Page 7 - JCBP-2-3

Journal of Clinical and

Basic Psychosomatics

REVIEW ARTICLE
Eudaimonia as a treatment goal in

psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine

Michael Linden*
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Abstract

Psychotherapy encompasses a broad range of goals, ranging from the alleviation
of symptoms and the prevention of recurrence to the enhancement of well-being.
These goals are mostly cross-sectional and hedonic-oriented in the sense of wellness,
happiness, and absence of pain. However, an alternative goal is eudaimonia, which
involves mastery of life from a long-term perspective. This pursuit entails embracing
and even seeking hardship and confrontation with adversities for the sake of higher
goods and goals. Eudaimonia, both an attitude and a behavior, is essential for
everybody, especially individuals facing challenging circumstances and burdensome
life situations, such as familial burdens, job problems, and illness. Eudaimonia
can be attained through wisdom, which is regarded in lifespan psychology as a
multidimensional capacity for coping with complex challenges and dilemmas in life.
Initial studies suggest that wisdom skills are trainable, opening additional avenues in
psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine. It is argued that eudaimonia deserves
increased attention in psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine.

Keywords: Mastery of life; Dilemmas; Goals in life; Hedonia; Euthymia
*Corresponding author:
Michael Linden
(michael.linden@charite.de)
Citation: Linden M. Eudaimonia as 1. Introduction
a treatment goal in psychotherapy
and psychosomatic medicine. J Clin Ancient philosophers such as Demokrit, Plato, and Aristotle have described “eudaimonia”
Basic Psychosom. 2024;2(3):2988. as a state of inner harmony, virtue, striving to divine excellence, self-realization,
doi: 10.36922/jcbp.2988
interpersonal connection, and rational activity in pursuing higher goals in life. This
Received: February 21, 2024 concept stands in contrast to hedonia, which pertains to wellness and the absence of
1-5
Accepted: March 29, 2024 negative feelings. Eudaimonia entails mastery of life in a socially responsible manner,
irrespective of inevitable hardships and adversities. In modern psychology, eudaimonia
Published Online: May 29, 2024
has gained increasing interest within the context of well-being, lifespan development,
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). and social interaction, closely linked with the notion of wisdom. These research
6-9
This is an Open-Access article 10-12
distributed under the terms of the findings must be translated from basic science into clinical concepts. This paper
Creative Commons Attribution presents a scoping review delineating the concepts of eudaimonia and wisdom and offers
License, permitting distribution, recommendations of integrating these concepts into psychotherapy and psychosomatic
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is medicine.
properly cited.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience 2. Hedonia and absence of suffering in psychotherapy
Publishing remains neutral with Traditional psychotherapy aims at alleviating suffering and pain while improving
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional subjective wellness and positive mood. The initial focus is on reducing symptoms
affiliations. and other signs of illness (symptom relief), measured through self- and observer-

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/jcbp.2988