[Structural analysis of social behavior in training and research. A contribution to the "functional histology" of the psychotherapy process]

To be able to identify qualitative differences in the results of psychotherapeutic activity and to establish a relationship between those results and the particularities of the treatment process involved, the problems of the patient, the relevant events during therapy, and therapeutic results must be interrelatable both terminologically and theoretically (P-T-O congruence; Strupp et al., 1989). If, therefore, the relevant qualities of the relationships involved in interpersonal transactions during the therapeutic process are to be represented adequately and independently of schools, an appropriate instrument is required for both clinical and research use. This instrument is introduced here in the form of the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) after Lorna Smith Benjamin by means of the key question: Who acts how toward whom and how does the latter react to this?