THE EMPIRICAL DIMENSIONS OF ANALYTIC PROCESS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

The aim of this study was to empirically identify the dimensions of the therapist’s, patient’s and interaction contributions to the analytic process. We performed an Exploratory Factor Analysis of patients’ contributions, therapists’ contributions and interaction dimensions, as assessed with the Analytic Process Scales (APS; Waldron et al., 2004) and Dynamic Interaction Scales (DIS; Waldron, Gazzillo et al., 2013) of 540 sessions from 27 analytic therapies. The EFA identified three dimensions of patients’ contributions (the patient reflects about her/his life and problems; the patient reflects about her/his relationship with the therapist; the patient dynamic competence); these factors explain 84.9% of the variance of patients’ contributions. We identified also three dimensions of the therapists’ contributions (therapist relational attitude, therapist dynamic competence, therapist confrontativeness), which explain 65.7% of the variance of therapists’ contributions; and one overall interaction factor explaining 59% of the variance of the APS and DIS interaction scales. Generalized Estimating Equations and partial correlation analyses enabled us to explore the interactions among these dimensions during the therapeutic process. In particular, we explored how the patient dynamic competence and the therapist dynamic competence and relational attitude contribute to the interaction, and how the interaction may strengthen the patient dynamic competence, i.e. the patients’ ability to participate productively to the analytic process and to oscillate between experiencing and reflecting on their experiences.