May 1, 2026 · 27 min · 12 segments
##### May 1, 2026 * * * # Beneath the What and the How Is the Why In the absence of an affirmative definition of mental health, psychology doesn’t become value-free; its values – and the goals of…
Alfie KohnHostNo entities detected.
The ultimate goal of therapy is what? Well, to ask that question is to raise the issue of the very nature of psychological health.
The problem is that a lot of people, including those in the field of psychology, are allergic to the idea of making value judgments and are really leery about offering specific definitive prescriptions, here's what people should do or be like.
Specifically, I would argue there are two in the case of psychology that tend to show up, whether we're aware of it or not.
An adjustment goal basically assumes that to be healthy is the same thing as to be normal.
Here, the idea is to minimize whatever's unpleasant, just as we're satisfied when a doctor helps us get over an injury, to heal from it, or recover from an illness, get back to baseline, where you weren't having any problems.
So a psychotherapist might assume that if something has been bothering you, like depression or anxiety or some kind of character disorder, the purpose is to eliminate that or at least moderate its severity.
The ultimate goal of therapy is what? Well, to ask that question is to raise the issue of the very nature of psychological health.
The problem is that a lot of people, including those in the field of psychology, are allergic to the idea of making value judgments and are really leery about offering specific definitive prescriptions, here's what people should do or be like.
Specifically, I would argue there are two in the case of psychology that tend to show up, whether we're aware of it or not.
An adjustment goal basically assumes that to be healthy is the same thing as to be normal.
Here, the idea is to minimize whatever's unpleasant, just as we're satisfied when a doctor helps us get over an injury, to heal from it, or recover from an illness, get back to baseline, where you weren't having any problems.
So a psychotherapist might assume that if something has been bothering you, like depression or anxiety or some kind of character disorder, the purpose is to eliminate that or at least moderate its severity.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.