You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The author first attempts to establish a functional basis for the separation of psycho-analysis from other psychotherapeutic techniques, especially those which resemble it closely and which are usually based on extrapolations from it. The reasons for the desirability of this distinction are:
1Technical variables may alter mechanisms often assumed to remain the same.
2The development of clear-cut technical categories, with corresponding therapeutic indications, beginning with psycho-analysis itself, would be clinically advantageous.
3Psycho-analysis should be preserved as the acknowledged scientific source for psychotherapy in general.
4The requirements of training analysis.
Mention is made of the paradoxical position of brief psychotherapy in clinical practice and psycho-analytic training, especially of the fact that the variations from well-defined psycho-analytic technique are usually delegated to untrained or partially trained physicians. Brief critical mention is made of the extensive contributions of the Chicago Institute. The need for re-evaluation and exploitation of all psychotherapeutic methods to meet the enormous present need for treatment by all social groups is stated. The importance of a tentative broad psycho-analytic interpretation of the personality and illness, as a prerequisite of the rational employment of any therapeutic method, is stressed. Aside from the numbers of patients who cannot have psycho-analysis because of problems of time or money, there are many for whom positive indications for less intensive techniques exist. The author offers several such categories, based on his own opinions and those of other writers, ranging from those patients whose illness or life situation are too unpropitious to those whose illness is too mild, including special categories, such as certain reactive disorders, or those connected with transitional life situations.
Brief mention is made of an incipient inquiry in the New York Institute regarding the effects