case study

We studied how psychotherapeutic themes change across sessions by applying Theme-Analysis to the transcripts of the therapy sessions taken from one cl ient striving to achieve greater selfhood. Theme-Analysis is designed to in vestigate the change process by analyzing psychotherapy themes within and/o r across sessions. The three variables studied were theme, object, and phas e. Psychotherapeutic themes were defined in terms of polarities with one po le representing the problem end of a continuum and the second pole represen ting the striving-towards end of a continuum. An object was described as th e target of a client's experiences. A phase referred to a specific client e xperience/activity within the change process. This study produced four leve ls of themes with the core theme being not individuated/undifferentiated. S even themes regarding two objects were analyzed. The data indicate that the mes, when viewed across the sessions, are worked through in a progressive f orward course.