Mixed methods research and psychoanalysis Some methodologies to further integrate psychotherapy research and psychodynamic thinking

摘要

Mixed methods research (MMR) is the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods in the sense of a joint superordinate research question. In this article it is argued that MMR offers the hitherto almost untapped potential to bring psychodynamic practice and psychotherapy research closer together. The author starts from the assumption that the mutual skepticism between clinical psychoanalytic thinking and psychometric psychotherapy research has to do with differences in their basic assumptions about knowledge and its production. They are different cultures of knowledge. The MMR is understood as a "methodological space" for scientific interculturalism and transculturalism. The article introduces popular study designs in MMR and illustrates them with currently ongoing studies. By means of these examples this article defends the hypothesis that MMR enables a more psychodynamic form of psychotherapy research: "psychotherapy relationship research". On the one hand, the available conceptual clinical knowledge from psychoanalysis can be utilized to add the perspective of unconscious or otherwise implicit relational processes to several central problems dealt with in psychotherapy research. On the other hand, in this way psychotherapy research could lead to more direct implications for the clinical psychodynamic practice.