An A–Ztruths about themselves. The goal was change. In bringing fail-
ures to light, confession was connected to the proleptic promise
of baptism; penitents were ‘putting on salvation’.
Sadly, Foucault thought, this exercise of personal transforma-
tion was itself transformed as the church became a dogmatic
institution. With the need to manage the souls of millions, con-
fession became a sort of check-list exercise. In confession, the
penitent did not search their souls but ticked off the sins they
had committed in order to be restored to the church. The role
of the confessor was not so much to nurture change as exercise
what Foucault called ‘pastoral power’.
Psychoanalysts exercise a secular version of confession.
Whether it be in the making of connections between the free
associations of the client or offering insights that the client
would never have been conscious of themselves, the pattern
is the same. The truth is found within and it is discovered by
speaking it out. Eventually, the analysand will reach a point at
which all their confusions, neuroses, rationalisations and delu-
sions will have been exposed to the light of day. Their analysis
will be complete.
I remember a psychoanalyst once telling me that she was
nearing the end of her therapy. I was fascinated by the idea.
What would that be like – perhaps enlightened, or wholly con-
scious, or supremely in control, or in a state of maximal closure?
When I asked, she laughed and replied nothing like that at all.
All that the completion of her analysis signifi ed was that she
and her therapist had done all the work together that they pos-
sibly could. When I jested that it seemed to me that there must
be more work for her to do, she pointed out that I did not know
her before she started the therapy.
The point is that therapy does not aim at the resolution of
all problems, complete knowledge of oneself, or even the
increase in happiness, though it might well help someone to
manage a debilitating neurosis. Therapy brings one to the limits
of what can be known and understood about oneself. In this
sense, the end of one’s analysis is the start of a life aware of