Saying the right thing at the right time: a view through the lens of the analytic process scales (APS).

Skillful psychoanalytic technique presumably involves knowing what to say, and when and how to say it. Does skillful technique have a positive impact upon the patient? The study described in this article relied on ratings by experienced psychoanalysts using the Analytic Process Scales (APS), a research instrument for assessing recorded psychoanalyses, in order to examine analytic interventions and patient productivity (greater understanding, affective engagement in the analytic process, and so on). In three analytic cases, the authors found significant correlations between core analytic activities (e.

What happens in a psychoanalysis? A view through the lens of the analytic process scales (APS).

A group of experienced analysts has developed scales and a coding manual illustrated with clinical examples to evaluate recorded analyses and psychodynamic therapies. The analytic process scales (APS) assesses three dimensions: (1) the contribution of the analyst: helping to develop a relationship in which the analyst can provide clarification and interpretation of transference and resistance; (2) the contribution of the patient: the communication of experience and the expression of feeling in ways which provide information about needs, wishes and conflicts, accompanied by self-reflection; and (3) interactional characteristics of the emerging relationship, explored by studying sessions divided into psychoanalytically coherent segments. A preliminary study of nine sessions has established that the variables assessed by the APS can be rated reliably.