Existential Psychotherapy Flashcards
The ultimate concerns of existential psychotherapy
Death, Freedom, Isolation, and Meaning
Existential psychotherapy asks deep questions about the nature of the human being and the nature of…
Anxiety, despair, grief, loneliness, and anomie. It also deals centrally with the questions of meaning, creativity, and love.
Anomie
The lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group.
“Throw-ins”
Irvin Yalom’s idea that these off-the-record extras are the critical ingredients, referring to the shared issues of human existence, or existential psychotherapy.
it is only in reflecting our mortality that…
we can learn to live.
Existentialists hold that ultimately each of us must come to terms with these questions and are responsible for who we are and what we become.
Who am I? Is life worth living? Does life have meaning? How can I realize my humanity?
Because existentialists are sensitive to the ways in which theories may dehumanize people and render them as objects, _______ ________ takes precedence over ________ ___________.
Authentic experience takes precedent over artificial explanations.
Existential psychotherapists focus on the __________ of experience rather than _________ __________ _________.
Subjectivity of experience rather than “objective” diagnostic categories.
Examples of issues that therapists suspect are central concerns of patients.
Choice, responsibility, mortality, and purpose in life.
More and more, patients come to therapy with vague complaints about loss of purpose or meaning. Many diagnosable presenting “symptoms” may mask existential crises.
More and more, patients come to therapy with vague complaints about loss of purpose or meaning. Many diagnosable presenting “symptoms” may mask existential crises.
The Existential Dilemma
We are thrown alone into existence without a predestined life structure and destiny; that each of us must decide how to live as fully, happily, ethically, and meaningfully as possible.
Yalom’s four categories of “Ultimate Concerns”
Freedom, Isolation, Meaning, and Death
Freedom
Refers to the idea that we all live in a universe without inherent design in which we are the authors of or own lives. Life is groundless, and we alone are responsible for our choices.
Eric Fromm’s “lust for submission”
Accompanies the effort to escape from freedom.
The work of existential psychotherapy is about…
the reassumption of responsibility for one’s experience. The therapeutic enterprise can be conceived as one in which the client actively increases and embraces their freedom: freedom from destructive habits, self-imposed paralysis of the will, or self-limiting beliefs just to name a few.
Interpersonal isolation
Being isolated from others.
Intrapersonal isolation
Being isolated from parts of yourself.
Existential isolation
Refers to an unbridgeable gulf between oneself an others. We enter and leave the world alone. One’s death is always solitary.
Erich Fromm believed that isolation is…
the primary source of anxiety.
Many individuals continue a highly unsatisfying relationship precisely because they crave a life witness, a buffer against the experience of ________ __________.
existential isolation.
The therapist-client relationship should embody an encounter, genuineness, accurate empathy, positive, unconditional regard, and “I-Thou” relating. A sense of deep connection does not “solve” the problem of existential isolation, but it provides solace.
The therapist-client relationship should embody an encounter, genuineness, accurate empathy, positive, unconditional regard, and “I-Thou” relating. A sense of deep connection does not “solve” the problem of existential isolation, but it provides solace.
More individuals seek therapy because of concerns about their purpose in life then therapists often realize. Our ongoing search for substantial purpose-providing life structures often throws us into a crisis.
More individuals seek therapy because of concerns about their purpose in life then therapists often realize. Our ongoing search for substantial purpose-providing life structures often throws us into a crisis.
How reassuring it would be to know that somewhere there exists a true purpose in life rather than only the sense of purpose in life. A sense of meaning emerges from plunging into an enlarging, fulfilling, self-transcending endeavor. The work of the therapist is to identify and help remove the obstacles to such engagement. If one is authentically immersed in the river of life, then the question of meaning drifts away.
How reassuring it would be to know that somewhere there exists a true purpose in life rather than only the sense of purpose in life. A sense of meaning emerges from plunging into an enlarging, fulfilling, self-transcending endeavor. The work of the therapist is to identify and help remove the obstacles to such engagement. If one is authentically immersed in the river of life, then the question of meaning drifts away.
Overshadowing all these ultimate concerns, the awareness of our inevitable demise is the most painful and difficult. Yet, confronting death allows us to live fuller, richer, and more compassionate lives. Existential psychotherapy emphasized the importance of living mindfully and purposefully, aware of one’s possibilities and limits in a context of absolute freedom and choice. Death, in this view, enriches life.
