Why depth psychotherapy?

Someone asked me recently if I really thought that longer term depth psychotherapy was really necessary. Necessary? I don't know that I can determine that for anyone other than myself, but I can say it is valuable for the person who wants to learn more about her dreams and how she came to where she is in her life, what forces are operative in her, understanding which may allow her a wider array of choices moving forward.  Jung said,"Generally speaking, all the life which the parents could have lived, but of which they thwarted themselves for artificial motives, is passed on to the children in substitute form. That is to say, the children are driven unconsciously in a direction that is intended to compensate for everything that was left unfulfilled in the lives of their parents. Hence it is that excessively moral-minded parents have what are called "unmoral" children, or an irresponsible wastrel of a father has a son with a positively morbid amount of ambition, and so on."For example, I remember all the time I was growing up the very clear sense that I was to go to college. Nothing was ever said about it, I just knew. My parents were both very bright people who had many of their own ambitions nipped in the bud when they married in their late teens and in the depths of the Depression. Neither of them attended college nor did either of them achieve the dreams of their youth nor did either of them do anything about that as they grew older and opportunity was greater. Their unmet...
Source: Jung At Heart - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: blogs