Lester B. Luborsky (1920–2009) was one of the founders of scientific research in psychotherapy. Luborsky was born and raised in Philadelphia. He graduated from Philadelphia Central High School and then earned his bachelor's degree at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

. Luborsky received his Ph.D. in psychology from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. He was an instructor at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

for two years. He then spent eleven years at the Menninger Foundation before joining the faculty of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. In 1973–1974 Luborsky served as president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research.

Career

Author of nine books and over 400 articles, he had the rare ability to apply a scientific eye to the personal processes of psychotherapy. He examined the factors that make psychotherapy work, along with large-scale studies of outcome. Among his major research contributions were the development of methods that could be used to study therapeutic processes, notably the symptom–context method, which gives a way to understand and study symptoms as they occur, and the CCRT ( core conflictual relationship theme) method, which allows for the study of the psychoanalytic concept of the transference. Other measures include The Helping Alliance, which gives a way to study the impact of the therapeutic relationship, and Health–Sickness Rating Scale, which was later adapted to become the

Global Assessment of Functioning The Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) is a numeric scale used by mental health clinicians and physicians to rate subjectively the social, occupational, and psychological functioning of an individual, i.e., how well one is meeting various probl ...

(Axis V) in the

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (''DSM''; latest edition: ''DSM-5-TR'', published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a com ...

(DSM), as noted in the DSM-IV. He received numerous awards, among them the gold medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Applications of Psychology by the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

, The Sigourney Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Field of Psychoanalysis, and The Award for Distinguished Psychoanalytic Theory and Research by the

American Psychoanalytic Association The American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) is an association of psychoanalysts in the United States. APsA serves as a scientific and professional organization with a focus on education, research, and membership development. APsA comprises 34 ...

Publications

* Luborsky (1984) ''Principles of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Manual for Supportive-Expressive (SE) Treatment'' * Luborsky & Crits-Christoph (1990, reissued in 1998) ''Understanding Transference, The Core Conflictual Theme Method'' * Luborsky (1996) ''The Symptom-Context Method: Symptoms as Opportunities in Psychotherapy'' * Luborsky, L & Luborsky, E (2006) ''Research & Psychotherapy: The Vital Link''

Career

Publications

See also

Sources

Further reading