Relational turn and psychotherapy research

Abstract. Traditionally, psychoanalytic authors have been skeptical of nomothetic studies, where the uniqueness of individual cases is smoothed out to averages. Several relational psychoanalytic authors have expressed more pronounced skepticism. Irwin Hoffman, for example, has been a vigorous proponent of the idea that in relational psychoanalysis, it is particularly unfortunate and misleading to apply ideas and methods from empirical research to enhance knowledge or to assess treatment results. And yet, relational psychoanalysis has always been particularly receptive to other scientific disciplines since its beginnings, including disciplines such as evolutionary theory (Slavin & Kriegman, 1992) and sociology (Altman, 1995); and everybody knows how infant research, attachment research and, more recently, neuroscience, have been successfully integrated into relational theory and sensibility. But when empirical research and its methods have sought to encroach on the analyst's office, relational analysts have not been so receptive. This wariness has been attacked by critics (e.g., Bornstein, 2001; Masling, 2003), who have interpreted it as yet another refusal on the part of contemporary psychoanalysis to support itself (What do you mean by “support itself”? As it stands I’m not sure it adds anything to include this phrase. Perhaps you could use another word(s) to clarify whata you mean. and develop a scientific foundation based on empirical data. Stressing the compatibility between relational thinking and today’s psychotherapy research, the authors emphasize how the work of relational authors has influenced relational psychotherapy research, shifting the object of study from validation of the models of treatment to the study of the clinical variables: countertransference, empathy of therapist, self-disclosures, patient-therapist attachment relationship, ruptures and resolutions in therapeutic alliance, intersubjective negotiation. In conclusion, the aim of this paper is to facilitate the dialogue between relational psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and empirical research, showing how these two different worlds can reciprocally stimulate and enrich.