The frontier of brief psychotherapy

After trial and error for decades, psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy was established, with therapies occurring at a once- or twice-a-week rate, often extended for many months. This volume addresses the possibility of brief, even time-limited therapy: Can processes be accomplished or instigated during a brief therapy that produce structural changes that are discernible in the post-therapy period? English analyst David Malan – presenting extensive and thoughtful material based on his own clinical and research activity at the Tavistock Clinic – asserts that methods of brief therapy and the route of optimizing therapy and patient selection should be explored as a way of extending the delivery and impact of mental health services. Malan raises the possibility that a focal change in process, such as working through neurotic responses to a dramatic life event, can lead to eventual change in personality structure. The experience of a brief therapy or even a single interview is important. Patients may develop valuable insights and recognize their role and responsibility in their problems. This new awareness will continue in the mind of the patient long after therapy itself ends. The memory and its extensions will be worked over in many ways, not only in thought but in the acts of living. Changes initiated by treatment may emerge and be consolidated during the years of life experiences after therapy.