Tracking the leading edge of self-regulatory failure: Commentary on "where do we go from here? The goal perspective in psychotherapy"

Michalak and Grosse Holtforth (2006) have provided a scholarly review of how personal goals link to well-being, aspects of psychological disorder, and especially to the psychotherapeutic enterprise. The present commentary elaborates on the pathogenic role of goals by defining psychopathology as dysfunctional goal-guided self-regulation, and casting goals, goal episodes, and goal-striving support processes as the key components of both effective and ineffective adjustment. The conceptual and practical implications for clinical science of what I term a "life-task engineering approach" are briefly considered.