Existential Theraphy

• more a way of thinking, or an attitude about psychotheraphy, than a particular style of practicing psychotheraphy

  existential theraphy
• it is neither an independent nor separate school of theraphy, nor is it a clearly defined model with specific techniques

  existential theraphy
• can be described as a philosophical approach that influences a counselor's therapeutic practice

  existential theraphy
• an attitude toward human suffering that has no manual

  existential psychotheraphy
• it asks deep questions about the nature of the human being and the nature of anxiety, despair, grief, loneliness, isolation, and anomie

  existential psychotheraphy
• it also deals centrally withthe questions of meaning, creativity, and love

  existential psychotheraphy
• focuses on exploring themes such as mortality, meaning, freedom, responsibility, anxiety, andaloneness as these relate to a person’s current struggle

  existential psychotheraphy
• was particularly concernd with angst — a danish and german word whose meaning lies between the English words dread and anxiety


  soren kierkierkegaard
• he addressed the role of anxiety and uncertainty in life

  soren kierkierkegaard
• he believed that anxiety is the school in which we are educared to be self

  soren kierkierkegaard
• believed that "the sickeness unto death" arised when we are not true to ourselves


  soren kierkierkegaard
• iconoclastic counterpart of kierkegaard, expressing a revolutionary approach to the self, to ethics, and to society

  friedrich nietzsche
• he emphasized the importance of subjectivity

  friedrich nietzsche
• set out to prove the ancient definition of humans as rational was entirely misleading

  friedrich nietzsche
• but where kierkegaard emphasized the "subjective truth" of an intense concern with God, nietzsche located values within the individuald "will to power."
• he said that we humans live in a kind of betweenness; that is there is never just an I, but always an other.

  martin buber
• The I, the person who is the agent, changes depending on whether the other is an it or a Thou. But sometimes we make the serious mistake of reducing another person to the status of a mere object, in which case the relationship becomes I/it.
• In this mode, people and things are experienced as mere objects, treated as means to an end.

  I-It
• Here, the Othet is not merely an object; instead, a mutually affitming relationship emerges relationship becomes.

  I-thou
• Buber’s philosophy encourages us to seek meaningful connections through the “I-Thou” approach.
• In a famous dialogue with Carl Rogers, Buber argued that the therapist and client could never be on the same footing because the latter comes to the former for help. When the relationship is fully mutual, we have become “dialogic,” a fully human condition.
• an existential analyst, he proposed a holistic model of self that addresses the relationship between the person and his or her environment

  ludwig binswanger
• he used a phenomenological approach to explore significant features of the self, including choice, freedom, and caring

  ludwig binswanger
• He based his existential approach largely on the ideas of Heidegger and accepted Heidegger’s notion that we are “thrown into the world.” However, this “thrown-ness” does not release us from the responsibility of our choices and for planning for the future.

  ludwig binswanger
• Binswanger contended that crises in therapy were typically major choice points for the client.
• Although he originally looked to psychoanalytic theory to shed light on psychosis, he moved toward an existential view of his patients. This perspective enabled him to understand the worldview and immediate experience of his patients, as well as the meaning of their behavior, as opposed to superimposing his view as a therapist on their experience and behavior.

  Ludwig Binswanger
• Both Binswanger and Boss were early existential psychoanalysts and significant figures in the development of existential psychotherapy. They made reference to Dasein or being-in-the-world, which pertains to our ability to reflect on life events and attribute meaning to these events. They believed that the therapist must enter the client’s subjective world without presuppositions that would get in the way of this experiential understanding.
• he was deeply influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis, but even more so by Heidegger

  medard boss
• his major professional interest was applying Heidegger’s philosophical notions to therapeutic practice, and he was especially concerned with integrating Freud’s methods with Heidegger’s concepts, as described in his book Dasein analysis and Psychoanalysis.

  medard boss
• A philosopher and novelist, Sartre was convinced, in part by his years in the French Resistance in World War II, that humans are even more free than earlier existentialists had believed.


  Jean-Paul Sartre
• Sartre called excuses “bad faith.” No matter what we have been, we can make choices now and become something quite different. We are condemned to be free. To choose is to become committed; this is the responsibility that is the other side of freedom.
• His view was that at every moment, by our actions, we are choosing who we are being. Our existence is never fixed or finished.

  Jean-Paul Sartre
• Key Figures in Contemporary Existential Psychotheraphy:

  1. Viktor Frankl
  2. James Bugental
  3. Irvin Yalom
  4. Rollo May
• he was a central figure in developing existential therapy in Europe and also in bringing it to the United States

  viktor frankl
• As a youth, he was deeply influenced by Freud, but he became a student of Adler. Later, he was influenced by the writings of existential philosophers, and he began developing his own existential philosophy and psychotherapy.

  Viktro Frankl
• He was fond of quoting Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how”

  Viktor Frankl
• he contended that those words could be the motto for all psychotherapeutic practice. Another quotation from Nietzsche seems to capture the essence of his own experience and his writings: “That which does not kill me, makes me stronger

  Viktor Frankl
• developed logotherapy, which means “therapy through meaning"


  viktor frankl
• Frankl’s philosophical model sheds light on what it means to be fully alive. The central themes running through his works are life has meaning, under all circumstances; the central motivation for living is the will to meaning; we have the freedom to find meaning in all that we think; and we must integrate body, mind, and spirit to be fully alive
• he said that Freud viewed humans as motivated by the “will to pleasure” and that Adler focused on the “will to power.”

  viktor frankl