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Psychotherapy has many aspects. In its microscopic view it is concerned with detailed, minute, psychoanalytic investigations occurring over a prolonged period of time; in its most gross form with the different varieties of suggestive therapy. A commonly neglected aspect—brief analytic therapy, can be furnished only by the psychiatrist trained in the method of detailed psychoanalytic investigation. By using the insights gained through a thorough knowledge of psychodynamics and the rapid application of these concepts to the patient's illness an important tool is added to the armamentarium of the therapist. In recent psychoanalytic periodical literature however few writers (8) have reported the results of their investigations even though suitable case material and such brief contacts are quite frequent even with psychiatrists whose practice is devoted almost exclusively to psychoanalysis. Whether the length of treatment is “extremely brief” or simply brief the same considerations apply in either case.
Alexander and French (1) added impetus to an investigation of short term methods and included a discussion of three patients treated for extremely short periods of time, two to three sessions, with favorable to excellent results. (The therapists were Alexander, Grotjahn, and Fuerst.) Their conclusions may be summarized as follows:
The good results achieved in such a short period of time were due to 1. “a favorable combination of circumstances” (a) The physician's ability to see at once the precipitating difficulty in relation to the patient's total personality, (b) the capacity of the patient's ego for insight and (c) the ready confidence of the patient in the therapist who for a definite reason in each case, seemed peculiarly fitted to help that particular patient.
2. The “spotlighting” for the patient of previously hidden central conflicts. This may at times almost produce a “revelation”-like experience.
3. The immediate awareness on the part of the therapist of the optimum