ABSTRACT
Dynamic interpersonal therapy (DIT) has been adopted under the Programme as the “prototype” brief psychodynamic treatment option for depression. The core techniques and strategies underpinning DIT reflect the competences found to characterize models of psychoanalytic psychotherapy that have been shown to be effective. DIT was developed for pragmatic reasons, so that clinicians with a psychoanalytic/dynamic psychotherapy or counselling training can readily acquire the specific priorities and competences associated with time-limited therapeutic work. DIT formulates the presenting symptoms of depression as responses to interpersonal difficulties/perceived threats to attachments and hence also as threats to the self. DIT conceptualizes depression in terms of an underlying temporary disorganization of the attachment system caused by current relationship problems, which, in turn, generates a range of distortions in thinking and feelings typical of the depressive process. DIT as an approach specifically focuses on an individual’s distorted and inadequate understanding of other people’s thoughts and feelings.
