Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy

Abstract

Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is a transdiagnostic treatment method rooted in the psychodynamic tradition. A basic assumption is that many of our feelings, thoughts, desires and inner conflicts are inaccessible to our consciousness and thereby trigger and maintain psychological problems. In the 1960s, the Canadian psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Habib Davanloo began developing the original ‘standard format’ of ISTDP. After continuously studying video recordings of his treatment sessions, Davanloo systematised effective factors which he could use in subsequent treatment sessions. In the 1990s, he further developed a ‘graded format’ of ISTDP with interventions that could be adapted to patients who are easily overwhelmed by anxiety and other emotions. In this article, we take a closer look at how ISTDP operationalises ‘unconscious anxiety’ and ‘unconscious therapeutic alliance’ as observable markers that provide the therapist with information about the therapeutic process and about the choice of interventions, illustrated through the case of Nadine. Keywords: Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, ISTDP, conflicting emotions, unconscious anxiety, unconscious therapeutic alliance