ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the effectiveness of the treatment program at the Austen Riggs Center, but also the quality of the clinical observations and case records available in this treatment facility. A basic assumption made in our research was the importance of assessing the quality of interpersonal relationships and object representations in the study of therapeutic change. Theory and research from several different perspectives have addressed the role of early caregiving relationships in the development of representations of self and others in normal and in disrupted development. Attachment theory and research provide perhaps the clearest examples of the relationship between the quality of early interpersonal interactions and the construction of cognitive-affective schemas. A basic postulate of both attachment theory and psychoanalytic object relations theory is that the quality of the relationship with primary caregivers has an essential role in the development of these cognitive-affective schemas.
