The conventional wisdom is that the therapeutic enterprise is `value-neutral', not impelled by any moral agenda, and intended chiefly to render its beneficiaries more successful in attaining what they desire. I argue in the present article that, were this the case, there could be nothing therapeutic in the undertaking; further, that one should be assisted in attaining what should be desirable, but what may not, in the given case, be desired. The form of life that realizes the most authentic aspects of our humanity is of an essentially civic nature, and it is fitness for this form of life that should guide therapeutic endeavors.
