[Clinical case observations: lessons for empirical research]

Empirical studies of psychopathology are typically conducted in the goal of uncovering general characteristics of large samples of individuals. By contrast, the case study has remained a basic paradigm for understanding the causes of psychopathology as it is actually experienced by a given patient. However, by using case studies as an example, empirical researchers are rediscovering the importance of the individual. New data collection and analytic techniques have recently been applied to this effort, and considerable progress has been made to remove previous barriers to idiographic analyses. The present article describes these new applications, and discusses how empirical research can benefit from using case studies as a model for understanding the individual in a larger sample.