Freedman Center for Psychoanalytical Research

Program of Empirical Research Studies

We take the letter “R” in IPTAR quite seriously and have developed a program that emphasizes hands-on empirical research studies to generate new findings about psychoanalytic treatment. The question of how to understand, let alone establish the validity of our analytic enterprise is a complex one. Starting at the surface, as Freud suggests, we first ask about our patients’ lives. Has treatment affected the quality of their lives, work, patterns of relationships, or self esteem? Next we ask: What has made such change possible? Here we seek to define the facilitating and mediating conditions in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. We are also interested in how persistent the changes are.  In the spirit of these questions, five major research projects were completed, each seeking to define central psychoanalytic concepts.

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