[Decisions of the physician in a psychoanalytic interview. Patient characteristics in the initial psychodiagnostic...

The focus of our investigation is the question which criteria of the first psychodiagnostic dialogue are associated with the decision of a physician to make a psychoanalytic interview. 51 patients have been investigated who had contacted the out-patient department of the Psychosomatic Hospital at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim. Patients who have been provided with a psychoanalytic interview by the therapist have been estimated as having a greater motivation for psychotherapy and they seemed more likely to consider their complaints as being psychologically caused. Younger patients have been regarded as having a greater motivation for psychotherapy than older ones and they could more likely attribute their complaints to psychologic causes, especially if they are females and belong to the middle social stratum. Furthermore, those patients who had been decided by the therapist to undergo a psychoanalytic interview more than the other group of patients showed a pattern of values which was similar to that of the therapists.