The Complex Secret of Brief Psychotherapy: A Panorama of Approaches

by James Paul Gustafson

The array of observing positions for considering what to do in brief psychotherapy range from the inner world to the outer systemic world to the interpersonal world between. Dr. Gustafson presents the chief inventors of all three positions - Freud and Reich within; Bateson, the Milan Family Therapy Team and Maturana without; and Alexander and French, Sullivan, Balint and Winnicott between. For contrast, he shows the logic of long-term psychotherapy in Havens and Gedo, and the formulae of brief psychotherapy in the schools of Malan, Mann, Sifneos and Davanloo, in order to consider what a full integration of brief psychotherapy would require, in its opening, middle and end games. This is a book about taking a life as a whole rather than addressing an isolated part.

454 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1997