Research and Psychotherapy

Reviews / Votes

Among this book's many contributions, two are particularly stellar. First, the book provides a treatment manual that conveys what the therapist ought to do, say, and assess and how to watch, listen, and formulate what transpires in the session. In the therapy business, treatment manuals are not that novel these days. However, a manual for psychodynamic therapy that contains concrete assessment guidelines and explicit directives on how to use the information during ongoing treatment is quite special. The manual presents principles to guide the therapist in concrete ways and describes processes and therapist-patient exchanges that make the treatment replicable for research or practice. Second, the book elaborates four methods that Luborsky has developed toidentify core conflicts, the context in which symptoms appear, pretreatment health and sickness, and therapeutic alliance (core conflictual relationship theme, symptom-context method, Health-Sickness Rating Scale, and helpingalliance methods, respectively). Finally and perhaps foremost, the book provides a model of integrating research and practice? namely, developing and using validated measures of key constructs, obtaining data that are pertinent to individual patients, and tracking progress by using -- Alan E. Kazdin Ph.D., Yale University * PsycCRITIQUES * This book brings together the clinical work and the sophisticated and influential research conducted by Dr. Luborsky and his numerous colleagues in the last 30 years. Research and Psychotherapy is an important contribution to the literature and will be of great help for psychotherapists interested in learning more about the practice and the research conducted with supportive-expressive (SE) therapy. -- Jacques P. Barber, Ph.D., Center for Psychotherapy Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Lester and Ellen Luborsky have given the field of psychoanalysis (and the larger community of psychotherapy) a gem with their book Research and Psychotherapy: The Vital Link. As a psychodynamically-oriented clinical and personality researcher and as a practicing psychoanalytic clinician, I am delighted that this book has been published. Not only does it describe how clinical psychotherapy research can be done, but it also shows how practicing clinicians can apply the findings of research immediately and directly to their clinical work. Although the book focuses on the research and practice of Supportive-Expressive (SE) Psychotherapy, which is the form of psychoanalytic psychotherapy that Lester Luborsky developed, I thought that the book applies equallywell to any form of psychoanalytic treatment. It is now more than hackneyed to write as a reviewer of a book that it will benefit both junior and senior colleagues, and most of the time when the reviewer writes such a statement, the book actually benefits only the junior colleagues, but this book is the real deal. It will benefit all colleagues. It will benefit junior colleagues who are starting out as researchers and/or clinicians and will benefit senior colleagues, because it will inform both groups a -- William H. Gottdiener, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York * Psychologist-Psychoanalyst: Division 39 Newsletter * This book is well worth reading. -- John C. Markowitz, M.D. * The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease * Concise presentations of the fundamental contributions of a most distinguished psychotherapy investigator. A wonderful text for introducing principles and methods in psychotherapy research. -- Sidney J. Blatt, Ph.D, author, Experiences of Depression: Theoretical, Clinical and Research Perspectives; co-editor, Theory and Treatment of Depressio Among this book's many contributions, two are particularly stellar. First, the book provides a treatment manual that conveys what the therapist ought to do, say, and assess and how to watch, listen, and formulate what transpires in the session. In the therapy business, treatment manuals are not that novel these days. However, a manual for psychodynamic therapy that contains concrete assessment guidelines and explicit directives on how to use the information during ongoing treatment is quite special. The manual presents principles to guide the therapist in concrete ways and describes processes and therapist-patient exchanges that
make the treatment replicable for research or practice. Second, the book elaborates four methods that Luborsky has developed to identify core conflicts, the context in which symptoms appear, pretreatment health and sickness, and therapeutic alliance (core
conflictual relationship theme, symptom-context method, Health-Sickness Rating Scale, and helpingalliance methods, respectively).
Finally and perhaps foremost, the book provides a model of integrating research and practice- namely, developing and using validated measures of key constructs, obtaining data that are pertinent to individual patients, and tracking progress by using
this information to improve the quality of clinical care. This is what clinicians ought to be doing in clinical work, no matter what therapy they are using.
Indeed, at a higher level of abstraction than SEP, Luborsky and Luborsky propose use of scientific thinking and methods (e.g.,
observation, hypotheses, assessment, and evaluation) to help patients. Accordingly, this book is one of the few constructive efforts to bridge research and practice with concrete and research-based guidelines. Luborsky and Luborsky point the way to bridge
research and practice with a traditional form of therapy that looks systematically at patient problems, clinical care, and therapeutic progress.
This book was published the same year Lester Luborsky turned 86, which further in -- Alan E. Kazdin Ph.D., Yale University * PsycCRITIQUES * Lester and Ellen Luborsky have given the field of psychoanalysis (and the larger community of psychotherapy) a gem with their book Research and Psychotherapy: The Vital Link. As a psychodynamically-oriented clinical and personality researcher and as a practicing psychoanalytic clinician, I am delighted that this book has been published. Not only does it describe how clinical psychotherapy research can be done, but it also shows how practicing clinicians can apply the findings of research immediately and directly to their clinical work.
Although the book focuses on the research and practice of Supportive-Expressive (SE) Psychotherapy, which is the form of psychoanalytic psychotherapy that Lester Luborsky developed, I thought that the book applies equally well to any form of psychoanalytic treatment.
It is now more than hackneyed to write as a reviewer of a book that it will benefit both junior and senior colleagues, and most of the time when the reviewer writes such a statement, the book actually benefits only the junior colleagues, but this book is the real deal. It will benefit all colleagues. It will benefit junior colleagues who are starting out as researchers and/or clinicians and will benefit senior colleagues, because it will inform both groups about the research behind SE and how to practice it. The book also will benefit senior psychotherapists (including psychoanalysts) by providing a corrective to those psychotherapists who claim that there is no effectual way to apply psychotherapy research to clinical practice. Finally, for those who want to learn how to conduct single-case research in the context of their private practices or who want to simply publish better clinical case reports, this book will prove highly instructive.
Reading this book gave me one of those rare opportunities in my professional life to read a book and actually agree with the authors, while at the same time learning a tremendous amount. Even though I have long been familiar with this body of research, this book tied it al -- William H. Gottdiener, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York * Psychologist-Psychoanalyst: Division 39 Newsletter *