What is research? Perhaps I should have included this page already when I accounted for my mother-infant research. However, this question has been discussed more profoundly by researchers on adult treatment. Thence, here follows a brief digression on what the word “research” means, especially in connection with psychotherapy with adults.
Earlier, I mentioned that psychoanalysis is a way of carrying on research on the human mind. This we do daily when we work as analysts with our patients. This kind of research is based on individual findings and only testifies to findings about the individual I am working with at present. On the other hand, such experiences may be generalized. This is done when we analysts exchange our experiences through books, supervisions, conferences etc. Such exchanges have brought psychoanalysis a long way forward in its development.
There is another kind of research, let us call it generalized or systematic research. You collect data in order to test the efficacy of a drug, a surgical method – or a method of talking to patients, that is, psychotherapy. In such studies, patients are recruited on well-defined grounds. Thereafter, they are assigned treatments according to randomization. The result of such research is thought to be generalizable to other patients. Such research may allow us to conclude: ”Method A seems to work better than Method B”. The drawback is that the unique individual disappears behind the figures of our statistical calculations. However, such research is important in parallel with the kind of daily research that we analysts perform in our offices.
On the pages below this main caption, you can read about this part of my everyday practice devoted to such systematic treatment research.
Read further on about my research on MIP, mother-infant psychoanalytic treatment.