Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) was developed out of the need for relatively short psychodynamic psychotherapeutic treatment approaches to complex and resistant patient populations so common in public health systems. Based on extensive study of video recordings, Habib Davanloo discovered, and other researchers have validated, some important clinical ingredients that align the therapist with healthy aspects of the patient striving for resolution of chronic neurotic disorders and fragile character structure. In the case of character neurotic highly resistant patients, these approaches including “pressure,” “clarification,” “challenge to defenses,” and “head on collision” can be used in a tailored and properly timed way to help the chronically suffering patient to overcome his or her own resistance and access core drivers of these pathologies. In this article the meta-psychological basis of ISTDP is reviewed and illustrated with an extended case vignette.