TA Treatment of Depression: A Simplified Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design - The Case of “Giovanni”

Main Article Content

Mariavittoria Zanchetta
Laura Farina
Stefano Morena
Enrico Benelli

Abstract

This study is inspired by previous case series replications of Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design which aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of a manualized transactional analysis treatment for depressive disorders and depressive personality. We address problems and difficulties emerged in previous case series, such as: spending time in training a group of people to conduct the hermeneutic analysis, organizing the involvement of external judges to give the final adjudication, and dealing with inconsistencies between quantitative and qualitative data. For these reasons, this study suggests a simplified method to conduct the hermeneutic analysis that require one person only, maintaining its validity. Therefore, we integrated hermeneutic design with the pragmatic case evaluation methodology in order to follow pre-defined criteria in analysing qualitative material. Furthermore, we present a way to use the Script System to detect changes in depressive symptomatology and depressive personality. We tested this approach to HSCED in the case of ‘Giovanni, a 17-years old white Italian boy who attended sixteen session of transactional analysis psychotherapy with a white Italian woman specializing in psychotherapy with 2 years of clinical experience. The patient satisfied DSM-5 criteria for moderate major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.This is the second investigation which has evaluated the effectiveness of Transactional Analysis psychotherapy for depressed adolescents.


 

Article Details

How to Cite
Zanchetta, M., Farina, L., Morena, S., & Benelli, E. (2019). TA Treatment of Depression: A Simplified Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design - The Case of “Giovanni”. International Journal of Transactional Analysis Research & Practice, 10(2), 4–31. https://doi.org/10.29044/v10i2p4
Section
Articles
Author Biographies

Mariavittoria Zanchetta, University of Padua

Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology

Psychologist, specializing in psychotherapy, Honorary fellowship in Dynamic Psychology

Laura Farina, ITACA (International Transactional Analysts for Childhood and Adolescence)

Psychologist, trainee in Psychotherapy, ITACA (International Transactional Analysts for Childhood and Adolescence)

Stefano Morena, ITACA (International Transactional Analysts for Childhood and Adolescence)

Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (Psychotherapy) (TSTA), President of ITACA (International Transactional Analysts for Childhood and Adolescence)

Enrico Benelli, University of Padua

PhD, Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (Psychotherapy)
(PTSTA-P), Vice-President of CPD (Centre for Dynamic Psychology) in Padua (Italy) Adjunct Professor of Dynamic Psychology, University of Padua

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