ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes to summarize some of authors’ findings collected from interviewing some women who reported on their insights on the short-term and long-term effects of pregnancy terminations due to a positive result in prenatal and genetic diagnosis (PND): in long-term psychoanalytic treatments, as well as insights gained by interviewing women and men with positive and negative findings in PND. It intends to illustrate that many closed doors have been opened towards deeper understanding of the subjective and human dimension in this field. The methodological questions of so-called extraclinical research in psychoanalysis, which entails psychoanalytic research outside of the normal clinical setting of psychoanalytic treatment, are challenging and are the subject of many interesting and controversial discussions. In several empirical studies authors have attempted to “walk this tightrope” creatively by constantly discussing and reflecting the basic scientific premises connected with an empirical approach to psychoanalytic processes and their outcome.
