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In several recent papers3, 4, 7, 8 my colleagues and I have reviewed a program of brief psychotherapy based on crisis intervention, offered at the Benjamin Rush Center for Problems of Living in Los Angeles. The subject matter may be of interest to psychoanalysts from the standpoint of the relation of crisis intervention to psychoanalytic theory, and because of the contribution which the psychoanalyst can make to this modality whether as therapist or as supervisor. Therefore, the present paper will deal with our experiences from a psychoanalytic point of view.
Service is available immediately upon application to anyone over seventeen-and-a-half years of age, with no exclusion on either diagnostic or financial grounds, subject only to availability of staff. Brief treatment is offered…at most six visits, generally spaced out over up to six weeks.
Treatment focuses on the immediate problem or crisis, rather than on long-standing pathology or on well-established character patterns. It is carried out by psychiatrists, psychologists and psychiatric social workers under close supervision of the senior staff. Much of this supervision is done by psychoanalysts, including the present author.