@article{ref1,
title="Changes in self-representations following psychoanalytic psychotherapy for young adults: a comparative typology",
journal="Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association",
year="2016",
author="Werbart, Andrzej and Brusell, Lars and Iggedal, Rebecka and Lavfors, Kristin and Widholm, Alexander",
volume="64",
number="5",
pages="917-958",
abstract="Changes in dynamic psychological structures are often a treatment goal in psychotherapy. The present study aimed at creating a typology of self-representations among young women and men in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, to study longitudinal changes in self-representations, and to compare self-representations in the clinical sample with those of a nonclinical group. Twenty-five women and sixteen men were interviewed according to Blatt's Object Relations Inventory pretreatment, at termination, and at a 1.5-year follow-up. In the comparison group, eleven women and nine men were interviewed at baseline, 1.5 years, and three years later. Typologies of the 123 self-descriptions in the clinical group and 60 in the nonclinical group were constructed by means of ideal-type analysis for men and women separately. Clusters of self-representations could be depicted on a two-dimensional matrix with the axes Relatedness-Self-definition and Integration-Nonintegration. In most cases, the self-descriptions changed over time in terms of belonging to different ideal-type clusters. In the clinical group, there was a movement toward increased integration in self-representations, but above all toward a better balance between relatedness and self-definition. The changes continued after termination, paralleled by reduced symptoms, improved functioning, and higher developmental levels of representations. No corresponding tendency could be observed in the nonclinical group.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0003-0651",
doi="10.1177/0003065116676765",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0003065116676765"
}