Abstract

Psychotherapy helps one enact ideas about a good life, and therapists practice orientations rooted in their chosen approach. A 'good life' can therefore mean different things depending on the therapy. Building on the philosophy of Charles Taylor, Smith examines the link between therapy, ethics and the root of therapeutic views in comparison to modern, Western ideas about 'living well'. This is one of two complementary volumes. This volume explores the links between therapeutic aims and conceptions of wellbeing. It examines three schools of psychoanalysis to show how similar therapies can be distinguished by their ethics. Smith argues that research shows little distinction ethical visions of psychotherapies and challenges the conception of therapy as a technical intervention for the treatment of circumscribed disorders. A key text for upper level undergraduate, postgraduate students and professionals in the field of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, theoretical psychology and philosophy of the mind.