Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:04:32.824Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Brief dynamic psychotherapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jeremy Holmes*
Affiliation:
North Devon District Hospital, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 4JB
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The notion of brief dynamic psychotherapy (BDP) may seem at first sight to be a contradiction in terms. ‘Dynamic’ is a Freudian psychoanalytic term implying conflictual psychological forces — an opposition between the conscious and unconscious mind, and the use of defence mechanisms to arrive at a compromise between them. The rigidity of the obsessional person whose self-expression is traded for security, the self-reproaches of the depressive reflecting inhibited aggression, the clinging of the phobic individual who lacks an inner sense of a secure base — these would be examples of the relationship between dynamic conflict and psychiatric symptoms. But the image of psychoanalysis conjures up a picture of prolonged and intensive couch-based therapy. How can this be brief?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 1994 

References

Ashurst, P. (1991) Brief psychotherapy. In Textbook of Psychotherapy in Psychiatric Practice (ed. Holmes, J.) pp. 187212. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Balint, M. & Balint, E. (1961) Psychotherapeutic Techniques in Medicine. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Crits-Cristoph, P. (1992) The efficacy of brief dynamic psychotherapy: a meta-analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 151158.Google Scholar
Davanloo, H. (ed.) (1980) Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy. New York: Aronson.Google Scholar
DiMascio, A., Weissman, M., Prusoff, B. et al (1979) Differential symptom reduction by drugs and psychotherapy in acute depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 14501456.Google Scholar
Elkin, I., Shea, M., Watkins, J. et al (1989) NIMH treatment of depression collaborative research program: general effectiveness of treatments. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 971982.Google Scholar
Frank, E., Kupfer, D., Wagner, E. et al (1991) Efficacy of interpersonal psychotherapy as a maintenance treatment for recurrent depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 10531059.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1937) Analysis, terminable and interminable. Standard Edition, Vol. 23. London: Hogarth.Google Scholar
Holmes, J. (1993) John Bowlby and Attachment Theory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M., Marmar, C., Weiss, D. et al (1984) Brief psychotherapy of bereavement reactions: the relationship of process to outcome. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 438448.Google Scholar
Howard, K., Kopta, S., Krause, M. et al (1986) The dose-effect relationship in psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 41, 159164.Google Scholar
Howard, K., Davidson, C., O'Mahoney, M. et al (1989) Patterns of psychotherapy utilisation. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 775778.Google Scholar
Luborsky, L. (1984) Principles of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: A Manual for Supportive-Expressive Treatment. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Malan, D. (1963) A Study of Brief Psychotherapy. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Malan, D. (1976a) Frontier of Brief Psychotherapy. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Malan, D. (1976b) Towards the Validation of Dynamic Psychotherapy: A Replication. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Malan, D. (1979) Individual Psychotherapy and the Science of Psycho-dynamics. London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Mann, J. (1973) Time Limited Psychotherapy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Marziali, E. (1984) Three viewpoints on the therapeutic alliance. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 7, 417423.Google Scholar
Molnos, A. (1984) The two triangles are four: a diagram to teach the process of dynamic brief psychotherapy. British Journal of Psychotherapy, 1, 112125.Google Scholar
Orlinsky, D. & Howard, K. (1986) Process and outcome in psychotherapy. In Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behaviour Change (eds Garfield, S. & Bergin, A.) pp. 56102. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Piper, W., Hassan, F., Joyce, A. et al (1991) Transference interpretations, therapeutic alliance, and outcome in short-term individual psychotherapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 946953.Google Scholar
Rosen, B. (1986) Brief focal psychotherapy. In An Introduction to the Psychotherapies (ed. Bloch, S.) pp. 5579. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ryle, A. (1990) Cognitive Analytic Therapy: Active Participation in Change. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Sifneos, P. (1979) Short-Term Psychotherapy and Emotional Crisis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Stevenson, J. & Meares, R. (1992) An outcome study of psychotherapy for patients with borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 358362.Google Scholar
Svartberg, M. & Styles, T. (1992) Comparative effects of short-term psycho-dynamic psychotherapy: a meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 704714.Google Scholar
Teasdale, J. (1993) Emotion and two kinds of meaning: cognitive therapy and applied cognitive science. Behaviour Therapy Research, 31, 339354.Google Scholar
US DHHS (1993) Depression in Primary Care: Treatment of Major Depression. Rockville: AHCPR Publications.Google Scholar
Winston, A., Laikin, M., Pollack, J. et al (1994) Short-term psychotherapy of personality disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 190194.Google Scholar
Woody, G., Luborsky, L., McLellan, A. et al (1990) Corrections and revised analysis for psychotherapy in methadone maintenance patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 788789.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.