Comparison study of transference patterns according to psychotherapist and patient’s gender in dynamic psychotherapy of cluster B personality disorders

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of psychotherapist-patient gender on the transference patterns of cluster B personality disordered patients during their psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Using an expo-facto design, four groups of 20 patients and their psychotherapists were selected through purposive sampling method and Psychotherapy Relationship Questionnaire (PRQ) was completed by the therapists about their patients. The PRQ for the first time translated into Persian language in this research and Chronbach’s Alpha in Iranian patients was computed for its five dimensions. The transference patterns in five categories including: 1-Angry/entitled 2- Anxious/preoccupied 3- Secure/engaged 4- Avoidant/ counter dependent 5-Sexualized were estimated applying the questionnaire. Results were analyzed by a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Angry/entitled transference revealed as the most common transference among five dimensions, while the Sexualised transference appeared as minimum. The anxious/preoccupied, secure/engaged and avoidant/ counter dependent patterns revealed moderate as well. One-way analysis of variance showed a significant difference for sexualised transference pattern. No significant statistical effect observed on other transferential patterns. Tukey post-hoc test indicated significantly differences with more sexualized transference indices for “male therapist-female patient” and “female therapist - male patient” rather than “male therapist - male patient” and “female therapist - female patient” combination.

Heterogeneous combination such as “female therapist- male patient” and contrariwise conveyed higher sexualised transference extent in the dynamic psychotherapy of cluster B patients rather than homogeneous one. The sexualised transferences in “male therapist-female patient” state was higher than “female therapist- male patient” as well. A robust angry/entitled transferential pattern was evident in the dynamic psychotherapy of cluster B personality disordered patients, while others were uncommon.