Abstract
The literature on meaning in life written by contemporary philosophers has yet to be systematically applied to literature on the point of psychotherapy. My broad aim in this chapter is to indicate some plausible ways to merge these two tracks of material that have run in parallel up to now. More specifically, here I articulate the hypothesis that psychodynamic and humanistic therapy, clinical psychology, and counseling psychology as such, not a particular branch of them, are best understood as enterprises in search of meaning in life, in the way many present-day philosophers understand this phrase, and I also provide good reason to take this conjecture seriously.
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Notes
- 1.
Insofar as it transcends mere career assessment.
- 2.
For a thorough analysis of what the phrase “meaning in life” and cognate terms signify, see Metz (2001).
- 3.
One might describe periods of life in which one experiences negative emotions as “significant” but presumably only in the sense of being instrumentally useful. Depression is a signal that something is wrong and can prompt one to move onto a better path. Now, a philosophical theory is about “meaningfulness” as a property that is worth seeking out for its own sake, i.e., is about the nature of the better path, such that depression, anxiety, and the like do not count.
- 4.
- 5.
Some might consider it odd to characterize self-knowledge as a final aim, since psychoanalysts deem insight rather to be the most they can achieve in a clinical setting, without considering it to constitute mental wellness as such. However, there are certainly texts that suggest otherwise, and there is a large body of literature arguing that insight per se should not be considered a final aim of psychotherapy (e.g., Fink 2010).
- 6.
See, too, most of the aims discussed in a historical overview of how psychoanalysts have conceived of the point of therapy in Sandler and Dreher (1996).
- 7.
But see Guntrip (1971b: 145–173), where he appears to express not an interpersonal view but a mixed one.
- 8.
Note that in Heinz Kohut’s last book, he deems certain relationships to be so absolutely essential for maintaining a strong self that he characterizes the essence of a psychoanalytic cure as the self being able to be sustained by acquiring enough selfobjects (1984: 77). Even so, it is useful, contra Kohut, to distinguish rigorously between a final end and the means—even necessary ones—to it.
- 9.
For very useful feedback, I would like to thank Vossie Goosen, Michael Lacewing, Johan Snyman, Dan Stein, Pedro Tabensky, and the editors of this volume.
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Metz, T. (2013). Meaning in Life as the Aim of Psychotherapy: A Hypothesis. In: Hicks, J., Routledge, C. (eds) The Experience of Meaning in Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6527-6_30
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