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As a therapy, psychoanalysis is being challenged these days by the need and the demand for methods that consume less time, money, and personnel. Serendipity in the conduct of psychoanalysis may be of epistemological importance, but there are increasing signs that our economic system may consider such meandering too much of a luxury. The financial involvement of third parties, development of community health centers, and shortages of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have made it imperative that briefer treatments, consistent with analytic theory and practice, be developed. Otherwise, a Gresham's law will obtain in which 'common sense' techniques will drive out the carefully constructed disciplines that have gained acceptance in psychiatry over the last half century. A generation ago, Franz Alexander emphasized the role of separation and termination, and their manipulation in time-limited psychotherapy, yet there has been little enthusiasm for these methods in the profession during the ensuing years.
Karl Kay Lewin is a member of the Staunton Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where briefer methods of