Conscious Purpose and Commitment Exercise1

HOYT

Why do you do therapy? Why do you do this work?

WHITE

This is not a new question. Way back in my social work training, which I began in 1967, we were required to address this question.… At that time, in response to such questions, only certain accounts of motive were considered acceptable. These were psychological accounts of motive. Accounts of motive that featured notions of conscious purpose and commitment were not fashionable and were marginalized. Responses to this question that emphasized a wish to contribute to the lives of others in some way, or that were put in terms of a desire to play some part in addressing the injustices of the world, were considered expressions of naiveté. Attempts to stand by such expressions were read as examples of denial, lack of insight, bloody-mindedness, etc. On the other hand, to traffic in psychologized accounts of motive was to display insight, truth saying, a superior level of consciousness, of maturity, and so on. And invariably, the psychologizing of motive translated into the pathologizing of motive. “Which of all of one's neurotic needs was being met in stepping into this profession?” “How did this decision relate to unresolved issues in one's family of origin?” “Did this decision relate to one's attempts to work through an enmeshed relationship with one's mother?” “Or did this decision relate to one's attempt to work through a disengaged relationship with one's mother?” And so on. I'm sure that you are familiar with questions of this sort, and that we could easily put a list together.

I always believe that this privileging of psychological accounts of motive to be a profoundly conservative endeavor, one that is counter-inspiration, one that could only contribute significantly to therapist experiences of fatigue and burnout. For various reasons, I could never be persuaded to step into the pathologizing of my motives for my interest in joining this profession, and mostly managed to hold on to what were my favored notions of conscious purpose and commitment. I have no doubt that over the years that expressions of these notions have been a source of invigoration to me, and in recent years I have been encouraging therapists to join together in identifying, articulating, and elevating notions of conscious purpose and commitment. To this end I have developed an exercise.… Readers might be interested in meeting with their peers and working through this together.