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 backwards: where did it come from, what happened in childhood to cause it?

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

Feelings and habits often do a job for us, even painful ones. Worry before a party might keep you safely at home. Putting off a piece of work might protect you from being judged on your best effort. Anger might get you listened to when nothing else does.

Seeing the job doesn't mean you're doing it on purpose, or that you want to feel bad. It means the feeling is trying to help, in its own clumsy way.

Once you can see what it's for, a new question opens up: is there another way to get that need met, one that costs you less? Offer the answer to yourself as a possibility, not a verdict. Only you can tell whether it fits.

• Behaviour therapy

  Functional analysis looks at what a behaviour achieves, not just what triggers it: avoidance, for example, brings relief now and keeps fear going later.

• ACT

  ACT asks of any habit, "is this working for you?", judging it by what it does in your life rather than whether it's right or wrong.

Think of a feeling or habit that keeps coming back, something everyday like worry, putting things off, or snapping at people.

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You notice you always feel too tired to go to the gym class you signed up for. What would "what is it for?" ask?