Effects of Observation on the Therapeutic Process
ISIDORE ZIFERSTEIN M.D.1
1 Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of California at Los Angeles, and Research Consultant, Postgraduate Center for Mental Health
The principles of nonobtrusiveness and noncontamination have been stressed in nonparticipant observation of psychotherapy in the United States. The author participated in a project in the U.S. where these principles were adhered to, and one in Russia where they were not. He concludes that patient, therapist, and observer would all encounter fewer difficulties if the presence of the observer were made known.
