Existential Key Terms

Question 1

What is Angst?

Answer 1

A Danish and German word whose meaning lies between the English words dread and anxiety. It refers to the uncertainty in life and the role of anxiety in making decisions about how we want to live.

Question 2

What is Anxiety?

Answer 2

A condition that results from having to face choices without clear guidelines and without knowing what the outcome will be.

Question 3

What is Authenticity?

Answer 3

The process of creating, discovering, or maintaining the core deep within one’s being; becoming the person one is capable of becoming.

Question 4

What is Existential Analysis (Dasein Analyse)?

Answer 4

A therapy approach focusing on the subjective and spiritual dimensions of human existence.

Question 5

What is Existential Anxiety?

Answer 5

An outcome of being confronted with the four givens of existence: death, freedom, existential isolation, and meaninglessness.

Question 6

What is Existential Guilt?

Answer 6

The result of, or the consciousness of, evading the commitment to choosing for ourselves.

Question 7

What is Existential Neurosis?

Answer 7

Feelings of despair and anxiety that result from inauthentic living, a failure to make choices, and avoidance of responsibility.

Question 8

What is Existential Tradition?

Answer 8

Seeks a balance between recognizing the limits and tragic dimensions of human existence and the possibilities and opportunities of human life.

Question 9

What is Existential Vacuum?

Answer 9

A condition of emptiness and hollowness resulting from meaningless life.

Question 10

What is Existentialism?

Answer 10

A philosophical movement stressing individual responsibility for creating one’s way of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Question 11

What is Freedom?

Answer 11

An inescapable aspect of the human condition; humans are the authors of their lives and are responsible for their destiny and actions.

Question 12

What are the Givens of Existence?

Answer 12

Core or universal themes in the therapeutic process: death, freedom, existential isolation, and meaninglessness.

Question 13

What is Inauthenticity?

Answer 13

Lacking awareness of personal responsibility and passively assuming that our existence is largely controlled by external forces.

Question 14

What is Intersubjectivity?

Answer 14

The fact of our interrelatedness with others and the need for us to struggle with this in a creative way.

Question 15

What is Logotherapy?

Answer 15

Developed by Viktor Frankl, this branch of existential therapy focuses on challenging clients to search for meaning in life.

Question 16

What is Neurotic Anxiety?

Answer 16

A response out of proportion to the situation. It is typically out of awareness and tends to immobilize the person.

Question 17

What is Normal Anxiety?

Answer 17

An appropriate response to an event being faced.

Question 18

What is Phenomenology?

Answer 18

A method of exploration that uses subjective human experiencing as its focus. This approach is part of existentially oriented therapies.

Question 19

What is Presence?

Answer 19

Both a condition and goal of therapeutic change, which serves the dual functions of reconnecting people to their pain and attuning them to opportunities to transform their pain.

Question 20

What is Resistance?

Answer 20

From an existential-humanistic perspective, resistance manifests as a failure to be fully present both during therapy and in life.

Question 21

What is Restricted Existence?

Answer 21

A state of functioning with a limited degree of awareness of oneself and being vague about the nature of one’s problems.

Question 22

What is Self-Awareness?

Answer 22

The capacity for consciousness that enables individuals to make choices.