Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 13, 2026
ALS - Motor Neuron Disease: Mechanism and Development of New Therapies
Published on: July 29, 2007
On Mechanisms of Change in Psychodynamic Therapy
Falk Leichsenring1, Christiane Steinert2,3, Paul Crits-Christoph3
1University of Giessen Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy Ludwigstr. 76 35392 Giessen Germany University of Giessen - Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy.
Background:
There is a growing body of evidence for the efficacy of psychodynamic therapy. Some representatives of other approaches, however, have repeatedly questioned its efficacy. Recently, another line of argumentation emerged, claiming that psychodynamic therapy may work, but that the mechanisms of change underlying its effects were not clear or even could not be tested empirically at all.
Objective:
The present article critically reviews these allegations.
Results:
The allegations put forward were shown to be mostly untenable. Mechanisms of change of psychodynamic therapy are testable and have been tested empirically.
Conclusions:
There is evidence for both the efficacy of psychodynamic therapy and for the assumed mechanisms of change. The repeatedly presented critique by representatives of other approaches seems to be motivated more by political than by scientific reasons. However, further research on both the outcome and process of psychodynamic therapy is required.
Related Concept Videos
01:29Psychodynamic Therapy
01:27Psychodynamic Perspectives on Personality
Psychodynamic theorists argue that unconscious...
01:50Global Climate Change
01:20Rates of Change
01:17Work Done During Volume Change
Consider a gas confined to a cylinder fitted with a movable piston at one end. If the gas expands from volume V1 to volume V2, it exerts a force on the piston, such that the piston moves by a distance dr.
The work done by the gas on the piston can be expressed as
01:22Net Change Theorem