How often are relationship narratives told during psychotherapy sessions?

I should begin this chapter with a few words about Sidney Blatt, in whose honor this chapter is written. Sid and I have had a fruitful association for many years. Most of our interchanges have been about psychoanalytic theory, and it is therefore ®tting that I share with him and with all of you more about my Core Con¯ictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method (Luborsky 1977), a method that pertains to patients' own accounts of important events that they wish to discuss. It was for that reason too that Sid was one of the few analysts whom I invited to attend the award ceremony in 1999 for my American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement. In the chapter, I discuss research that derives from the CCRT method ± speci®cally, an investigation of the links between the CCRT and the narratives told during psychotherapy.