Assessing changes in Psychoanalytic Psychodynamic Therapy, with an early adolescent.

This paper describes changes in personality functioning according to Exner’s Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) in an early adolescent boy, Gabriele, referred for anxiety and obsessive compulsive symptoms. The DSMIV diagnosis was General Anxiety Disorder (GAD). The therapy lasted about 2 years, and sessions were all audio-taped to create a more objective database. A total of 50 sessions were analyzed. The therapist employed a broadly defined, object-relations-focused, psychodynamic framework, with particular emphasis placed on balancing supportive versus insight-oriented modes of therapy (Skean, 2005). After a brief introduction of Gabriele’s clinical history and anamnesis, the paper illustrates (a) changes in the symptoms from the beginning to the end of the supportive psychodynamic psychotherapy, which also included some cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions; (b) changes in the CS administered at the beginning and at the end of the psychotherapy; and (c) the relevance of therapeutic alliance measured by the Collaborative Interactive Scale (CIS; Colli & Lingiardi, 2007) as a fundamental intervening variable in the psychotherapy process.