What can we learn from a single case?
(2024) 3rd study day of Sigmund Freud University - Professional and personal development of psychotherapists and psychologists — Location: Ljubljana (19.March.2024)
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- Abstract
- Introduction. Case studies play a crucial role in training and professional development of psychotherapists. Indeed, case descriptions, whether as published case reports or more informal clinical vignettes used in a teaching context, are central in the transmission of psychotherapeutic knowledge and skills. At the same time, however, case studies have been criticized for their lack of generalizability and the risk of subjective bias. Methods. Historian and philosopher John Forrester coined the concept of ‘thinking in cases’ to describe a specific way of scientific thinking in case-based disciplines such as medicine, law, anthropology and psychoanalysis. In this keynote lecture, the concept of thinking in cases will be applied to the field of psychotherapy training. Results. The comparison of thinking in cases with statistical thinking allows to better understand the specific epistemic stance that characterizes the field of psychotherapy. Acquiring this epistemic stance requires the patient study of exemplars. The exemplar is a pedagogical tool that fosters a process of analogical learning, as the case study procures the experience ‘as if’ one is in the consultation room. What psychotherapy trainees can learn from such exemplars will be illustrated with a recent clinical case study on the psychoanalytic therapy of a female patient with a treatment-resistant depression. Finally, the question will be raised of the importance of the therapist’s study of him- or herself as an exemplar in personal therapy. Discussion. The field of psychotherapy training can benefit from an interdisciplinary perspective on how trainees acquire therapy knowledge and skills. Therapist trainings need to be coherent with how trainees can acquire knowledge and skills and should prepare them optimally for clinical work as it actually takes place.
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Willemsen, J. (2024). What can we learn from a single case? 3rd study day of Sigmund Freud University - Professional and personal development of psychotherapists and psychologists, Ljubljana. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/31158