ABSTRACT
Experiential dynamic therapies descend from the line of thinking and research historically initiated by F. Alexander and T. M. French, who were the first to declare their aim of making psychoanalytic therapy “briefer and more effective”. Sandor Ferenczi deeply sensed the need to introduce more active techniques and this played a major role in the more conflictual aspects of his relationship with the founder of psychoanalysis. All the Experiential dynamic therapy approaches are indebted to Habib Davanloo discoveries, his innovations, and his demonstration of how it is possible to have an understanding of all defences much more quickly than it was previously believed. Contemporary descriptive diagnostic manuals such as Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV and ICD-10 do indeed strive to make up for this complexity by resorting to multi-level diagnosis. The descriptive diagnosis needs to be integrated and confirmed case by case on the basis of clinical indicators. The chapter considers three descriptive indicators: diagnosis, defensive style, and Global Assessment of Functioning.
