Patient Personality and Therapist Response: An Empirical Investigation (original) (raw)
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Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), 2014
Countertransference can be viewed as a source of valuable diagnostic and therapeutic information and plays a crucial role in psychotherapy process and outcome. Some empirical researches have showed that patients' specific personality characteristics tend to evoke distinct patterns of emotional response in clinicians. However, to date there have been no studies examining the impact of patients' symptomatology on the association between their personality and therapists' responses. This research aimed to (a) investigate the relationship between patients' symptom severity and clinicians' emotional responses; and (b) explore the possible mediated effect of symptom severity on the relationship between patients' personality pathology and countertransference responses. A sample of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists (N = 198) of different theoretical orientations completed the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 and the Therapist Response Questionnaire on a ...
Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy
Despite the importance of psychotherapists' subjective experiencse working with patients with mental issues, little is known about the relationship between therapists' emotional reactions and patients' personality problems. The present study is a systematic review of quantitative research on the association between patients' personality pathology and psychotherapists' emotional, cognitive and behavioural reactions in individual psychotherapy setting. A systematic database search (from January 1980 to August 2019) supplemented by manual searches of references and citations identified seven relevant studies. Significant and consistent relationships were found between therapist reactions and specific personality traits or disorders. In general, odd and eccentric patients tend to evoke feelings of distance and disconnection; emotionally dysregulated patients tend to evoke anxiety and incompetence, and anxious and withdrawn patients tend to evoke sympathy and concern. However, the relatively small sample of studies and methodological inconsistencies across studies limit firm conclusions and suggest the need for more systematic research. Findings from this review indicate that patients who share the same personality disorder or symptoms tend to evoke specific and similar cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions in their therapists. This suggests that therapists overall reactions toward patients may be source of valuable diagnostic information.
Patient personality and therapist countertransference
Current opinion in psychiatry, 2015
The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive and critical examination of the empirical literature about the relation between patient personality and therapist countertransference. The therapist's countertransference can play a crucial role in psychotherapy outcomes, especially in the treatment of personality disorders. The therapist's emotional responses to patients can accomplish the following: inform the clinician about the patient's personality, impact therapy outcome, influence patient resistance and elaboration, mediate the influence of the therapist's interventions and influence therapeutic alliance. In the last years, several studies have empirically demonstrated the presence of a specific pattern of therapist responses that are related to different patient personality disorders. Other works showed how the effects of the therapist's technique depend on the emotional context in which they are delivered and in particular countertransference exper...
Psychotherapy Research, 2019
Objective: There is a marked difference between the effects of psychotherapy for major depressive disorder (MDD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD), with treatment being less effective for the latter. Considering the importance of the therapeutic relationship in the prognosis of therapeutic results, some of these differential effects might be explained by the distinctive reactions that patients elicit in their therapists. The aim of the present research was to characterize therapists' perceptions of their emotional and physiological reactions to patients diagnosed with MDD or BPD. Method: A semi-structured interview was conducted with 43 clinical psychologists from Argentina with different theoretical orientations. These professionals treated at least one patient diagnosed with BPD and one with MDD during the previous year. Therapists' reactions were categorized through a modified consensual qualitative research analysis. Results: Our findings suggest that psychotherapists feel emotions of dysregulation with BPD patients and sensations of fatigue with MDD patients. Conclusion: The results provide some support for the idea that therapists may mirror their patients' internal experiences. Clinical or methodological significance of this article: The clinical significance is about the psychotherapist´s interoception (body reactions) in the treatment of patients with different disorders such as borderline personality disorder and major depression. The methodology is qualitative because it allows a better approach to access the perceptions and judges from therapists. Recto running head : Psychotherapy Research Verso running head : N. Putrino et al.
The Emotional Personality of Psychotherapists: A Pilot Research with Gestalt-Therapy Clinicians
Since the discovery of "countertransference", it was recognized that the therapist's personality plays an important role in determining the course of psychotherapy. However, systematic empirical works on this topic have been sparse compared to the enormous amount of theoretical literature. Therefore, in the following pilot study, the emotional profile of psychotherapists was investigated using the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS), a quantitative measure of the basic emotional foundations of human personality based on Jaak Panksepp's neuro-ethological studies. More specifically, we submitted the ANPS to a population of Gestalt therapists to ascertain if they share a characteristic emotional profile (1) and if the emotional traits of personality are related to specific intersubjective competences (2). Our results show that, compared with normal population, the personality of therapists is characterized by higher expression of PLAYFULNESS/joy, CARE/nurturance and Spiri-tuality, as well as a significant decrease in the expression of the RAGE/anger disposition. Such emotional traits, that are not influenced by the experience of training, correlate with important relational skills such as empathy, reflective functioning and interoceptive awareness. Therefore, unlearned emotional dispositions have high relevance in the development of the therapist's sensitivity to the phenomenological intersubjective field, a competence recently called "Aesthetic Relational Knowledge" in a contemporary Gestalt-approach. Our findings may have implications for training therapists and optimizing treatment outcomes.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
IntroductionTherapists’ responses to patients play a crucial role in psychotherapy and are considered a key component of the patient–clinician relationship, which promotes successful treatment outcomes. To date, no empirical research has ever investigated therapist response patterns to patients with different personality disorders from a neuroscience perspective.MethodsIn the present study, psychodynamic therapists (N = 14) were asked to complete a battery of instruments (including the Therapist Response Questionnaire) after watching three videos showing clinical interactions between a therapist and three patients with narcissistic, histrionic/borderline, and depressive personality disorders, respectively. Subsequently, participants’ high-density electroencephalography (hdEEG) was recorded as they passively viewed pictures of the patients’ faces, which were selected from the still images of the previously shown videos. Supervised machine learning (ML) was used to evaluate whether: (...
Frontiers in Psychology, 2021
Background: The aim of this manuscript is to analyze the degrees of responsibility for healing that psychotherapists attribute to a set of emotional variables of the therapist involved in the therapeutic process. Such variables, framed within the well-known common factors in psychotherapy, have been proven to be essential in making the therapeutic process effective, as has been shown by research in psychotherapy in recent decades. Materials and Methods: Based on an extensive literature review, the responses from a sample of 69 psychotherapists to a tool created ad hoc are analyzed to verify whether their attributions are in line with the results of said review. Results: The therapists have doubts about the factors responsible for psychotherapeutic effectiveness, as well as about the value of common variables, including those of an emotional nature, not valuing them above those of a specific type. They also argue against the similar effectiveness of different psychotherapeutic models. Conclusion: Discrepancies have thus been found between the conclusions reached by research on therapeutic processes and the statements made by the therapists studied, which could indicate an insufficient impact of psychotherapeutic research on clinical practice. We also propose courses of action such as establishing training programs for the acquisition and development of emotional skills for therapists that could increase the effectiveness of their interventions.