Objectivity in psychoanalytic assessment of couple relationships

Abstract

Background: Clinicians claim that partners in a couple can be understood to share a mode of relating, at an unconscious level. Assessment of this depends on inference from observable data. This study tests the viability and reliability of a modification of the Personal Relatedness Profile (PRP) for this purpose. Aims: To test the interrater reliability and construct validity of a joint PRP score for couples. Method: Seven therapists independently rated couples' interactions using the 30-item PRP and segments of videotaped interviews with 19 couples. Results: Interrater reliability was good and correlations between items clearly supported the underlying Kleinian bipolar model used (paranoid-schizoid/depressive positions). Conclusions: Psychoanalytic couple psychotherapists agree in independent judgements of the nature of couple functioning, these judgements being based on envisaging couples in terms of an unconsciously shared state of mind.