Parkinson's Law in psychotherapy

Parkinson's law--work expands or contracts to fill the time available for it--may influence how much and how fast patients benefit from psychotherapy. This is probably most true with respect to brief psychotherapy, and would come about from setting the end at the beginning. This procedure brings forcibly to the fore issues of separation and individuation, in the psychological context of the ultimate termination of life; it counteracts passive, timeless waiting for change to come without the assertion of one's own will and action, and it highlights a variety of ways people characteristically behave with respect to endings. Case examples are offered along with a discussion of practival issues relevant to the use of brief psychotherapy whose ending is predetermined.