ABSTRACT
In order to attain some conceptual clarity about the aims of psychotherapy in general, or of a particular therapy, this chapter suggests that we should make a tripartite distinction between final, intermediate, and immediate aims, even though they operate simultaneously most of the time. Intermediate aims are those we pursue over many sessions and even throughout the duration of the therapy. Positive aims formulated by psychoanalysts tend to be intermediate aims, as they mostly describe the technique. The same formulations can be adapted to delineate intermediate aims in group-analytic psychotherapy. Psychoanalysis, psychoanalytically based long- and short-term individual psychotherapy, and group-analytic psychotherapy share the same ultimate objective-namely, to achieve fundamental changes in the individual. There are aims in psychotherapy that the patient and the therapist naturally share. The relationship with the therapist, or the multiple relationships in the analytic group, should offer the patient the "corrective emotional experience" that has this healing effect.
