How is the shape of change in the psychotherapeutic complex system?

The paper will highlight the dynamics of change over the process of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The authors will mainly take into consideration three variables: a) Patterns of transference-countertransference; b) Physiological changes; c) Linguistic use of emotional and abstract words. They will present results coming from the empirical literature on how those variables interact and evolve over time. The paper will show the path from a problematic pattern of transference-countertransference (brought to the therapy by the patient), through its deconstruction, to a new relational structure. Furthermore, the paper will make a comparison between the shown trajectories of change and the psychoanalytic literature consistent with them. The paper rounds off by highlighting the theoretical and empirical findings on what the shape of change in psychotherapy looks like, narrowing the gap between the clinical and research aspects of our work, and by giving clearer shape to what complexity science can bring to psychotherapy research