Am J Psychiatry 1978; 135:1193-1197
Copyright © 1978 by American Psychiatric Association
Patient-therapist matching: a research evaluation
JG Gunderson
The author tested the predictive power of 10 hypotheses about the
personality qualities of therapists that match with those of schizophrenic
inpatients to affect therapeutic course. The personality matching traits
predicted with significant accuracy the quality of the therapeutic
relationship and even the type of overall clinical outcome. Examination of
the data revealed that most of this surprising predictive strength derived
from a group of highly intercorrelated personality qualities. Taken
together, these qualities reflected a capacity of therapists to be
comfortable while being involved with a variety of strong affects in their
schizophrenic inpatients. The limitations of this study and its advantages
over the A-B typology are discussed.
