Issues in research on short-term dynamic psychotherapy

In this article, we review the development of short-term dynamic psychotherapy (STDP) and introduce some of the important questions to be addressed in studying STDP. We begin by surveying some of the areas not covered in this special edition (e.g., the efficacy of STDP, recent developments in dynamic formulation) because they were recently reviewed elsewhere. We then introduce the four articles included in this special miniseries. We conclude by looking at which questions could benefit from further study and recommend that more data be gathered regarding (a) the differences between the many different forms of STDP; (b) the efficacy of these forms of therapies for specific disorders, including personality disorders; (c) the essential theoretically relevant processes occurring in those treatments; (d) matching patients to different therapies; (e) the interrelations between different therapeutic processes; and (f) the different strategies for teaching STDP.