ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic therapy is a long-term therapy which makes use of an articulated interpersonal relation as a therapeutic tool. At the same time, it assumes that the patient’s problems too arise and assume a specific shape within an interpersonal relation. In relation to the large number of psychotherapy surveys that exist, relatively few studies have been directed towards capturing the specific changes which psychoanalytic theory aims towards. With regard to validating psychoanalytic treatment, it is decisive that the methods, which are used are sensitive to the specifically psychoanalytic data. Psychoanalytic therapy must, like other forms of therapy, demonstrate its legitimacy. The questions which attach to psychoanalysis's validity as a method of treatment are complex both conceptually, in terms of general theory and methodologically, and they form the basis for an already extensive research literature. The fact that the therapeutic changes are of an individual-specific, relational kind implies that they are only quantifiable to a small extent.
