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This book reports on cases treated by a brief method of therapy devised by a group of trained psycho-analysts under the leadership of Dr Balint. The patients were chosen because they were well motivated towards therapy and because a psychodynamic hypothesis about the origin of their disorder could be formulated. A treatment policy was then outlined by the therapist, with the help of a group in which Dr and Mrs Balint participated. The treatment plan was aimed at the focus inferred by the psychodynamic hypothesis, and rather direct interpretations were used. The number of interviews was defined, and before the treatment began the end was clearly envisaged.
In this way a situation is created to which statistical methods can usefully be applied; one of the significant results is a positive correlation between interpretation of the negative transference and therapeutic effect.
That only some patients can go through the rather rigorous discipline described is not surprising. From the successful cases, a number of conclusions are arrived at, which, though common practice among many analysts using short treatments, are still not generally recognized. They are as follows: transference interpretations are useful; dependent feelings are desirable; and deep interpretations are valuable and need not be reserved for long-term analysis.
This volume was clearly stimulated by the attack that is being made by Eysenck and his co-workers in this country on psycho-analysis in particular and psychotherapy in general; the book's importance, however, lies not in its contribution to the polemic, but in its description of a method that is revolutionary in nature. In my opinion the method, though differing from analysis proper, can be taken as a sample of sound analytic procedures. In any analysis the therapist's interest is centred on a series of foci one at a time. As they occur they are interpreted and worked through. One factor that tends to lengthen analysis is that the patient is given a