93When the female therapists, who experienced positive affect more frequently than males, felt themselves to be noticeably lacking in expansive and nurturant feelings, their patients tended to be experiencing a heightened dependency in either an active, intrusive, or a passive form. If the greater supportive warmth and nurturance of the female therapists is to some extent reactive to their own needs for dependent gratification, then manifest dependency in their patients might well tend to be distressing. SUMMARY This study was concerned with what therapists typically feel in psychotherapy sessions, what the structure of these feelings was, and how these feeling clusters were related to the patient's experiences. In general, salient therapist feelings were role-sjmtonic. There were nine dimensions of therapist affective experience and some of these were related to patient experiences. The value of these relationships as practical cues and for a greater understanding of psychotherapy process are discussed. REFERENCES 1. F R O M M -~C H M A N N , FRIEDA. Principled of Zn(cnsiyc Puyddcrapy. Chicago: Phoenix Books, 1960. 2. HOWARD, K. I., OBLINSKY, D. E., and HILL, J. A. The patient's experience of psychotherapy: Soms dimensions and determinante. Mult. *. Rmaarch, 198?,in p m . 3. OBLINBKY, D. E. and H o w m , K. I. Dimensions of conlomt experiential process in psych+ therapy relationshi . Ptocasdings, 76th Annual Conosntum, APA, 1907,251-252. 4. OBLINSKY, D. ?and HOWARD, K. I. The exp+ence of psychothera A prce tus on the psychotherapy m i o n pro ect. Institute for Juvenlle Reeearch, Rmeurch %port, l G . 5. OBLINBKY, D. E. and bow-, K. I. Varieties of psychotherapy experience. Institute for Juvenile €'bearch Rssmtch 1968'1. 6. RAUBB, H. and BORDIN,?? Warmth in personality development and in psychotherapy. P idry, 1957 bo: 351-363. 7. %ma, C. fh&-C'&ed Therapy. Boston: Houghton-Iblifh, 1951 8. R.oym, C. A theory of thdlapy pemodity, and lnte m o d ralrrtionships, as developed in the client centered framework. In hsycidogy: A Study o$A Sciaec, V d u m 3. 9. Koch (Ed.).
A recent paper(6) reported the results of a factor analysis of the intercorrelations among the therapeutically facilitative core conditions of empathy (E), respect (R) , genuineness (G) , and concreteness (C), which revealed that a single factor accounted for practically all of the therapeutic action. We worked on identifying the factor and finally decided not to devote our energies to defending a label-one Spearman G was enough. But when the article was submitted, our journal editor was more courageous and, with his encouragement, we saw considerable merit in his suggestion that the factor could be identified as "being a 'good guy', i.e., friendly, likeable and helpful."This identification rather accurately describes practically all of the high level successful therapists we know. It also opens up an entirely new research dimension to discover how they get and stay that way. We know the symptoms of a successful therapist, but not much about their dynamics or genesis. It may well be that the core conditions are necessary but not sufficient in all therapy cases. There is more to being a successful therapist and a successful person than merely having the symptoms and exhibiting them in relationships with other people. Empathy, respect, genuineness and concreteness can be seen as so many symptomatic expressions of a successful therapist, and behind these symptoms, by factor analyzing their intercorrelations, we have found a single unitary dimension or entity. This discovery immediately raises some significant questions about how much more there is behind the symptoms.Before attempting to answer, a better understanding of where we are in relation to what we know and don't know is necessary so that an answer can be more complete and empirically concrete. In the original research, we had two independent sets of correlational matrices. Each matrix contained the inter-correlations among the core conditions found from the Carkhufl scale ratings of the therapy tapes of both high and low functioning therapists. The factor analysis of each matrix produced only one factor. This means that one factor accounted for all the measured action among the "good guys". But what about the one factor from the low level therapists' matrix? To be logically consistent, should we identify it as "bad guy"? If we identify the high level therapists' factor as "good guy" (friendly, likeable and helpful), then the low level therapists' factor is "bad guy" (unfriendly, unlikeable and unhelpful). The logical consistency and continuity carries us rather well from a low level destructive to a high level constructivefrom minus to plus.This identification of the factors makes practical sense, but there is still a serious statistical question to face. The factor analyses of both high functioning and low functioning therapists' matrices indicated that a single factor in each accounted for practically all of their respective intercorrelations. But the factor analysis itself does not tell us that this is the same factor cutting through both matrices, or th...
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