ABSTRACT

The theoretical underpinnings of Dr. Habib Davanloo's model have been derived from S. Freud's second theory of anxiety. While adhering quite strictly to psychoanalytic theory, Dr. Davanloo has developed Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, which is designed to make rapid entry into the unconscious. Patients who channel their anxiety into striated muscle tend to associate their physical tension with anxiety and to have a fairly accurate idea what they are anxious about, indicating some degree of integration between thoughts and feelings and suggesting a fairly high level of ego functioning. Defenses and resistance increase in direct proportion to the mounting anxiety about the rise in previously forbidden feelings and impulses. Davanloo has made extensive use of the two triangles as a means for conceptualizing intrapsychic conflict. The triangles serve as both a diagnostic tool and guide to systematic intervention. Feelings are considered the engine of the intrapsychic system and have been placed at the bottom of the triangle.