ABSTRACT
An immensely valuable property of a really powerful method of dynamic psychotherapy is that it can provide conclusive evidence bearing on certain aspects of psychopathology. In particular, some theoretical ideas are unmistakably confirmed, while others need to be treated with greater caution. The chapter presents some extremely striking empirical observations that lead, to some degree, to the rewriting of psychopathology, and go a long way towards validating dynamic psychotherapy without the need for controls. Independent, blind judges predicted that the emergence of anger, usually against one or both parents, would become a major issue in the therapy of all seven patients, and that this would result in therapeutic effects. "Issue by Jennifer Malan (JM)" refers to JM's formulation of the "Issues to be dealt with in therapy". The chapter deals with a consideration of the therapeutic mechanisms involved in intensive short-term dynamic therapy, with special reference to the importance to patients of understanding their own life history.
