Long-term effects of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy: A representative multiperspective follow-up study.

With competition getting fiercer on the psychotherapeutic market and public funding cutbacks the order of the day, increasing pressure is being brough t to bear on psychoanalysis to provide concrete medical evidence to substan tiate its success claims. In this follow-up study based on a representative sample of all clients completing courses of treatment with German Psychoan alytic Association (DPV) analysts between 1990 and 1993, the authors square up to the challenge of providing empirical evidence of the long-term effec t of psychoanalyses and psychoanalytic therapies. In so doing they by no me ans neglect the fundamental objections that can be leveled at such success- measurement studies: Can psychotherapy success be empirically verified at a ll! Who judges the results of psychotherapy! Are randomized, controlled out come studies ethical! The result is a study which takes a critical look at questions of method and combines qualitative psychoanalytic observations fr om the follow-up interviews with quantitative approaches, delineating its p osition on statistical design and representativeness, study design and meth odological matters, and the conduct and multi-perspective evaluation of the follow-up interviews. Selected findings on changes effected by treatment, symptom stress, therapy satisfaction and treatment costs impressively demon strate the significance of the study.