Recovery and nonrecovery after psychotherapy with transference interpretation: Two case studies

Abstract

The First Experimental Study of Transference Interpretation (FEST), conducted in Norway, is a dismantling, randomized clinical trial of the long-term effects of transference interpretation (TI). This article examines two case studies of women with poor quality of object relations (QOR), one who was rated as recovered after psychotherapy and one who was rated as not recovered. Both received TI. In general, women with poor QOR needed TI to recover, but some members of this group did not recover, even with TI. The therapist's negative countertransference and tendency to use controlling interventions was more pronounced with the poor-outcome patient. In addition, the poor-outcome patient had three subthreshold personality disorders in addition to obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. In childhood she had experienced substantial emotional abuse and some physical abuse. She was less motivated before therapy and more evasive during therapy than the good-outcome patient. The good-outcome patient also had obsessive-compulsive personality disorder but no subthreshold personality disorders, and her childhood home environment was more secure, although her parents were distant. She was more open to the therapist than the poor-outcome patient was. This article illustrates that different people require different techniques even though they belong to the same group (low QOR) that, in the FEST study, did well with TI.