The Effect of Frequency and Duration on Psychoanalytic Outcome: A Moment in Time

Do cultural and sociodemographic variables matter in the study of psychoanalysis? A follow-up comment and simple suggestion.

“…Four primary criteria were used to designate a study as researching psychoanalysis: Study authors (a) specified that the treatment in question was indeed psychoanalysis; (b) routinely drew distinctions between psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy in their write-up; (c) described psychoanalysis (vs. psychoanalytic psychotherapy) as a more intense, more frequently occurring, open ended type of treatment process; and (d) typically indicated that session length ranged from three to five sessions per week. Though not without controversy (Frank, 2011; Frosch, 2011), session frequency has long been used as a key criterion in distinguishing psychoanalysis from psychoanalytic psychotherapy (e.g., see “What Is Psychoanalysis?” on the Web sites of the American Psychoanalytic Association and International Psychoanalytical Association, where reference to a three to five session frequency is identified as being ideal or typical); many psychoanalytic institutes readily reference such a frequency in their program materials, and contemporary theoretical expositions of psychoanalysis often do so as well. Although not unimpeachable, those criteria allow focus to be brought to bear on research designated here as being specifically “psychoanalysis” in nature.…”