Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Research Articles

Repetitive relationship themes in waking narratives and dreams.

The aims of the study were to see whether the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) measure can be reliably applied to dreams and to evaluate the degree to which the main components of the CCRT are present in both dreams and waking narratives in psychotherapy. For 13 psychoanalytic cases, the reliability of the CCRT was found to be good. Dreams and narratives were found to contain significant degrees of similarity in their CCRT components and similar and high level of negativity in both dreams and waking narratives. The results support the concept of a central relationship pattern that can be expressed in common in both waking narratives and dreams.

Personality: Psychodynamic Perspectives

THE PERSONALITY disorder literature bulges with arguments concerning the aptness of the dimensional or the categorical view as a basis for classification. 1 Now Horowitz and his team 2 ask yet another question that goes beyond the issue of discriminant validity in personality taxonomy, raising the issue of the usefulness of our current classification for intervention. Other matters are also considered in their criticism, such as the idea that static personality profiles do not account for the multiple reaction patterns that may arise in any one person with a so-called personality disorder. They reintroduce the role-relationship model (RRM), about which Horowitz 3 has written so eloquently before, and acknowledge his debt to the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) of Luborsky et al. 4 This report is not a fully original contribution, but rather a summary of new and prior reliability and validity studies that recommend the scientific claim of the

Different Reliabilities at the Episode Level and that of the Final CCRT—A Rejoinder to Luborsky and Diguer

The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method is one of the most thoroughly elaborated instruments in the field of quantifying relationship diagnosis. Its development not only fills a gap for clinicians and researchers, but it also represents an important innovative process for putting psychodynamic formulations into operation (cf. Schauenburg & Cierpka, 1994). The purpose of our two studies has been to contribute toward promoting the use of the CCRT method by simplifying the preparation of the material (video rating).

A Novel CCRT Reliability Study: Reply to Zander et al.

A new study of the reliability of the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method should be welcome. But this one's welcome is reduced by its limited generalizability, for several reasons.

Coherence of the relationship theme: An extension of Luborsky's core conflictual relationship theme method.

Lester Luborsky's core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT ; 1977) method of evaluating relationship patterns of therapy patients makes an important assumption, which this article examines theoretically and empirically : that patients in psychotherapy routinely describe themselves in an interactive relationship with others, rather than as people acting and reacting in isolation. Kleinian and Mahlerian psychoanalytic theories hold that the capacity for interaction or relatedness is not a given but a developmental achievement, an increasing function of differentiation. An enhancement of the CCRT approach, called the coherence of the relationship theme (CRT), is introduced here. It measures the degree to which patients describe themselves and others in interaction. It is predicted and empirically observed that interaction and relatedness as measured by the CRT increase with differentiation, supporting the proposal that the CRT is a meaningful measure of a capacity for relatedness, and a useful enhancement of the CCRT system.

Coherence of the relationship theme: An extension of Luborsky's core conflictual relationship theme method.

Coherence of the relationship theme: An extension of Luborsky's core conflictual relationship theme method.

Coherence of the relationship theme: An extension of Luborsky's core conflictual relationship theme method.

Coherence of the relationship theme: An extension of Luborsky's core conflictual relationship theme method.

The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme

This article presents a brief but comprehensive guide to the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method, including its scoring, its reliability, and its validity in relation to CCRT congruent evidence that is within Freud's observations about transference. The usual CCRT method is concretely illustrated through its application to a sample interview; an extension of the CCRT is also illustrated in order to help distinguish parts of the CCRT of which the person is less aware.

Understanding the Leader-Strategy Interface: Application of the Strategic Relationship Interview Method

The argument that leaders substantially affect organizational outcome is presented. In order to better understand the leader/strategy/environment interface, however, the question of what leaders do has to be supplemented with why they are doing it. It is argued that the assessment of a leader's preoccupations will make for more effective human resource planning by facilitating the match between leader and organization. Unfortunately, the accurate assessment of a leader's preoccupations is still in its infancy. To fill the gap, this paper proposes a research methodology based on the clinical concept of transference, i.e., repetitive, consistent patterns of interaction which are unique to each individual. The applicability of the Strategic Relationship Interview Method (a derivative of the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method as developed by Luborsky and his collaborators) is explored as potentially a relatively simple way to capture the essence of leadership. Using the Strategic Relationship Interview Method (SRIM), one systematically identifies the central relationship patterns of key executives by analyzing and scoring specific narratives. In order to illustrate its application, an example is given of the SRIM using as "text" the statements made by an entrepreneur.

The first empirical demonstration of transference in psychotherapy.

This study investigates the similarity between patients' relationships with their therapists and patients' relationships with others in their life. We examined the in-session narratives about the therapist and compared them with the patient's general relationship pattern as determined by a previously tested method, the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method. The source for both narratives and CCRT patterns were transcripts of therapy sessions from 35 consenting outpatients in a university clinic. We found significant similarity between the patterns of relationship with the therapist and with others. One aspect of the relationship pattern, the patient's response to the therapist and to others, was consistently similar. We offer objective evidence in support of an age-old and central tenet of psychodynamic therapy, the transference concept.

The Meanings of Narratives Told During Psychotherapy: The Fruits of a New Observational Unit

It is the new definition of relationship narratives in psychotherapy that has led to the 14 observations about them in our review and to recognition of their meaning for the process of psychotherapy. Among the most significant externally descriptive observations about relationship narratives were, their identifiability by trained judges, their frequency in almost all sessions and their focus on recent events in intimate relationships. Internal observations came from the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method applied to the narratives, including: a high frequency of wishes for closeness as well as for independence, a high frequency of negative expectations of responses from others and self, a high pervasiveness of wishes both early and late in therapy, and an increase in positive responses from others and of self as patients improved in psychotherapy.

