The effects of therapeutic conditions: positive results revisited

This paper surveys evidence relating the 'therapeutic conditions' of Accurate Empathy, Non-Possessive Warmth and Genuineness to psychotherapeutic outcome. The studies reviewed include comparisons of 'good' therapy with no-treatment control groups, and correlational studies relating levels of 'conditions' to outcome. Even leaving aside the question of the validity of the outcome measures used, it is concluded that present evidence suggests no more than a weak relationship between these 'conditions' and patient improvement. It is suggested that a methodologically adequate, experimental, demonstration of their effectiveness has yet to be attempted.

Personal questionnaire changes and their correlates in a psychotherapeutic group

Personal questionnaires were constructed for seven members of a psychotherapy group. Self-reported changes during group sessions and over a period of up to 10 months' treatment were analysed. There was no general pattern of 'improvement' either during sessions or in the longer term. There was evidence suggestive of an inverse relationship between changes during sessions and over the period of the study. Some clinically meaningful relationships were discerned between the present data and repertory grid and verbal behaviour measures on the same group members reported in a previous paper. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Some correlates of repertory grid measures used to study a psychotherapeutic group

Repertory grid data provided monthly by the members of a psychotherapeutic group were related to measures of verbal behaviour during group sessions in ways which were both statistically significant and psychologically meaningful. There was evidence that the group members re-enacted earlier patterns of family relationship in their mutual interaction. For individual patient members of the group, speaking, being spoken to, and introducing several kinds of topic into the group discussion had significant associations with grid variables implicating self-esteem and patterns of identification with parents; but the correlation patterns varied between patients.

Change in psychotherapy: a single case study

In a single case study of changes during psychotherapy, the patient reported more subjective distress after interviews than before, despite evidence of improvement over six months of a treatment apparently low in ‘therapeutic conditions’. The implications of findings from this and related studies for the psychotherapeutic process are discussed.

The personal questionnaire as a method of assessing change during psychotherapy

A cogent interpretation of the apparent average ineffectiveness of psychotherapy (e.g. Eysenck, 1960) has been proposed by Bergin (1966) and taken up by Truax and Carkhuff (1967). This explanation is based upon the suggestion that some therapeutic encounters harm patients and hence beneficial effects are cancelled out when the average results of large groups are considered. Rather than beginning with large miscellaneous samples treated in an unspecified variety of ways, our research programme involves detailed experimental and correlational studies of the therapy of a small number of patients with similar diagnoses. This paper is limited to a preliminary study of assessment of change in psychotherapy by means of the Personal Questionnaire (PQ,), (Shapiro, 1961, 1969).

Tics and Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome: a follow-up study and critical review

Tics or habit spasms have been described in various ways, but perhaps the most useful definition is that of Kanner (1937) that they are “quick, sudden and frequently repeated movements of circumscribed groups of muscles, serving no apparent purpose”. Children with this symptom not infrequently present to the paediatrician or child psychiatrist with accompanying symptoms of emotional disturbance, and by the age of seven years approximately five per cent of children have a history of such movements (Kellmer Pringle et al., 1967). Less commonly, adolescents who have suffered with tics from an earlier age develop vocal tics and coprolalia (compulsive swearing) symptomatic of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome. Tiqueurs are rarely seen for treatment in adult life, except in a few well-documented cases where Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome persists (Fernando 1967).