Method of Assaying Doctor-Patient Tensions:  Its Application in Assessing the Role of These Tensions in the Choice of Electroshock

I. Introduction  Fromm-Reichmann, whose contributions to the application of psychotherapeutic technique to the psychoses were monumental, began her major work Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy¹ by calling attention to the importance of the actual as distinct from the transference aspect of the doctor-patient relationship. An increasing recognition of the significance of this parameter has resulted from the findings of (1) collaborative studies^2-4 on mental illness by psychiatrists and social scientists and (2) more refined research techniques developed in conjunction with the evaluation of psychopharmacological agents. The as yet unmet need for methods of assessing the role of the doctor-patient relationship in clinical investigation motivated the study described herein. This is a methodological paper describing a technique for the assessment of doctor-patient tensions and its application to the study of the doctor-patient relationship as a parameter affecting the choice of a treatment