David H. Malan

After his retirement, Malan continued to write and lecture extensively on Brief Psychotherapy and Intensive Short Term Dynamic Therapy (ISTDP), publishing his last book "Lives Transformed", in 2006, which he co-authored with Patricia Coughlin. He also put on Conferences in Oxford in 2006 and 2008 to demonstrate the effectiveness of ISTDP as a method of Brief Psychotherapy. Following these conferences, core training courses developed, and therapists, who completed them and have become experienced, have continued to lecture and teach subsequent core trainings.

Malan has worked with many of Davanloo's ex-trainees lecturing and writing extensively. In 2006 he co-authored with Patricia Coughlin ‘Lives Transformed – a Revolutionary Method of Dynamic Psychotherapy’ pub. Karnac.

In order to introduce Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy to the UK, Malan organised two Conferences in Oxford in 2006 and 2008, where video-tapes of therapies were shown. Following these Core Training groups were established. Subsequent Conferences have been held demonstrating ISTDP and currently there are Core trainings in London and the North of England. Malan hopes ISTDP will become available as a treatment method on the N.H.S. as it so effective, but it is difficult to learn and challenging to do.

Lives transformed – a Revolutionary Method of Dynamic Psychotherapy : Malan and Coughlin pub:Karnac 2006

Malan, D.H. and Coughlin Della Selva, P. (2006) Lives Transformed – a Revolutionary Method of Dynamic psychotherapy. London Karnack

In 2005, Malan received a Career Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to Psychotherapy from the International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association, of which he was Emeritus President since its inception. He died in 2020.

Malan, D.H. (2001) The Way Ahead. In Short-Term Therapy for Long-term Change. New York. Norton.

Anorexia, Murder and Suicide : pub Butterworth-Heinemann 1997

Individual Psychotherapy and the Science of Psychodynamics  : pub. Butterworth-Heinemann !979 Second edition 1995 Reprinted in 8 languages.

An account of twenty-four therapies completed by trainees as part of the Brief Psychotherapy Workshop is summarised in ‘Psychodynamics, Training and Outcome’ by Malan and Osimo, pub. Butterworth –Heinemann 1992. It is based not only on the sessions but on the follow-up of a series of patients, and shows that good therapeutic results can be achieved by trainees under supervision.

Psychodynamics, Training and Outcome in Brief Psychotherapy : Malan and Osimo pub. Butterworth-Heinemann 1992

Malan, D.H. and Osimo, F. (1992). Psychodynamics, Training and Outcome in Brief Psychotherapy. London: Butterworth- Heinemann.

Malan D.H. (1986) Beyond Interpretation: Part I and II. International Journal of Short-term Psychotherapy, I (2), (pp. 59–82, 83-106)

Malan, D.H. (1980) The most important development in psychotherapy since the discovery of the unconscious. In H. Davanloo (Ed) Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, (pp. 13–23) Northvale NJ: Aronson.

In 1979, Malan wrote Individual Psychotherapy and the Science of Psychodynamics pub. Butterworth-Heinnemann which outlines the principles of Dynamic Psychotherapy from the most elementary to the most profound, using true case histories to illustrate each concept. It has been translated into 8 languages and following a second edition in 1995 is still in print as a classic textbook for psychotherapists.

Towards the Validation of Brief Psychotherapy : Plenum 1979

Malan, D.H. (1979). Individual Psychotherapy and the Science of Psychodynamics. London: Butterworth- Heinemann.

Malan, D.H. (1978a) Exploring the limits of brief psychotherapy. In H. Davanloo (Ed.) Basic Principles and Techniques in Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (pp43 –67). New York. Spectrum Publications

Malan, D.H. (1978b) Evaluation criteria for selection of patients. In H.Davanloo (Ed) Basic Principles and Techniques in Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (pp. 85 –97). New York. Spectrum Publications.

Malan, D.H. (1976a). The Frontier of Brief Psychotherapy. New York: Plenum Press

Malan, D.H. (1976b). Toward the Validation of Dynamic Psychotherapy. New York: Plenum Press.

In 1974, Davanloo showed his tapes of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy to Malan who was convinced by the evidence that the technique used was extremely effective. They began a twelve-year collaboration, doing workshops and lectures together with Davanloo showing his tapes of therapy and Malan outlining the concepts and explaining the principles of the technique.

