Psychotherapy as a chaotic process .1. Coding the client-therapist interaction by means of sequential plan analysis and the search for chaos: A stationary approach

Author(s): Kowalik, Z. J., Schutz, A., Kohler, M., Richter, K., Strunk, G., Muhlnickel, W., Elbert, T.

Journal/Book: Psychother Res. 1997; 7: 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012. Guilford Publications Inc. 173-194.

Abstract: It is a commonly shared idea that psychotherapy can be conceptualized as a complex dynamic system, wherein biological, mental, and social processes are interrelated. Just as nonlinear dynamics characterize the functioning of living systems, we also expect that nonlinear phenomena are ubiquitous in the process of psychotherapy. This article focuses on the identification of deterministic chaos within the interactional behavior of client and therapist by means of a direct test for determinism (Kaplan and Glass, 1992), estimations of fractal dimensionality and the search for Largest Lyapunov Exponents (LLE). The data base for all analytical procedures consists of the time series of the self-presentation behavior of client and therapist. The encoding of the interactional behavior was completed through the use of a newly developed idiographic method, called Sequential Plan Analysis, The high frequency time series (coding Unit: 10 seconds) of our single case study represent global interactional plans or self-presentation categories (4 for the therapist, 3 for the client). We encoded and analyzed a complete 13 sessions solution-oriented brief therapy. The nonlinear analysis suggests the existence of deterministic chaos realized by the client-therapist interaction.

Note: Article Schiepek G, Res Ctr Nonlinear Syst, Sandstr 41, D-80335 Muncheberg, GERMANY

Keyword(s): STRANGE ATTRACTORS; DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS; LYAPUNOV EXPONENTS; PRACTICAL METHOD; TIME-SERIES; SYSTEMS; BRAIN

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