The Relationship between Theoretical Orientation and Countertransference Expectations: Implications for Ethical Dilemmas and Risk Management.

Unlabelled: Countertransference (CT) awareness is widely considered valuable for differential diagnosis and the proactive management of ethical dilemmas. We predicted that the more practitioners' theoretical orientation (TO) emphasizes insight into the dynamics of subjective mental life, the better they will be at using their CT expectations in differential diagnosis with high-risk patients. To test this hypothesis, we compared psychodynamic therapy (PDT) practitioners who emphasize insight into subjective mental life with practitioners who do not emphasize this epistemology.

Psychotherapy clients as human phenomena.

In this article, clients of psychotherapy are viewed as human phenomena. Viewing them as such reestablishes the true subject matter of psychotherapy. The psychotherapy project includes understanding as opposed to explanation, as one of its essential components.