The analytic process: clinical and research definitions

Though analytic process is a core concept in psychoanalysis, no consensus definition or reliable method of assessment currently exists. This paper reviews clinical definitions of analytic process and concludes that analytic process is comprised of free association, resistance, interpretation and working through. Psychoanalytic outcome research suggests that analytic process develops in only 40 per cent of analyses. Though the presence of analytic process is highly correlated with therapeutic benefit, significant numbers of analytic patients (50 per cent) achieve good outcome despite the fact that an analytic process never developed in treatment. A review of process research on the components of analytic process suggests that a variety of measures already exist for free association, resistance, and interpretation. As in the clinical literature, working through is less well defined and studied. Although several researchers have assessed analytic process using a variety of techniques, these clinically defined component measures of analytic process have not yet been synthesised into a comprehensive scale. Such a measure of analytic process would have the benefit of being easily applied to an adequate sampling of session material and would result in a judgement about the presence and quality of analytic process. A consensus definition and the development of a reliable method to assess analytic process will be of use in clinical, educational and research settings as well as in attempts to define and quantify psychoanalytic treatment.