Termination Was Not the End.

We describe the treatment, five decades ago, of a 28-year-old gay man, who, at the end of psychotherapy, had become became able for the first time to experience an intimate sexually satisfying relationship with a woman. Both he and the therapist were pleased with the outcome. The therapist imagined that heterosexuality would be stable and associated with a sense of contentment.

Interpersonal change in brief supportive psychotherapy.

As a substudy of a manual-based outcome study of the Beth Israel Brief Psychotherapy Program, the authors studied the efficacy of supportive psychotherapy in personality change, with particular attention to changes that outlast the period of treatment. They examined results from the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP) at intake, 40th-session termination, and 6-month follow-up in the first 20 subjects randomized to the supportive group. Eight subjects (40%) dropped out, but their initial IIP scores did not differ from those of follow-up completers.

A randomized prospective study comparing supportive and dynamic therapies. Outcome and alliance.

The authors report preliminary results of Brief Supportive Psychotherapy (BSP) in the Beth Israel Brief Psychotherapy Program for a sample with primarily Cluster C Axis II disorders. This study compares 24 patients treated with BSP with 25 patients treated with Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (STDP). STDP was chosen because its confrontational methods contrast dramatically to BSP, which emphasizes building self-esteem, reducing anxiety, and enhancing coping mechanisms.