important task, perhaps even the most important task any person can undertake.
THE GOAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
Interestingly, both Freud and Jung became interested in the unconscious through their role as physicians, whose goals are healing and the alleviation of suffering. Each of them realized that these goals could be served through greater conscious awareness of the unconscious, although Freud’s model implied somewhat more modest goals than Jung’s. Freud held that greater awareness of the contents of the personal unconscious might help one to adjust more comfortably to the demands of civilization, but that a certain degree of discontent was unavoidable. Jung believed that the exploration of the collective unconscious could reveal the purpose of one’s life and bring one closer to a state of union with God. It is important to note that, in spite of a difference in the ultimate goal of psychotherapy, the exploration of unconscious process, particularly as manifested in the contents of dreams and fantasies, were considered to be central in its achievement.
THE LARGER IMPORTANCE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
As noted above, psychotherapy is a new name for an ancient practice. Introspection in the broadest sense has ancient roots in practices such as contemplation, meditation, dream incubation and interpretation, fasting and other ascetic practices, prayer, religious ritual, music, ingestion of psychedelic plants, vision questing, sleep deprivation and the like, to facilitate it. The intentional use of any technique which facilitates introspection implies that introspection is in some way of value. Whether one limits that value to the alleviation of some psychological suffering, as Freud would, or sees