In 1974 Davanloo presented videotapes of his therapeutic work using Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) at the Tavistock Clinic. The essence of ISTDP is to enable the patient to reach and experience their hitherto buried, and often unconscious feelings, which have been governing their emotional responses leading to deep-seated neurotic patterns of behaviour that in many cases have crippled their lives. He does this by challenging the defences that the patient has been using to avoid painful feelings of loss, grief, anger, hate and guilt about people who they loved and /or needed when children.

Malan and Davanloo collaborated for twelve years from 1974, doing many Conferences and Workshops worldwide. Davanloo showed his tapes of therapy while Malan outlined the rationale and objectives of the technique and explained the elements of the therapy. After his retirement, Malan wrote many books and articles about Davanloo's concepts and technique.

In 1967 Malan developed the Brief Psychotherapy workshop which all trainees were required to attend for one year and treat a patient under his supervision. It attracted students internationally as well as nationally. The aim was to achieve effective therapeutic results in the shortest possible time and to research the factors that made this happen.

As early as 1963 in his analysis of cases in Balint's workshop, Malan had identified that good outcome correlated with a high frequency of interpretations making a link between the transference and childhood, but the full significance and usefulness of the concept of linking the Triangles came later.

A Study of Brief Psychotherapy  : Tavistock publications 1963 . Reprinted Plenum 1975. Translated into 7 languages.

Malan, D.H. (1963) A Study of Brief Psychotherapy Tavistock Publications. Reprinted Plenum

In 1956, at the Tavistock Clinic, Balint asked him to join his Brief Psychotherapy research group investigating whether brief focal therapy was effective. Malan analysed the results which were highly encouraging. During his early years as a psychotherapist, he already advocated the accurate, reproducible clinical descriptions, as well as the prediction of desirable outcomes prior to the process of therapy or an "intention to treat", which are then followed by unbiased evaluation post-treatment. This approach was met with suspicion during the 1950s within the analytic community, including Malan's colleagues at the Tavistock Clinic.

In 1956, after becoming a psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, Malan was invited by Balint to join his Brief Psychotherapy research group investigating whether brief focal therapy was effective. Patients were treated using a radical interpretive approach and the results were evaluated against specified criteria and, in general, they were extremely good. Malan analysed the results in his Oxford DM thesis and subsequently developed the ideas in A Study of Brief Psychotherapy : Tavistock publications 1963. Other publications analysing aspects of the results were The Frontier of Brief Psychotherapy and Toward the Validation of Dynamic Psychotherapy - both published by Plenum in 1976.

After qualifying from the London Hospital in 1952, he worked as a casualty officer, then as a psychiatrist at the Maudsley before transferring to the Tavistock Clinic in 1956. He became a Consultant in the Adult dept. in 1966 and remained there until his retirement in 1982.

Malan always acknowledges that each Triangle was independently devised by Ezriel (1952) and Menninger (1958) respectively, but he showed how, when put together, the relation between them for the patient at any given moment in therapy, can form a reliable basis for many of the interventions that the therapist makes. Ref: Individual Psychotherapy and the Science of Psychodynamics (p. 80)

In 1947 Malan began a training analysis and medical training at the same time with the objective of practising Psychiatry and ultimately Psychotherapy. His initial analysis was with Balint and then with Winnicott.

At preparatory boarding school Malan particularly enjoyed learning Latin and Greek, but as a scholar at Winchester he became interested in chemistry which he then studied, winning a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. He graduated in 1944 with a 1st class Honours degree in Chemistry.

David Huntingford Malan (21 March 1922 – 2020) was a British psychoanalytic psychotherapy practitioner and researcher recognized for his contribution to the development of psychotherapy. He promoted scientific spirit of inquiry, openness, and simplicity within the field. He is also noted for his development of the Malan triangles, which became a rubric in which therapists can reflect upon what they are doing and where they are in relational space at any given moment.

Malan was born in Ootacamund in the province of Tamil Nadu in India on 21 March 1922. His father was English, working in the Indian Civil service as Paymaster General of Madras State, and his mother was American. When Malan was seven years old his father died from pneumonia and Malan and his mother came to England.