Diagnosis in transition: the influence of the therapist's personality

In this article, the Authors examine the role of the therapist's subjectivity and, in particular, of his personality in the psychoanalytic diagnostic and therapeutic process. After a brief introduction on the relationship between the diagnosis and the subjectivity of the clinician, in particular deepening the contribution offered on the subject by the second edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, the Authors propose a review of the results of empirical research on the influence of individual and subjective variables of the therapist in psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapies, underlining their implications for clinical practice and training. Finally, a theoretical-clinical overview of the personality of the therapist in psychoanalysis is offered together with the few empirical contributions present on the subject, to conclude with the preliminary results of an ongoing research project that proposed to investigate this variable through the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200), an empirically sound and clinically relevant personality assessment methodology.