ABSTRACT
In view of the evidence presented above, it is quite possible to maintain that the changes that took place in the present series of patients were not a consequence of therapy at all. Although, strictly speaking—without a study of 'controls'—this argument is unanswerable, it can be somewhat weakened by showing a coincidence in time between therapy and the onset of improvement. This applies particularly to brief psychotherapy in chronic cases. The clearest example is the Biologist, who had suffered from his eating phobia for three and a half years and who lost it permanently during a course of treatment lasting only five weeks. In two other cases: the Neurasthenic's Husband, with whom the symptoms had lasted for at least fifteen years and therapy lasted for five months; and the Falling Social Worker, with whom the corresponding periods were ten years and four months respectively; a graph of the severity of disturbances against time would show a sudden change in direction towards 'improvement' coinciding with a point soon after the beginning of therapy, with most of the improvement maintained permanently thereafter. In fact, of the nine patients judged to have shown worth-while 'improvement', in only one (the Railway Solicitor) did the improvements fail to begin during therapy or shortly afterwards.
