Towards text mining therapeutic change: A systematic review of text-based methods for Therapeutic Change Process Research

Therapeutic Change Process Research (TCPR) connects within-therapeutic change processes to outcomes. The labour intensity of qualitative methods limit their use to small scale studies. Automated text-analyses (e.g. text mining) provide means for analysing large scale text patterns. We aimed to provide an overview of the frequently used qualitative text-based TCPR methods and assess the extent to which these methods are reliable and valid, and have potential for automation. We systematically reviewed PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify articles concerning change processes and text or language. We evaluated the reliability and validity based on replicability, the availability of code books, training data and inter-rater reliability, and evaluated the potential for automation based on the example- and rule-based approach. From 318 articles we identified four often used methods: Innovative Moments Coding Scheme, the Narrative Process Coding Scheme, Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale, and Conversation Analysis. The reliability and validity of the first three is sufficient to hold promise for automation. While some text features (content, grammar) lend themselves for automation through a rule-based approach, it should be possible to automate higher order constructs (e.g. schemas) when sufficient annotated data for an example-based approach are available.

The clinical concept of analytic process: A conceptual investigation

The authors discuss the term 'analytic process', confirming the variability of the meanings ascribed to it. Although all the psychoanalysts of this and previous times acknowledge the existence of something called analytic process, as well as its importance, it has not been possible up to now to establish a consensual definition of it. The definitions are not only numberless, they also contradict one another. The possible advantages to analytic theory and practice proceeding from a uniform concept are incontrovertible. A review of the subject in the psychoanalytic literature has been performed. A conceptual study concerning the term, carried out among members of a psychoanalytic society affiliated to the IPA is presented, no consensual conceptualization for the term analytic process having been found. The subjects referred to the term as deriving from a variety of elements, some in common, but there was no agreement regarding the elements themselves. There was consensus regarding the role of the analytical relationship in the process, considered fundamental, as well as that of the extent to which the individual life experiences in that relationship de?ne the unique character acquired by the process within it.

Thinking about Psychoanalytic Curricula: an Epistemological Perspective

The author discusses the role that curriculum development can play in preparing psychoanalytic candidates to understand the challenges created by theoretical pluralism in our field and by the growth of knowledge in neighboring disciplines. Curriculum design can be used to encourage the development of epistemological perspectives that can serve as organizing frameworks to help candidates think critically about psychoanalytic knowledge. It is possible to teach these complex matters in a way that students find accessible and useful. The author presents exemplars taken from the curriculum at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research in New York.

Treatment notes: objective measures of language style point to clinical insights

Application of a computerized text analysis procedure is proposed that has the potential for use by psychoanalytic and psychodynamic clinicians: the systematic examination of linguistic style as reflected by clinicians in their ongoing process and case notes, which are ubiquitous in the mental health field. The studies reported here are, as far as is known, the first attempts to study treatment notes systematically using such procedures. Linguistic measures are used to track the trajectory of the clinical process throughout the treatment in two contrasting cases, one rated successful, the other not. The computerized linguistic analysis used here focuses on two analytically relevant linguistic variables: Mean High Referential Activity (MHW), a measure of the degree to which language is connected to emotional processing, and Reflection (REF), the use of words referring to logical functions. Changes in the relative position of these measures indicate nodal points in the treatment that might be analytically or therapeutically problematic, and that might be overlooked in a solely clinical reading. The analyst's activity as reported in notes during such nodal periods is clinically examined to see how it may have affected the course of the analysis. This method has the potential for use in ongoing treatments, and may help clinicians refine their interventions.

Factors Affecting Change in Private Psychotherapy Patients of Senior Psychoanalysts: An Effectiveness Study

Each of 51 experienced psychiatrist/psychoanalysts was queried about the clinical characteristics of every private psychotherapy patient presently in treatment: 551 patients were included in the study; 88% of patients had an Axis I disorder, 59% had Axis I and Axis II disorders concurrently, and 11% Axis II only. Of these patients, 44% had been prescribed psychotropic medication on a daily basis for at least 2 weeks during the present treatment. Patients treated for the longest time (5 years or more) were the most seriously psychiatrically disturbed. Patients improved with psychotherapy, and the improvement was related to the duration of treatment. The combined impact of diagnosis status, treatment duration, and treatment modalities provided a consistent pattern of treatment effectiveness.

Sobre as bases dos procedimentos investigativos em psicanálise

O presente trabalho examina as bases da pesquisa psicanalítica. Parte das marcas deixadas nas investigações psicanalíticas pelos procedimentos científicos de disciplinas como a neurologia e a neurofisiologia no século XIX. Em seguida, acompanha o surgimento de um novo objeto, o sujeito do inconsciente, o qual, ainda que requeira operações que mantenham o rigor e a precisão característicos do pensamento científico, implica formas de investigação mais apropriadas ao campo recém-constituído. Por fim, conclui que, ao contrário de emular os procedimentos das ciências naturais, a pesquisa em psicanálise tem de reconhecer a especificidade de seu objeto, pois este só se deixa circunscrever em análise, na qual analista e analisante estão implicados nas próprias produções inconscientes sob investigação. Essa é a particularidade da nova forma de saber que marca de modo indelével o pensamento do século XX em diante.