[Changes in the Level of Conflict through Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: The Perspective of Adolescent Patients and their Therapists].

Changes in the level of structure and conflict are, in addition to alleviating of symptoms, central goals of psychodynamic therapies. This study examines this question with a focus on intrapsychic development-impairing conflicts in the sense of the OPD-CA on a sample of 121 adolescents and their 46 therapists. At the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the M = 73.27 hours (SD = 17.40) therapy, they assessed the level of conflict and structure from the patients' and the therapists' perspectives. The results show large effect sizes with regard to the reduction of the overall conflict level from the point of view of the therapists (η2 = .33). While the therapists reported higher initial values in almost all intrapsychic conflicts and significant linear decreases over time, the therapy tended to sensitize the patients to the existence of an intrapsychic development-impairing conflict. With regard to the structural level, which was already quite good at the start of treatment, there were no significant changes over time. However, the overall structural level and the conflict scales contributed to the explanation of the variance in the severity of symptoms at the end of therapy.