ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two related areas where additional research could have enormous impact: the processes and outcomes of recorded psychoanalyses. It traces the needs and goals for expanded studies of the processes and outcomes of recorded psychoanalyses. There are certain core aspects that are widely shared among psychoanalysts: the importance of understanding patients’ troubling feelings and patterns of cognition, emotion, motivation, and relationship; and the internal conflicts that underlie and sustain these troubling patterns. The chapter outlines some of the evidence that these aspects of psychoanalytic work benefit the patient. It presents a brief and inevitably incomplete review of findings by other authors that have advanced knowledge in the field, first in regard to efficacy and then processes of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. More extensive direct study of recorded psychoanalyses could lead to substantial refinements in techniques that benefit patients, more support for the value of psychoanalytic treatments, and enrichment of psychoanalytic education.
