Book excerpt: Introduces contemporary models of brief dynamic psychotherapy and describes fundamental tasks and methods of time-limited intervention, focusing on developmental contexts of treatment and on the needs of client populations whose options are often limited to brief treatment. Explores flexible approaches in treatment of conditions including borderline personality, reaction to trauma, and physical disability. The editor teaches contemporary psychoanalytic thought and personality theory at the University of Chicago. Co-published simultaneously as Psychoanalytic Social Work, vol. 6, nos. 3/4, 1999. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.