Patient-therapist matching: a research evaluation

The author tested the predictive power of 10 hypotheses about the personality qualities of therapists that match with those of schizophrenic inpatients to affect therapeutic course. The personality matching traits predicted with significant accuracy the quality of the therapeutic relationship and even the type of overall clinical outcome. Examination of the data revealed that most of this surprising predictive strength derived from a group of highly intercorrelated personality qualities. Taken together, these qualities reflected a capacity of therapists to be comfortable while being involved with a variety of strong affects in their schizophrenic inpatients. The limitations of this study and its advantages over the A-B typology are discussed.