Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy from a Psychoanalytic Viewpoint*

Today, when psychoanalysis is going through a period of crisis (Migone, 1981), the problem of the efficacy of new forms of psychotherapy is becoming more topical than ever. Particularly interesting among such new forms is the Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (STDP), which is essentially a therapeutic technique based strictly on classic psychoanalytic theory, with some technical variants, such as the setting of a limit to the number of sessions.

Actually, it is the very spreading of the movement of STDP that, among other factors, manifests the crisis in classical psychoanalysis, and not simply because the short-term therapists are conquering certain sectors of the consumer market, but rather because of the theoretical issues that this phenomenon opens up. In fact, if it is true that the new techniques of STDP yield good results for a high percentage of patients —and this seems proven by the researches done within the past ten years (Malan, 1976b, 1980a, 1980b) —what is the rationale, what the ethics, in asking the patient to undergo traditional psychoanalysis, with its large investment of money and time? We cannot even argue that the two techniques are to be used for different indications, because the patients that are not considered good candidates for STDP are the same ones that have always been considered not suitable for psychoanalysis and for whom psychopharmacological treatments or support therapies have been preferred.