TY - JOUR
T1 - A relational approach to understanding change
T2 - Plurality and contextualism in a psychotherapy research program
AU - Muran, J. Christopher
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH50246. The research program presented in this article owes much to the contributions of Jeremy Safran, Lisa Wallner Samstag, and Arnold Winston, not to mention those of the many research assistants from various graduate psychology programs in the New York metropolitan area. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of our cognitive–behavioral supervisors Arlinza Turner, Elizabeth Ochoa, and Polly Scarvalone, our ego-psychological supervisors Jerome Pollack, Leslie Baliff, and Michael Laikin, and all the therapists and patients who participated. This plurality of perspectives helped establish the intellectual context from which the ideas presented here emerged.
PY - 2002/6/1
Y1 - 2002/6/1
N2 - This paper presents a relational approach to understanding the self and change that represents a convergence of theoretical perspectives and developments in the literature regarding, for example, emotion, communication, attachment, child development, intersubjectivity, and social constructionism. It introduces the Beth Israel Brief Psychotherapy Research Program as a center for the study of the therapeutic relationship, specifically alliance ruptures and impasses. The program is designed to assess change on multiple dimensions by multiple measures from multiple perspectives and on three levels of analysis: ultimate, intermediate, and immediate outcome. The paper then presents a sampling of studies illustrating the work accomplished at each level. In addition, it outlines current and future investigatory endeavors and, in the process, suggests increased efforts to study the therapist subjective experience in the context of the therapeutic relationship, especially in the resolution of therapeutic alliance ruptures.
AB - This paper presents a relational approach to understanding the self and change that represents a convergence of theoretical perspectives and developments in the literature regarding, for example, emotion, communication, attachment, child development, intersubjectivity, and social constructionism. It introduces the Beth Israel Brief Psychotherapy Research Program as a center for the study of the therapeutic relationship, specifically alliance ruptures and impasses. The program is designed to assess change on multiple dimensions by multiple measures from multiple perspectives and on three levels of analysis: ultimate, intermediate, and immediate outcome. The paper then presents a sampling of studies illustrating the work accomplished at each level. In addition, it outlines current and future investigatory endeavors and, in the process, suggests increased efforts to study the therapist subjective experience in the context of the therapeutic relationship, especially in the resolution of therapeutic alliance ruptures.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=4344688294&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/ptr/12.2.113
DO - 10.1093/ptr/12.2.113
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:4344688294
VL - 12
SP - 113
EP - 138
JO - Psychotherapy Research
JF - Psychotherapy Research
SN - 1050-3307
IS - 2
ER -