ABSTRACT
During the last few years, generally agreed-upon standards have been developed for the assessment of outcome in psychotherapy research. Structural change as “the generally accepted goal of psychoanalysis” and also to some degree of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, is an explanatory construct that tries to capture the specific effects of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy relating them to the concept of psychic structure and their modifications by psychoanalytic treatment. This chapter considers the Scales of Psychological Capacities (SPC) as the measure that best complies with the standards and that has sufficiently proven its psychometric qualities. The therapist completes the Helping Alliance Questionnaire (HAQ–T) and a documentation form with psychodynamic diagnoses, main defences, level of personality organization, motivation, main psychodynamic hypotheses, treatment goals, and prognosis. Comparing the SPC with instruments that measure interpersonal functioning and personality structure can evaluate convergent validity.
