The Subject

Abstract

There are different ways to be happy, healthy or fulfilled. One can make money, one can be active in the community, be invested in a valuable relationship, in parenthood or family life; one can be an achiever in some activity, say in sports, art or public life. But psychotherapy sets its aims elsewhere. Psychotherapy, in a sense, could be said to deal with another dimension of happiness or health altogether. This is to say, psychotherapy is concerned with the way in which the individual experiences himself while going about the various activities of his daily life. I would like to refer to this reflective dimension of life, in which the individual constitutes her or himself both vis-à-vis and within the sum of her or his actions and activities, as ‘being-a-subject’.