Changes in Differentiation-Relatedness During Psychoanalysis

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychoanalysis
• Object Relations Theory

Background:

• Assessing object relations in psychoanalysis is crucial for understanding therapeutic change.
• The Differentiation-Relatedness Scale of Self and Object Representations (D-RS) is a coding model.
• Previous application of D-RS has primarily focused on narrative material other than psychoanalytic transcripts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the reliability of applying the D-RS coding model to psychoanalysis transcripts.
• To investigate whether levels of differentiation-relatedness improve during psychoanalysis.

Main Methods:

• Two independent raters coded psychoanalysis transcripts from the beginning and termination phases for differentiation-relatedness levels.
• The study involved 4 creative writers participating in a longitudinal psychoanalysis research project.
• Interrater agreement was assessed to establish coding reliability.

Main Results:

• Good interrater agreement was achieved, indicating reliable application of the D-RS to psychoanalysis transcripts.
• Analysands demonstrated a significant increase in global differentiation-relatedness.
• Levels improved from emergent ambivalent constancy (M = 6.2) to consolidated, constant representations of self and other (M = 7.5).

Conclusions:

• Psychoanalysis transcripts are a reliable source for assessing object relations using the D-RS.
• Psychoanalysis facilitates measurable improvements in differentiation-relatedness of self and object representations.
• These findings support the utility of the D-RS in quantifying therapeutic change in psychoanalysis.