Comparison of the effectiveness of Karen Horney's psychoanalysis and cognitive therapy on communication patterns of neurotic married women

Couples' communication patterns are one way of assessing family structure that determines how couples interact and affect family performance. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Karen Horney's Psychoanalysis and cognitive therapy on the communication patterns of the neurotic married women. The research method is quasi-experimental study with randomized controlled design with two experimental groups and one control group. The statistical population includes 300 married women who referred to some counseling centers East of Tehran due to problems with their spouse in 2016 and 2017. The sample of the study was available sample and included 45 married women who were neurotic according to the results of the "Horney-Coolidge Tridimensional Inventory" distributed before treatment. Experimental groups received 15 sessions of individual counseling with cognitive therapy and Karen Horney's Psychoanalysis approach respectively, once or twice a week. Christensen & Sullaway Communication Patterns Questionnaire (1984) was distributed among the experimental groups in three stages of baseline, mid stage and end of intervention and also between control groups simultaneously. The Findings indicated that there was a significant effect of therapeutic interventions on time and interactive effect of time and group in all three communication patterns. The cross-constructive communication pattern increased significantly (f=211/92, P<0.001) and expectation/withdrawal (f= 313/19, P<0.001) and cross-avoidance (f= 104/35, P<0.001) communication patterns decreased significantly in both experimental groups. There was no significant difference in the effectiveness of the two types of psychotherapy on cross-constructive and cross-avoidance communication patterns, while Karen Horney's Psychoanalysis showed a significant difference in the reduction of expectation-withdrawal communication pattern compared to cognitive therapy (P<0.001).