ABSTRACT
The Question Of What Constitutes an appropriate goal of psychotherapeutic treatment has been debated since Freud's time. Freud (1917b) emphasized making the unconscious conscious and enlarging the realm dominated by the ego while constricting that of the id. He stated (1917c) that an analysis was ready to end when the patient no longer suffered from his symptoms, had surmounted his anxieties and inhibitions, and possessed the capacity for enjoyment and for efficiency in functioning. Repressions should be lifted and any gaps in memory filled in. Moreover, these changes ought to be stable and enduring: “Through the overcoming of these resistances the patient's mental life is permanently changed, is raised to a high level of development and remains protected against fresh possibilities of falling ill” (p. 451).
