Interpretation in psychodynamic psychotherapy: A systematic review

Interpretation is a specific technique, and it is one of the main components of psychodynamic psychotherapy’s processes. This systematic review aimed to investigate the effectiveness of different types of interpretation (e.g. regarding transference, dreams, and symptoms) for patients with various disorders. Also, it aimed to identify the moderators and mediators of the relationship between interpretation and some outcomes. We adopted the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines for systematic reviews. We selected nine RCTs and one quasi-experiment investigating the role of transference, dreams, and panic-symptoms interpretations. Studies were published between the years 1983 and 2016. The review showed that transference, dreams, and symptom interpretations predicted a positive outcome in most studies. Furthermore, for nearly all the analysed outcomes, psychodynamic psychotherapy using interpretations was superior to the control group (i.e. no treatment/wait-list). However, it was not superior to comparison groups (i.e. other types of psychotherapies) or to psychodynamic psychotherapy not using transference interpretations. Finally, patients’ and therapists’ characteristics and therapeutic relationship moderated/mediated the association between transference interpretations and outcomes. In conclusion, we suggest that interpretations are clinically helpful when therapists know how and when utilising them.