Common neurotic and personality disorders account for widespread personal restriction and suffering. The need for effective, economically feasible treatment methods is widely acknowledged and the range of conditions successfully treated by available methods needs to be established. This study is concerned with two methods of brief psychotherapy; our aim was the essentially pragmatic one of investigating how far relatively long-term NHS out-patients with neurotic, personality, and interpersonal problems could be successfully and economically treated by the kind of therapists available in NHS settings. It is generally believed by psychoanalytically-oriented therapists that brief therapy requires high levels of training and experience; this is tested here, in that all the therapies were strictly time-limited, and none of the therapists had completed advanced training.