Journal of Contemporary ISTDP, Malmö (2025)

12/06/2025

ISSUE #3 is on its way — a 176-page monster packed to the brim!

11/06/2025

ISSUE #3 HAS JUST BEEN SENT TO PRINT
ORDER NOW: https://www.istdpjournal.com/buy-subscribe/

The Journal of Contemporary ISTDP (JCI) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy, an emotion-focused psychoanalytic psychotherapy developed by Habib Davanloo. The journal is a hybrid-content journal mixing academic and non-academic content, spanning all the way from rigorous empirical studies to case studies to short personal reflections and arts.

24/05/2025

Peter Lilliengren is presenting his case from issue #2, The Shaking Grandmother, in this very moment here in Malmö.

Very touching and illuminating!

You can download the case here: https://archive.istdpjournal.com/index.php/jci/article/view/16

15/05/2025

We've got something in the oven for you...

06/05/2025

The 2025 subscriptions are available now! If you want to make sure to get your Issue #3 copy before the summer, now is the time to sign up.

More info here: https://www.istdpjournal.com/buy-subscribe/

01/05/2025

In June 2024, we launched a new print journal dedicated to all things ISTDP. We hope to provide a platform where the ISTDP community can grow strong roots and branches.

26/04/2025

The third issue, fully packed, is about to be printed. It's got about ten more pages than the second issue, and it's filled with transcripts, theory, interviews, discussions, guides and so on. We think you'll love it! The theme will be 'Bridges' – bridges between humans, between people, between past and present, between therapy schools, and so on.

Also, we've already got quite a few interesting things in the making for the fourth edition. This morning I had a fascinating talk with Nancy McWilliams, discussing psychoanalytic diagnosis and her views on ISTDP. Coming this fall!

Get or renew your subscription here if you haven't done so already: https://www.istdpjournal.com/buy-subscribe/

14/04/2025

OPEN ACCESS WEBSITE LAUNCH

This week, we're launching the Open Access website of the journal. As we want the materials of the journal to benefit the larger ISTDP and scientific community, with a bit of delay (6-12 months) we will publish most, if not all, of the journal in our new Archive.

As of this week, you can find most of Issue 1 here: https://archive.istdpjournal.com/

Some of the highlights:
– Katarina Kiiskinen article on the therapist's experience of the unlocking
– Lawson Sachter article on ISTDP and Zen.
– Jonathan Entis & Thomas Hesslow article on the therapeutic task in ISTDP.
– Hanna Pedersen article on the ISTDP team in Gothenburg
– Mikkel Reher-Langberg article on the history of Short-term dynamic psychotherapy.

Feel free to share with your friends!

In other news, subscriptions for 2025 are now available! Order yours today to ensure timely delivery of the June issue. https://www.istdpjournal.com/buy-subscribe/

29/01/2025

This is a milestone paper for us at the journal, as this is the first larger empirical study that we publish.

Robert Johansson, Kajsa Eriksson, Kalle Åberg, Joel Town and Allan Abbass has written a paper titled "ISTDP for depression - treatment effectiveness and effects of unlocking of the unconscious", on the treatment of depression with ISTDP. The study reports the outcomes of 195 patients with depression treated at the Halifax Centre for Emotions and Health by Allan Abbass and colleagues. They also report on process outcomes, showing that patients who had an unlocking of the unconscious had a better outcome on both depression and interpersonal problems.

ABSTRACT:

Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) has an increasing amount of evidence regarding its efficacy across various psychiatric conditions and specifically with depression. The aim of this study is to replicate the findings of controlled research by examining the effects of ISTDP in the treatment of depression in a large naturalistic sample, and also to explore the mediating role of unlocking the unconscious in this treatment. Healthcare costs were also explored. Data were collected from a naturalistic study conducted at the Centre for Emotions and Health, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, between 1999 and 2007. A sample of 195 patients' self-reported levels of depression, measured by the depression subscale of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and interpersonal problems, measured by the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-32 (IIP-32), were analyzed using mixed-effects models. The analysis revealed a significant and large effect of ISTDP on both depression (within-group Cohen's d = 1.02, 95% CI [0.75, 1.26]) and interpersonal problems (within-group Cohen's d = 1.17, 95% CI [0.89, 1.46]). The process of unlocking the unconscious emerged as a significant mediator of treatment outcomes for both depression (between-group Cohen’s d = 0.60, 95% CI [0.16, 1.07]) and interpersonal problems (between-group Cohen’s d = 0.47, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.95]). Reductions in costs regarding physician (p = 0.07) and hospital costs (p < 0.05) were observed. These findings support the efficacy of ISTDP in treating depression and highlight the importance of unlocking the unconscious among patients with depression.

Published now in the second issue of the Journal of Contemporary ISTDP. Subscribe now for only €60: www.istdpjournal.com

27/01/2025

Also in the second issue, "The shaking grandmother", by Peter Lilliengren. In this case study, Peter describes the treatment of a patient with long-standing difficulties. Through transcripts and discussion, the reader is taken on a journey through the therapy process, from beginning to end.

"... the therapist needs to carefully psychodiagnose patients' responses to intervention in order to 'test' and 'rule in' that specific symptom actually represents a 'sympathy symptom'. [...] the patient experienced an instant decrease of symptoms as soon as she allowed herself to experience rage internally and imagined directing it outward..."

You're in for a treat!

26/01/2025

Jody Clarke has spent many years training with Davanloo. In this interview with Mikkel Reher-Langberg, Jody discusses the details of the Closed-circuit training workshops (CCTW) run by Davanloo in his later years. Readers will be given a detailed account of his experiences in the CCTW workshops.

“I was in the CCTW process while my father was dying. There was a lot of destructive competitiveness, a lot of superego pathology in our relationship that goes back to the earliest year in my life. It was a difficult relationship. As the guilt was drained, I was able to find peace and love in the relationship. As my father died of cancer, I would help shave him, and we shared a degree or a quality of intimacy that we had never been before. For me, you know, that’s worth a million dollars, right, or a billion dollars.”

25/01/2025

Too little has been written about boundaries and the therapeutic frame from an ISTDP perspective. In the second issue of the journal, Deborah Pollack has written a thought-provoking article on the benefits of providing time-limited ISTDP. You're in for a treat!

"In psychodynamic psychotherapy, the frame is what provides the surface on which unconscious conflicts can adhere, much like barnacles attaching to the frame of a boat. Maintaining a secure frame is therefore crucial, as without it there is no boundary for these unconscious conflicts to show up against. Central to the present argument is the fact that some of the most important components of the frame are facets of linear clock time, specifically, the set hour and frequency of sessions. Inthisway,thepsychotherapyframeimposesthelimitationsof linear clock time upon the timelessness of the unconscious. In so doing, these temporal elements of the frame serve as a constant reminder of the conflict between the reality of the finitude being juxtaposed against our unconscious desire for transcendence and immortality."

- Pollack, D. (2024). On closing the frame – An existential argument for setting a time-limit in intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy. Journal of Contemporary ISTDP 1(2).

Journal of Contemporary ISTDP