ABSTRACT
Psychotherapy’s pursuit of autonomy, on the other hand, is based on the undoing of denial, on recognizing the importance of facing aggression, pain, loss, and handicap at a personal level and, by extension, within society. The values of psychotherapy are, then, radically different from those that actually prevail in many contemporary Western societies. The capacity of psychotherapy to enhance individuation and autonomy may come to be valued not as an end in itself, but as a necessary part of the productive process in an affluent society. “Autonomy” in the psychotherapeutic sense does not mean extreme selfishness, nor a supposed independence from other people. Autonomy, like peace and freedom, is something whose value everyone will readily acknowledge. Psychotherapy offers a direct alternative to tranquillizers, as well as providing an opportunity to look at the causes of unhappiness and anxiety and therefore, at least in theory, offering some possibility of prevention.
