Last month saw a little noticed but still major development in the field of psychoanalysis. The Psychodynamic Research email list (or, colloquially, “listserv”) passed its 10 year milestone as a forum for researchers and interested clinicians to share resources and debate ideas.
Mark Hilsenroth and Andrew Gerber started the list with little fanfare in order to bring together those interested in conducting and supporting psychoanalytically-relevant empirical research. The initial 60 or so list members have now grown to over 650. And seldom does a couple of days go by without a new publication being shared by list members.
I was unaware of the list at first. But when I brought together a number of psychoanalytically interested researchers at the 2005 meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research in Montreal for an open discussion session on Rigor and Clinical Relevance in Psychoanalytic Research, those attending agreed to form an email list for psychoanalytic researchers. As we reached out to those not in attendance, we were quickly informed of the newly created Psychodynamic Research list and invited to join forces. We did, a decision we never regretted.
The list has been an invaluable resource for sharing relevant papers, answering questions regarding potential resources, and having spirited yet always respectful discussions of contentious topics. In addition to researchers, the list has a significant contingent of (often very senior) psychoanalytic clinicians who participate because they recognize the vital contributions that empirical research can make both toward the preservation of psychodynamic ways of thinking and practice, and to helping our field develop in empirically justifiable directions while leaving behind beliefs that do not hold up under empirical scrutiny.
While the list has developed to the point that I am sometimes not able to read every contribution or follow every discussion, the list is a vital component of my professional identity. It is a resource I think of consulting when trying to answer difficult questions. If I had one wish regarding the list’s future, it would be that it develop a greater opening to rigorous psychoanalytically-informed qualitative research. The integration of qualitative and quantitative research can also help bridge the research-practice divide that I have devoted much of my life to reducing.
Stephen Soldz is a psychoanalyst, clinical psychologist, researcher, and faculty member at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Research Practice and a member of the editorial board of Psychotherapy Research. With Leigh McCullough, he edited Reconciling Empirical Knowledge and Clinical Experience: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy. A life-long social activist, Soldz is a past president and steering committee member of Psychologists for Social Responsibility [PsySR] and a cofounder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology. Soldz is a consultant to Physicians for Human Rights and served as a psychological consultant on several Guantánamo trials.