First steps towards a clinical research library

ROUSSOS, ANDRES; BUCCI, WILMA; MASKIT, BERNARD

From Impression to Inquiry; A tribute to the work of Robert Wallerstein

International Psychoanalytic Association

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2007; p. 152 - 174

The field of psychoanalytic treatment research has been expanding  greatly in many directions during the past decade, fuelled by economic and institutional changes in the field of mental health care and methodological advances in psychotherapy research, and stimulated as well by developments in psychoanalytic theory and technique. There is now a recognition “that analytic therapy can go on under . . . observed circumstances—that is, that a properly therapeutic process can nonetheless evolve” (Wallerstein, 2001b, summarizing Wallerstein & Sampson, 1971). Researchers are embarking on new data collections as well as using archival material; interactions between clinicians and researchers are increasing, and new modes of such interaction are being developed; new measures, including process and outcome measures, are being developed and existing ones refined; and simpler, more economically efficient electronic techniques are being utilized for recording, managing, and transmitting clinical material. Along with this positive and promising expansion in psychoanalytic treatment research, problems have proliferated as well. Recorded clinical and quasi-clinical material exists in many different sites, with different owners, different formats, and different technologies. Scientific goals and administration of the sites vary widely, with no generally accepted standards for organizing and preserving the data or monitoring their use. In addition to the recorded session material, in some cases including video as well as audio recordings, the various studies have accumulated transcripts, clinical notes, test materials, and data from applications of research measures; these materials are spread over the different centres, with few if any links among them.