Psychoanalysis and qualitative psychotherapy research-some epistemological remarks

The author discusses the extent to which psychoanalytic treatments can be tested by qualitative research strategies. He shows that these strategies operate without an adequate and epistemological, i.e., theoretically justified, methodology and that the specificity of psychoanalytic treatments in this kind of research has so far eluded us. The author suggests that the course of the treatments should be systematized relative to their outcomes within the theory of psychoanalytic treatment. Provided that the treatment theory is conceptually based on "consensual common ground" (Wallerstein, 1998, p. 1041), such studies allow us to conclude that psychoanalytic treatments will be successful if the sequences that are generalized in the treatment theory are actually realized in treatments that recognize the patients' unique requirements.