Writing for Yourself or for Your Readers?

Do you write for yourself or for your readers? This is a must to explore with your writing and was discussed by Debbie Taylor of Mslexia Magazine on Radio 4's Woman's Hour, presented by Jenni Murray, which also covered the fear of poetry - yes there is such a phobia?  Having today listened to the debate I was prompted to write this:

For me it is both - but in this order: I write for myself first and foremost, which allows me to have an element of freedom in getting my words on the page.  Next, I am trying to occupy the reader's space with my narrative,  in order to provoke insight, emotion, catharsis - stuff that's basically good for people.  That process is a slightly mysterious one.  It's that altering of the consciousness to a different state in order to resolve and heal.  And you've got to work this process first on yourself.  You start by doing for yourself what you hope you're going to be doing for the reader.  And you get into the pleasure of language and the constructing of the page at hand, and it liberates you.  It liberates you from not only your anxieties about what you're doing, but your anxieties about yourself and who you are and what's going to happen next. You have to take it day by day and you have to not worry too much!

To hear the whole debate:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012wzfd/Womans_Hour_Breast_cancer_screening_urban_bees_fear_of_poetry/