[Values and goals in psychoanalytic therapy 1984]

The purpose of psychoanalytic therapy (quite nonproblematic at the beginnings of psychoanalysis) as well as the conception of the values imminent in the process of treatment have been extended more and more toward the patient's personality structure and his acceptance of himself. Moreover, under the influence of work, oriented on theoretically conceived methods, the factors of the very process of treatment-perception, regression, catharsis etc.--have often been made into an aim in themselves and into a purpose. Consequently there is a certain danger that the therapeutic responsibility toward the patient's social milieu is being neglected. In the present state of availability of psychiatric care the analyst is involved in the treatment of patients suffering from a wide range of disorders to which corresponds an equally wide range of values and aims. It is discussed in how far the present school-like organization of psychiatric training allows for the necessary flexibility to adequately deal with the various expectations concerning values and aims in different patients.