1 The Current Position of Research in Psychotherapy -- 2 Design of the Second Study of Brief Psychotherapy -- Aims of the Study -- Design of the Replicated Study of Brief Psychotherapy -- 3 The Psychodynamic Assessment of Outcome -- Defining a Psychodynamic Hypothesis -- The Outcome Scale -- Reliability -- 4 Criteria for Rejection and the Nature of the Sample -- 5 The Clinical Material -- The Au Pair Girl -- The Car Dealer -- Mrs. Clifford -- The Company Secretary -- The Contralto -- The Factory Inspector -- The Gunner's Wife -- Mrs. Hopkins -- Mrs. Lewis -- The Maintenance Man -- The Playwright -- The Representative -- 6 The Observed Improvements, Clinical Considerations -- The Influence of External Events and Changes of Environment- "Spontaneous Remission" After Psychotherapy -- Evidence on the Validity of Psychotherapy from Time Factors -- 7 Further Follow-Up on the First Series -- Articled Accountant -- Biologist -- Civil Servant -- Dog Lady -- Draper's Assistant -- Falling Social Worker -- Girl with the Dreams -- Hypertensive Housewife -- Lighterman -- Neurasthenic's Husband -- Paranoid Engineer -- Pilot's Wife -- Railway Solicitor -- Storm Lady -- Student Thief -- Student's Wife -- Surgeon's Daughter -- Tom -- Unsuccessful Accountant -- Violet's Mother -- Discussion -- 8 Failure to Terminate and "Spontaneous Remission" -- The "False" Cases -- Statistical Methods Used -- A Note on One-Tailed and Two-Tailed Tests of Significance -- Hypotheses of the Necessary Condition -- 9 Selection Criteria at Initial Assessment -- Methods Used in the Present Study -- Study of Motivation by Malan and Rayner -- 10 Selection Criteria at the Initial Stages of Therapy -- Focality -- The Practical Viewpoint -- The Relation Between Motivation and Focality -- Practical Considerations -- Theoretical Implications -- 11 Content Analysis, Preliminary -- 12 Number of Sessions, Passage of Time, and the Validity of Psychotherapy -- The Correlation Between Outcome and Passage of Time -- Number of Sessions and Passage of Time in the First Series -- Passage of Time and Outcome in Other Series -- Is a Certain Minimum Number of Sessions Necessary for a Good Therapeutic Result? -- The Influence of Number of Sessions on Correlations Involving Outcome and Proportions of Various Types of Interpretation -- 13 The Transference/Parent Link -- Reliability -- Correlations with Outcome -- "Undirected" Interpretations -- Discussion -- Significance of This Observation -- 14 Other Correlations -- Early Transference and Work on Termination -- Negative Transference -- The Therapist's Involvement -- The Relation Between Working Through of the Transference and Behavior over Follow-up -- The Transference/"Other" Link and Length of Therapy -- The Patients Who Failed Follow-up -- More Light Relief -- A Note on Correlations and Chance -- 15 The Evidence and Its Implications -- The Long Cases -- The False Cases -- "Exceptional" Cases -- Overall View of Therapeutic Mechanisms; Specific and Nonspecific Factors -- 16 The Question of the Validity of Psychotherapy -- References.