ABSTRACT
Jeremy Holmes describes the aims of psychoanalytic therapy as 'to set in train the unfolding of a developmental process, either within the therapy itself if it is prolonged, or as a catalyst that can augment potentially benign experiences in 'real life', in brief therapy'. This chapter focuses particularly on the core content of the project as we see it, the psychoanalytic way in which we try to work, and the interaction of this with the short time-frame. The setting for this project was the Tavistock Marital Studies Institute, where clinical work is predominantly open-ended couple psychotherapy, often involving co-therapy, for which fees are paid. There may be factors affecting the outcome of short-term work that are specific to couples as opposed to individuals. A central concern in short-term work must be the question of working through. The limited time for working through within brief therapy is the most salient inevitable difference between it and long-term psychoanalytic work.