Scientific approaches to making psychodynamic formulations

Because of problems with reliability and undetermined validity, psychodynamic case formulations have for a long time had limited scientific value. This article reviews some of the recent methods for making psychodynamic case formulations: 1) Malan's Method for Overall Psychodynamic Formulations; 2) The Plan Formulation Method (Mr. Zion); 3) The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method (Luborsky); and 4) The Idiographic Conflict Formulation Method and The Psychodynamic Conflict Rating Scales (Perry). The application of these methods is illustrated by a comparison of three different methods in the same case, successfully treated in brief dynamic psychotherapy. The usefulness of the methods for guiding treatment is discussed.

An Examination of Three Methods of Psychodynamic Formulation Based on the Same Videotaped Interview

While psychodynamic theory and therapy are approaching their centennial, the science of psychodynamics is still in an earlier developmental stage. Any scientific field generates the most controversy and excitement when it is still developing. For psychodynamic psychology this means that its basic units of observation as well as its rules for justifying clinical inference in formulating and testing dynamic hypotheses require more development. In short, we are still evaluating different methods for both discovering and validating psychodynamic propositions. This is especially true for central features of dynamic psychology, including intrapsychic conflict, relationships, and transference patterns. This report compares three different methods for making a dynamic case formulation: 1) the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) of Luborsky (Crits-Christoph and Luborsky 1985a,b; Luborsky 1976, 1977, 1984, and companion paper in this issue; Levine and Luborsky 1981), 2) the Plan Diagnosis (PD) method of Silberschatz, Curtis and colleagues of the Mount Zion group (Caston 1986; Curtis and Silberschatz 1986; Rosenberg et al. 1986; Curtis et al. 1988) and, 3) the Idiographic Conflict Formulation (ICF) of Perry and Cooper (1985, 1986, and companion paper in this issue). Each has a slightly different focus. The CCRT focuses on relationship patterns as the central feature of individual dynamics and transference in or out of the treatment situation. The Plan Diagnosis focuses on dynamic features related to transference, resistance and insight in therapy. The Idiographic Conflict Formulation focuses on stress and internal conflict, and the individual's adaptation to them in or out of treatment.

Scientific progress in psychodynamic formulation.

This issue of psychiatry contains five papers describing or comparing five different methods for making a psychodynamic formulation (Luborsky and Crits-Christoph; Horowitz; Johnson et al.; Perry, Augusto, et al.; Perry, Luborsky, et al.). As Luborsky and Crits-Christoph make clear in their introduction, while the idea of the psychodynamic formulation originated with Freud, successful efforts to develop scientific methods for making a formulation are largely a phenomenon of the past decade. Indeed, since the introduction of the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme method (Luborsky 1977), around a dozen methods have been developed with the same overall aim. Let us consider why this is important.

Clinicians can agree in assessing relationship patterns in psychotherapy. The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme method.

This study examines interjudge agreement on formulations of dynamic themes in psychotherapy, using a session-based method, namely, the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme. Agreement was assessed by two methods: one was based on themes that were tailor-made for each case, while the other was based on coding themes into a standard set of categories. To assess agreement on the tailor-made formulations, a paired-comparisons procedure was used. For a sample of 35 patients, the similarity ratings for matched cases were significantly higher than for purposely mismatched cases. Using the standard set of categories, agreement was also good; weighted kappa values ranged from .61 to .70. The results also demonstrate reliability for the location of the relationship episodes, which form the database for the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme. Our positive results suggest that this guided clinical method can be used reliably as a measure of relationship patterns in psychotherapy; our results provide the first moderate-sized sample demonstration of clinicians' agreement in formulating this complex concept.

Locating transference paradigms in psychotherapy transcripts: Reliability of relationship episode location in the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) method.

Locating transference paradigms in psychotherapy transcripts: Reliability of relationship episode location in the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) method.

A verification of Freud's grandest clinical hypothesis: The transference

Nine of Freud's observations about his concept of transference were reexamined and found to correspond to observations from a more systematic method of evaluating relationship patterns—the core conflictual relationship theme method. These were: (a) Each patient has one main transference pattern; (b) it is specific for each patient; (c) it applies to love relationships in a broad sense; (d) part of it is in awareness and part kept out of awareness; (e) the pattern remains consistent throughout a person's life; (f) it can change some; (g) the relationship with the therapist reflects the pattern; (h) the pattern derives from the relationships with the early parental figures; (i) it is also active in relationships outside of psychotherapy.

Mentalne wzorce relacyjne jako predyktory statusu związku studiujących kobiet

The article analyses relationship patterns as predictors of relationship status (having vs not having a partner) among female university students. Inner relationship patterns were identified on the basis of written statements on significant relations. The statements were obtained through the Relationship Anecdotes Paradigm (RAP), which allows the acquisition of autobiographic records of narrative nature on personally significant interpersonal relations. The results of the analysis based on the concept of Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) helped predict whether a respondent has a partner thanks to only one category of relationship patterns – the desire of the self to feel well and comfortably, to have a sense of stability, to feel happy and self-satisfied, triggered in the context of referring to a significant interpersonal relation in the narratives. The other aspects of the patterns – responses of the other to the self’s desire and the response of the self to the reactions of the other – do not markedly affect the prediction of the relationship status.