Interval Meetings at the American Institute for Psychoanalysis

PSYCHOANALYTIC THERAPY” BY ALEXANDER AND FRENCH. (Valer Barbu) This book was chosen for discussion because its authors claimed to have shortened therapy by a change in theory, focus, and technique. On the positive side, the book brings attention to the problem of the more economic use of time, attempts to get away from a rigid and static theory, and is an excellent example of cooperative undertaking. However, an analysis of the case material shows that the authors did not accomplish that which they had set out to do. The complexities of the patient's difficulties in the present were not recognized or treated. Rather, his difficulties were related to his relationships with his father and mother, and he was analyzed in terms of the past. Rather than helping the patient grow in strength so that he would be enabled to handle his own problems, the analyst's energies where directed to manipulating the environment. The character structure of the patient was not touched.

The dangers of this book are that it is seductive and misleading. It gives a false sense of hope to both patients and analysts, leading them to feel that a quick magical cure can be obtained by manipulating the hours and concentrating on the problem of dependency. It emphasized speed of treatment rather than improvement of theory, adjustment rather than effective therapy, relief of symptoms rather than growth and full use of capacities. It was felt that while the title of the book was Psychoanalytic Therapy, it was really a book on psychotherapy. (This book was reviewed in the American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. VI, No. 1, .)

ECONOMIC USE OF TIME IN PSYCHOANALYSIS. (Muriel Ivimey) This question was discussed from the point of view of using time in analysis more effectively and for broader goals—in contradistinction to that point of view which focuses only on the shortening of time for therapy. Methods which would enable us to accomplish broader goals would appreciably affect the actual length of the anal