A Qualitative Case Study Of Psychoanalytic Process

ObjectiveThe study aimed to depict, analyze and interpret the contents and mechanisms of the client's change in the psychoanalytic process, and to explore the characteristics and variability of verbal and non-verbal communication patterns during the psychodynamic psychotherapy.MethodThe research was under the framework of a qualitative case study. With purposive sampling, a patient with post trauma stress disorder (PTSD) was selected to participate in a short-term (25times) psychodynamic psychotherapy (Aug2013to Sep2013).1Videotapes and event reporting sheets (both client and therapist edition) of25times psychoanalytic therapies were transcribed into qualitatively transcribed manuscripts. Six core themes of client's change in the psychotherapeutic process were settled in advance to collect aiming quali data. Narrative analysis was employed to describe the contents of the client's change and to interpret the possible mechanisms with psychodynamic theories.2The qualitative materials mentioned above were detected to maintain the characteristics and variability of the verbal and non-verbal communication patterns during the psychoanalytic therapy. Five special interaction forms were selected as quote, emblem, allusion, metaphor and analogy. Special interaction episodes were analyzed for its meaning and function with the psychodynamic theories. Non-verbal communication information in the25videotapes was collected with the matrix model of McNeill's gesture model and Ekman's facial expression model.Result1Six themes of the client's change were detected as change of major emotion, defense mechanism, self-esteem, alliance, personal interaction and wrong belief. Trauma related problem solving, psychodynamic therapeutic intervention and relevant strategies of the treatment were functioning together to trigger the client's change.2Twenty-seven special verbal episodes were obtained in forms of quote, emblem, allusion, metaphor and analogy.5650gestures were categorized into five gesture forms-iconics, metaphorics, beats, deictics, and emblems.2997of which were embraced with six fundamental emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise).Conclusion1Both the contents of client's change and the communication patterns during the therapy could provide valuable information for the mechanism exploration in psychotherapy.2Verbal and non-verbal communication forms during the psychotherapy, which marked with plenty of therapeutic meanings, should be emphasized in clinic practice and relevant study.3The qualitative case study is a suitable tool for information detection, collection and interpretation in psychotherapy. It appreciates the significant but ignored data to maximize the value of each single case.