Measuring Reflective Functioning in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Abstract
It was the goal of this exploratory study to assess the feasibility and potential use of the Computerized Text Analysis for Reflective Functioning (CTA RF) in the measurement of mentalizing capacities in clinical practice and research. For this exploration, we utilized archival data from a research study examining the process of couple therapy with childhood sexual abuse survivors and their partners. The CTA RF is a computerized method of scoring reflective functioning by analyzing narratives to assess mentalizing capacities. It is cost effective, requires little training to administer and score and can be applied to any form of transcript including psychoanalytic sessions and research participant interviews. In this first clinical research application of the CTA for RF in couple therapy sessions with trauma survivors we identified that the CTA RF is a time and cost efficient method of measuring mentalizing that does not require extensive training to administer and score and a method of measuring mentalizing that shows promise in broadening the scope of future research in mentalizing and the role of mentalizing in psychotherapy.
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ISSN: 2035-4630, Open-acess, peer-reviewed Journal, Tribunale di Roma 142/09, 04/05/09 - dir. responsabile: G. Colajacomo
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