ABSTRACT
The formation of the Project Committee on Clinical Observation and Testing and the development of the three-level model for observing patient transformations represent a further important step in realising the aim of improving the observation, conceptualisation, and communication of clinical psychoanalytic data. A specific focus of this project’s group work is the detailed study of therapeutic change, that is, the transformation processes of patients in psychoanalytic treatment. A clinical observation group will typically work with two complete analytic sessions: an early stage and a later stage of the treatment. Four advantages of this working method should be emphasised, discussed under the following headings: opening the analytic room; dialogue material; a culture of argumentation; therapeutic change. Cognitive therapy models aim at correcting negative ways of thinking, psychoanalytic treatment aims at greater tolerance and integration of affective self-states. By demonstrating that containment of dysphoric affect is adaptive, the case report elucidates a specific contribution of psychoanalysis to the treatment of depression.
