Current Perspectives on the Goals of Psychoanalysis

Glen Gabbard began by highlighting Freud original struggle with the dialectic between psychoanalysis as a way to help a patient recover from an illness and psychoanalysis as a research tool for investigating the human mind. Gabbard defined a goal as an end result the analytic treatment strives to achieve. He noted that analysts, historically, have tended to eschew issues of effectiveness and outcome, a tendency that has marginalized psychoanalysis within the larger mental health community. Yet at the same time, psychoanalysis differentiates itself from other psychotherapies by positing the most ambitious goal—the alteration of fundamental personality organization. Gabbard emphasized that in this era of theoretical pluralism, our goals are as diverse as our analytic theories. In addition, analysts are never free of their unconscious agendas. Likewise, the patient brings both conscious and unconscious goals to the process, some of which may coincide or be at odds with those of the analyst. Finally, goals can change throughout the process. When are those changes evasions, and when are they constructive revisions? Gabbard then focused the panel by positing five questions for their response and discussion, followed by a summary discussion by Robert Wallerstein.

First, Gabbard asked the panelists to clarify what they mean when they speak of goals. Is there a legitimate distinction between analytic and therapeutic goals? How would they approach the distinction between process and outcome goals? Can an analysis be deemed