ABSTRACT
As described above, the raw data consisted of the tapes, the verbatim transcript, and the posthour work sheets of the individual observers and of the therapist. One member of the team, designated “the coordinator,”* was assigned the task of developing a description of each therapeutic session (the “coordinator report”), utilizing the work sheets of the observers, the therapist, and the verbatim report. This description, based on the verbal communications of patient and therapist, and on the observations and inferences reported by the observers (the nonverbal elements in the transaction), plus data from the therapist’s work sheet, was thus a synthesis of all the reports. Inextricably interwoven in this synthesis were the inferences made by the coordinator himself as he worked over the verbal transcripts and work sheets. The coordinator found that it was necessary to devote at least several days to process one therapy session, as it was not possible to grasp the subtle elements in the nonverbal and verbal communications in a single reading. He found he had to allow a period of time to consciously, and to some extent preconsciously, work over the encounter between patient and therapist.
