What is it for?

When Alfred Adler broke with Freud in 1911, one of their deepest differences was about direction. Freud tended to explain a symptom by looking backward: what happened in childhood to cause it?

Adler looked forward. He believed people are always moving toward goals, often without realizing it, and that feelings and habits serve those goals. So alongside "where does this come from?" he asked "what is it for?" Philosophers call this kind of explanation teleology, from the Greek telos, an end or purpose.

Modern behavior therapy asks a similar question in its own language. A "functional analysis" looks at what a behavior achieves, not just what triggers it. Avoidance, for instance, brings relief right now, which is exactly why it keeps happening.

Some common jobs:

• Worry before a party keeps you safely at home, away from feeling awkward.
• Putting off a piece of work protects you from being judged on your best effort.
• Feeling too tired for the gym class spares you from feeling self-conscious in a room of strangers.
• Anger gets you listened to when nothing else seems to.

None of this means you're doing it on purpose, or that you want to feel bad. The feeling is trying to help, clumsily. Once you can see the job, a better question opens up: is there another way to get that need met, one that costs you less?

Offer yourself the answer as a guess, not a verdict. And never use it to explain away real pain: grief, trauma and illness are not things people choose for a purpose.

Jamal's doctor has checked him over and found nothing wrong. Still, he notices that his headaches tend to arrive on the afternoons of his weekly team meeting, where he is expected to present his numbers. On those days he often goes home early. He feels relieved as soon as he's in the car, and guilty later.