Time-Limited Psychotherapy

by James F. Mann

Waiting lists in psychiatric clinics and increasing numbers of patients in long-term psychotherapy have highlighted the need for shorter methods of treatment. Existing forms of short-term psychotherapy tend to be vague and uncertain, lacking as they do a clearly formulated rationale and methodology.

The bold and challenging technique for brief psychotherapy designed around the factor of time itself, which James Mann introduces here, is a method he hopes will revolutionize current practice. The significance of time in human life is examined in terms of the development of time sense as well as its unconscious meaning and the ways these are experienced in both the categorical and existential senses. The author shows how the interplay between the regressive pressures of the child’s sense of infinite time and the adult reality of categorical time determine the patient’s unconscious expectations of psychotherapy.

Genres: Psychology

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat dated but thoughtful proposal on the value, course and function of brief (8 session) therapy understood from a psychoanalytic perspective. Valuable for contemporary clinicians that favor psychodynamic orientation but operating in short term/managed care environment.