Relationship, resistance and insight as depicted in measures concerning form and content of speech - a textual analysis of the course of a female in-patient with eating disorder

Objectives: This multi-methodical single case study examines how relationsh ip, resistance and insight, the important therapeutic factors, are conveyed in a therapeutic process. Methods: For depicting interaction the textual parameters - direct speech, acknowledgement tokens, activity of speech and personal pronouns - of Forma l Psycholinguistic Text Analysis (Overbeck et al., 1996) are applied. The a ctivity of the unconscious theme is measured by the Interferenzindex (Argel ander, 1984). The link of emotional experiences with words is depicted by t he Computerized Referential Activity method (Mergenthaler and Bucci, 1999). The attainment of emotional insight in the Model of the Therapeutic Cycle is perceived via the Emotion-/Abstraction-Patterns (Mergenthaler, 1997). Results: Three phases are discriminated accordingly: Resistance, characteri sed by defensive intellectualization, symbolic representation on the basis of the secure relationship and emotional insight and detachment. Conclusions: The validity of the results in this single case study is guara nteed by the multi-methodical strategy.