Psychotherapy research--implications for psychiatric treatment

The impact of findings gained in psychoanalytic-psychotherapeutic research and outcome studies on the psychiatric routine-treatment is reported. The importance of the psychoanalytic theory of mentalization for the treatment of patients with personality disorders is shown in three naturalistic efficacy studies. Interpretation of the dominating effect and of the transference-relationship-dyad could be confirmed as essential for the treatment progress. The empirical studies point at the necessity of interpreting affect-regulatory parameters, such as the hostile-externalizing-dysphoric parameter, from the very beginning of the treatment on. Acknowledgement and recognition of externalizing and projective mechanisms should be trained in the psychiatric routine treatment in order to establish a stable working alliance with psychiatric patients.