[Why (some) psychoanalytic therapies (must) have a long duration. Thoughts on appropriate catamnestic methods].

First the author discusses some of the reasons why psychoanalytic therapy takes time, showing in the process how the psychoanalytic understanding of time is at odds with the everyday concept of it. He then makes out a case against the unthinking adoption of the psychometric procedures and evaluation techniques used hitherto in determining the success of psychotherapy. In this way certain erroneous developments in traditional psychology can be avoided in psychoanalytic catamnesis. In the concluding section the author outlines an alternative methodology of catamnesis geared to the specific epistemological requirements inherent in the process of psychoanalysis.