Gordon, R.M., Stoffey, R., Bottinelli, J. (2008). MMPI-2 findings of primitive defenses in alienating parents. American Journal of Family Therapy, 36: 211-228.
I was able to ask a diverse group of psychologists their opinion about the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM, Task Force 2006). Most of the psychologists (66%) in my sample defined themselves as non-psychodynamic. They were in one of three of my workshops: 1) a workshop using the PDM to help with MMPI-2 interpretations (Gordon, 2007c), 2) a spring workshop “Ethics and the Difficult Person: What the PDM can teach us all”, and 3) a fall workshop on the same (Gordon, 2007d). All the workshops were in Pennsylvania where continuing education credits are mandatory as are ethics continuing educations credits. I mention this because at the time of ethics workshops, it was the end of the two-year, 2005-2007, cycle for completing our continuing education requirements. This gave me a sample of psychologists who would otherwise be unlikely to step foot into anything psychodynamic, but were desperate for CE credits.
I had asked the psychologists to state their primary theoretical identification and rate several questions at the end of the workshops. There were a total of 192 psychologists, 65 Psychodynamic, 76 CBT and 51 Other (i.e. systems, humanistic/existential, behavioral, etc.). In this preliminary report, I will share the results of the most important question, “I believe that the PDM can help me understand a person’s full range of mental health.” They rated this on a scale from “1= Low” to “7= High.”