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Although they may not be a favorite topic of psychoanalytic discourse, research, or practice, efficacious models of psychoanalytically informed brief psychotherapy are as important today as ever in the history of psychoanalysis. To paraphrase Freud, psychoanalysis must seek ways to alloy the gold of psychoanalysis with the copper of psychotherapeutic technique. Contributors who have made this effort include Sullivan (1956), Winnicott (1971), Kohut (1987), Ferenczi (1921), Ferenczi and Rank (1925), Rank (1936), Alexander (1944), Alexander and French (1946), French (1958), Balint (1969), Balint, Ornstein, and Balint (1972), Malan (1963, 1976), Sifneos (1961, 1964, 1967, 1972, 1979), Davanloo (1978, 1980), and Mann (1973).
All of these theoreticians clearly recognized that the average patient seeking mental health services is usually limited in his or her motivation, capacity, and opportunity (Ripple and Ernestina, 1956). Wolberg (1965) even recommended that, in most cases, treatment begin with an initial trial of short-term treatment before long-term treatment begins. The problem is that the most current psychoanalytic models of brief therapy (e.g., Malan, Sifneos, Davanloo, and Mann) are only applicable to a minority of patients—those who evidence (a) strong motivation for change; (b) a focal conflict or problem, or at