Shifts in focus in psychotherapy

Jung's 'Problems of Modern Psychotherapy' revisited

Abstract

This paper examines the challenge to the psychotherapist of making a shift in focus in psychotherapy. In so doing it revisits the concerns of a seminal paper of Jung's in which he introduced the notion of four foci or phases in psychotherapy: confession, elucidation, education and transformation. In the present paper Jungian theory is dialogued with contemporary psychoanalytic concepts. 'Symbol', in particular, as a core element of analytical psychology, is presented in terms of the contemporary psychoanalytic notion of 'dialectic'. These notions are used to clarify something of the technical considerations entailed in the execution of the shifts or transitions between psychotherapeutic foci. Condensed out of clinical experience and theoretical ruminations in such varied fields as contemporary psychoanalytic thinking, analytical psychology and transpersonal psychology three symbolic/dialectical attitudes are presented: a commitment to perspicacity, an awareness of position and the Promethean-Epimethean attitude.

Case material is presented and filtered through the re-reading of theory and the three symbolic/dialectical attitudes proposed as aids to shifts of focus. An attempt is made to understand the ways in which shifts between the foci are made and the ways in which the decisions to make such shifts are validated.