How do interpretations influence the process of psychotherapy?

Due to imprecise methods of evaluating therapist behaviors, little progress has been made in demonstrating how the therapist contributes to the success of psychotherapy. More important, the suitability of the therapist's behavior to the particular needs of a given patient has not been adequately assessed. In this article, we describe a new approach for assessing the suitability of therapist interventions. We hypothesized that the suitability of interpretations would be more predictive of patient progress than the category of interpretation: transference versus nontransference. The transcripts of three brief psychodynamic psychotherapies were studied. Interpretations in the three therapies were identified and categorized as transference or nontransference and were then rated for suitability. Patient productivity was rated using the Experiencing Scale. As predicted, in each case suitability of interpretations correlated significantly and positively with patient productivity, whereas type of interpretation did not correlate with patient progress.