Country house poetry of the English Civil war: a metaphorical exploration of contemporary debates in UK child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy research and an update on TIGA-CUB

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using the country house poetry of the English Civil War as a metaphor, this article traces some of the key debates in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy (CAPPT) research over the last 25 years. It identifies three main trends: initial confidence that child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapists (CAPPTs) could apply their existing theoretical methods to empirical research; recognition of the need to use qualitative methodology and to engage with quantitative approaches; and a period of retrenchment, with particular questioning of the use of randomised controlled trial (RCT) methodology. The article also reports the results of a service evaluation undertaken subsequent to the feasibility Trial on Inter-Generational Attachment and Children Undergoing Behaviour problems (TIGA-CUB) to determine whether to proceed to a large-scale, definitive trial, and the inclusion of TIGA-CUB in an on-going, innovative research project on RCT methodology. The article concludes that, if CAPPTs want RCT methodology more appropriate to their ways of working, the profession and the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) will need to develop a more pro-research environment, as well as career pathways which combine clinical work and publicly funded research.