ABSTRACT
One series of investigations deals with what may be regarded as the formal qualifications of the therapist. Many words have been written and many assumptions made about the desirability of some form of personal therapy for the therapist himself. Psychoanalytically oriented therapists tended more than others to hold to the view that personal analysis is necessary to prevent therapists from working out their maladjustment on patients. A more direct test was made of the relationship between improvement in the patient as rated by the therapist and personal analysis of the therapist. A well-designed study would require therapists of clearly differentiated experience levels and would take length of experience, number of cases, and type of experience into consideration. Patients were seen in groups rather than individually, and experienced therapists were introduced as controls. The therapists were forty female and twenty male aides who were randomly selected from the hospital staff.
