Dangers of anecdotal reports

Abstract

The anecdotal case study tradition in psychoanalysis has a long, hallowed history and continues to seem the best way to describe our clinical encounters. But reliance on memory in the absence of witnesses or other kinds of corroboration (such as audio recording) can (a) protect standard theory from necessary corrections; (b) lead to the underreporting of technical mistakes, outright clinical failures, and, paradoxically, innovative approaches; (c) tempt us to substitute, by way of narrative smoothing, what ought to happen for what actually transpired; and (d) lead to the loss of an invaluable, one-of-a-kind set of observations that can never be replaced. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.