The Question of Aims: Psychoanalysis and the Changing Formulations of the Life Worth Living

This paper examines changes in the way psychoanalytic aims have been formulated over the years. I claim that these changes are, at least partly, the result of wide cultural and social processes that took place in Western society, seen here through shifts in the prevailing worldview (Weltanschauung). Following in the steps of the philosopher Charles Taylor (2007), this study describes 3 fundamental worldviews—the religious, the secular–humanist, and the postmodern—and claims that psychoanalysis adapts itself to shifts in the dominance of these perspectives. I demonstrate how, as each worldview gained ascendancy, a corresponding analytic mode appeared or gained credence, assimilating ideals of the “life worth living” as prescribed by that particular worldview and translating them into analytic aims. The modes described are classical psychoanalysis, relational theories, and a new emerging spiritually-sensitive psychoanalysis. The contributions made by each worldview to the development of psychoanalysis are discussed, as well as the ways each worldview hindered such development.