ABSTRACT
This chapter, devoted to the ground rules of brief or time-limited psychotherapy, is written in circular fashion. That is, the very introduction that you are now reading was developed only after the completion of the working draft of this contribution. The writing, which seemed to have a life of its own, turned out to be an exploration into uncharted lands and brought out a series of unexpected realizations that called for a fresh set of introductory comments. I must say that while I was quite surprised by where it took me, I suspect that what follows will surprise my readers even more, especially those who are unfamiliar with the communicative-adaptive approach on which it is based.
