The Vanderbilt Psychotherapy Studies: Synopsis

Abstract

The psychotherapy studies completed at Vanderbilt University had their antecedents in research begun by Strupp in the 1950s. Initially focused on the empirical study of therapeutic techniques, the work soon drew attention to therapists' attitudes toward the patient and the manner in which these attitudes were interwined with therapists' clinical judgments and their communications to the patient. Negative complementarity, in particular, emerged as fateful for progress and outcome, and it became the leitmotif of that work. Vanderbilt I focused on the relative contribution of specific and nonspecific factors in therapy, whereas Vanderbilt II sought to study the effects of training in time-limited dynamic psychotherapy on process and outcome.