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The article informs that the selection and validation of criteria to measure psychotherapeutic experience are important problems in current research. In an increasing number of studies the utility of psychological tests as guides to selection of suitable patients for psychotherapy is being investigated. Although the validation of such tests rests, to a large degree, upon the adequate measurement of the success or failure of the patient's therapeutic experience, insufficient research has been directed towards this area. The present paper reports on an empirical investigation of the relationship between the manner in which therapy is terminated and length of treatment and training and experience of the therapist.

The article provides a case study on suicide and systematic desensitization. The present study described a multiple-therapy treatment of suicidal behavior in a 14-year-old female. This treatment involved the pairing of target stimuli with specific muscular states and systematic desensitization of reported disturbing thoughts. Target stimuli were introduced through the use of both photographs and imagery. The treatment successfully reduced the rate of suicidal gestures from a mean of 3 per month to .17 per month. The subject displayed no suicidal behavior during the last 7 months that data were kept.

The article describes the application of a scale for the objective assessment of process or movement in psychotherapy and reports the degree of reliability and validity found in a preliminary investigation. The present scale represents a refinement of the original scale based upon further analysis and study of additional therapy protocols. It seems apparent that satisfactory interjudge reliability can be obtained in using the process scale in its present form, and that ratings derived from it bear a meaningful relationship to other measures of successful change in therapy.

The article attempts to add the understanding of therapy with respect to the dimension of psychological climate. Specifically the study is concerned with the therapist's behavior under two conditions of threat, and undertook to examine physiological and verbal response to threat. The study concerned the effect of two threat levels upon the physiological and verbal behavior of therapists. Sixteen therapists showed greater physiological activation as measured under the evaluative condition. It was concluded that an evaluative climate produced some decrement in verbal effectiveness but that quantitatively the amount of decrement was minimal.

This article reports on a homosexual who was treated with rational psychotherapy. The client was a thirty-five year old male, living in Brooklyn with his parents, and operating his disabled father's toy factory. He had been raised as a Catholic, but no longer considered himself a believer. He was the only son of what he described as a "very religious and very neurotic" mother and an "exceptionally weak, dome mated father" who had been disabled by a serious stroke two years before the client came for treatment. He had always been quite close to his mother, and usually did her bidding, even though he bitterly resented her persistent attempts to control himself and his father.

This article discusses some normative data on new Minnesota Multiple Personality Inventory (MMPI). The normal male and female standardization samples used for the new scales were drawn from the general Minnesota normal sample described in the MMPI Manual but are not quite identical with any previously used normative samples. The new samples were developed for use in standardizing all new scales. To make up these samples the old norms were in proved by re-examination of every one of the records to discard incomplete ones or any others that looked defective; other records from among the originals were substituted for defective ones and some attempt was made to select cases so as to improve representativeness of the sampling.

This article discusses outcome of employing three techniques of psychotherapy. Since it has been the writer's custom, for the last several years, to keep summary records on all clients seen, including information relating to diagnosis, number of sessions, and therapeutic outcome, 78 closed cases were taken from the therapist's files, consisting of individuals who had been treated for at least ten sessions with rational analysis. These were matched with 78 cases of individuals who had been treated for at least ten sessions with psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy.

The article examines the role and status structure in psychotherapy groups. Psychotherapy groups exemplify the rule that prolonged interaction results in some measure of role differentiation and status structuring. For the purpose of this study interaction process data were used for individual profiles. These were derived by summating a group member's entries under a category heading over eight successive meetings. Therapy groups begin with the least possible structuring. The members are discouraged from meeting outside the therapeutic situation, and were in no instance known to do so as a complete group. Examining the content of therapeutic interaction, the most interesting finding is the way in which attempts to use the group as a source of reassurance and sympathy are appraised, in contrast with a willingness to supply such support to others.

This article focuses on social class and the acceptance of psychotherapy. The patient source was the Out-patient Department of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, a training institution and community clinic offering various types of psychotherapy. A total of 57 patients who met the qualifications specified below were included in the study. All patients were between the age of 18 and 55 years and their diagnoses were either psychoneurosis or some form of personality disorder. Specifically excluded were patients with a diagnosis of organic brain disease, anti-social character disorder, alcoholism, overt psychosis, or mental deficiency.

The article reports that studies of the effectiveness of counseling and psychotherapy have used a variety of criteria as measures of success. Some researches have employed rating scales of differing degrees of elegance, others have relied upon psychological tests, while still others have emphasized physiological and environmental measurements. The behavior measured in such studies was sometimes quite specific, as changes in respiration or pulse rates, and sometimes very broad and elusive such as changes in sell concept. The therapeutic methods employed ranged from directive through eclectic and nondirective procedures. In every case the attempt was made in the approaches discussed here to measure the clients' status before therapy, after therapy, and in some studies, during therapy.

This article focuses on directive psychotherapy. While the limitations of explicit meaning have been pointed out frequently, occasionally people still mean, know, intend, and attend what they say. Not to take communication at its face value may lead to clinical failure as well as success. A common therapeutic error, particularly among analytically-oriented clinicians, is to place such concentration upon overtones, such obvious speculation concerning motives, that he seems pre-occupied and inattentive; he fails to deal adequately, i.e., logically.

This article discusses directive psychotherapy. Animal experiments have demonstrated that a breakdown in the individuals ability to utilize past experience and to differentiate between stimuli typically results in the development of neurotic behavior of various types. Similarly, human inability to solve problem situations on the basis of previous knowledge results in frustration and maladjustive behavior. In this situation, emotional instability is a secondary phenomena occurring as a reaction to failure to solve problems with intellectual resources.

This article focuses on directive psychotherapy. In terms of psychotherapy, reassurance means to restore confidence in another by assuring him of certain facts which were previously uncertain or unknown to him. The art of reassurance has been so extensively practiced by physicians, clergymen, teachers, friends and relatives that it hardly deserves designation as a special technique in guidance unless it is so skillfully utilized as to go beyond ordinary common sense. Historically, reassurance is one of the oldest psychotherapeutic methods, since men have attempted to reassure each other since time immemorial.

The article highlights on a case study of the semi-automated treatment of a phobia. The techniques used in the treatment described here were developed and refined in the course of experiments with snake-avoidant volunteer subjects. To that extent, the success of the treatment attests to the clinical relevance of analogue desensitization research, and draws into question the seemingly premature views of psychologist Cooper. Clearly, however, there remains a need for additional reports of both successful and unsuccessful applications of laboratory tactics to clinical problems.

The article discusses a study of factors related to length of stay in psychotherapy. A previous investigation revealed that the patients applying for treatment in the Mental Hygiene Clinic of the New York Regional Office are representative of the veteran population in the greater New York area for most demographic characteristics. However, assignment to psychotherapy was found to be related to normative data indicative of high socio-economic status, intrapyschic complaints, youth, and expressed desire for psychotherapy, recommendations from psychological test evaluation and previous treatment. The present investigation is designed to determine whether the above and other demographic criteria for assignment are related to length of stay in psychotherapy or in psychosomatic treatment.

The article informs that at the annual meeting of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Psychology last September, the members present reported a growing concern among psychologists over some of the trends implied in the theory and practice of nondirective therapy. This concern related principally to the responsibilities of the counselor to the client, inter-professional relations, training responsibilities, qualifications of non-directive counselors, and several theoretical issues.