Overshadowing all these ultimate concerns, the awareness of our inevitable demise is the most painful and difficult. Yet, confronting death allows us to live fuller, richer, and more compassionate lives. Existential psychotherapy emphasized the importance of living mindfully and purposefully, aware of one’s possibilities and limits in a context of absolute freedom and choice. Death, in this view, enriches life.
Fellow Traveler
Awareness of the ultimate concerns as givens of existence fundamentally changes the relationship between therapist and patient to that of fellow travelers. We are all in this together. Sharing the essence of the human condition becomes the bedrock of the work of existential psychotherapy.
Logotherapy
Victor Frankl’s form of psychotherapy focused on will, freedom, meaning, and responsibility.
The existential focus of a theory of personality concerns whether or not people are…
living as authentically and meaningfully as possible.
Is existential psychotherapy a dynamic psychotherapy?
Yes, the model of personality as a system of forces in conflict with one another. An individual’s conscious and unconscious motives and fears are conflicting.
Existential model of personality
Awareness of Ultimate Concern causes Anxiety causes Defense Mechanism
What is crucial is “man’s capacity to stand outside himself, to know that he is the subject as well as the object of experience, to see himself as the entity who is acting int he world of objects.” (Who said this?)
May (1967)
A full understanding of a person involves both knowledge of that person’s circumstances (the objective part) and how that person subjectively structures and values those circumstances (the subjective part).
A full understanding of a person involves both knowledge of that person’s circumstances (the objective part) and how that person subjectively structures and values those circumstances (the subjective part).
Existential psychotherapy does not offer a theory of individual differences, but it attends carefully to how each individual deals with the ultimate concerns. Therefore, the existential understanding of personality is inherently tied to its approach to psychotherapy.
Existential psychotherapy does not offer a theory of individual differences, but it attends carefully to how each individual deals with the ultimate concerns. Therefore, the existential understanding of personality is inherently tied to its approach to psychotherapy.
Who is the only theorist to present a systematic, comprehensive view of the existential therapeutic approach?
Yalom
Is existential therapy a comprehensive psychotherapeutic system?
No. It is a frame of reference - - a paradigm by which one views and understands a client’s suffering in a particular manner. Therapists view the client in human rather than behavioral or mechanistic terms. They employ a human, authentic therapist-client encounter.
Competent therapists realize that an apprehension of one’s finiteness can often catalyze a major shift of perspective, that is the relationship that heals, that clients are tormented by choice, that a therapist must catalyze a client’s “will” to act, and that the majority of clients are bedeviled by a lack of meaning in their lives.
Competent therapists realize that an apprehension of one’s finiteness can often catalyze a major shift of perspective, that is the relationship that heals, that clients are tormented by choice, that a therapist must catalyze a client’s “will” to act, and that the majority of clients are bedeviled by a lack of meaning in their lives.
The therapist’s belief system determines the type of clinical data that he or she encounters. If they tune to the right channel, clients frequently discuss concerns emanating from existential conflicts. Some clients have enduring interests in existential issues and they connect deeply to a therapist who places importance on their existential dilemmas and can speak this language.
The therapist’s belief system determines the type of clinical data that he or she encounters. If they tune to the right channel, clients frequently discuss concerns emanating from existential conflicts. Some clients have enduring interests in existential issues and they connect deeply to a therapist who places importance on their existential dilemmas and can speak this language.
The therapist helps the client embark on a course of self-investigation in which the goals are to understand the unconscious conflict, identify the maladaptive defense mechanisms, discover their destructive influence, diminish secondary anxiety by correcting these modes of dealing with self and others, and develop other ways of coping with primary anxiety.
The therapist helps the client embark on a course of self-investigation in which the goals are to understand the unconscious conflict, identify the maladaptive defense mechanisms, discover their destructive influence, diminish secondary anxiety by correcting these modes of dealing with self and others, and develop other ways of coping with primary anxiety.
In existential therapy what is similar? The basic strategy? The content? The process?
The basic strategy is similar. The content is radically different. The process differs as well.
The existential therapist strives for an understanding of the patient’s ________ life situation and __________ enveloping unconscious fears.
current, current
The existential therapist works in the ________ tense. The individual is to be understood and helped to understand themselves from the perspective of a _____ and ______ cross-section, not from the perspective of a ________ longitudinal section.
present
here-and-now
historical
What does “deep” mean from an existential perspective?
The most fundamental concerns facing the individual a that moment.
The existential conception of personality is the awareness of the depth of one’s immediate experiences.
The existential conception of personality is the awareness of the depth of one’s immediate experiences.
The therapeutic focus is on the self experience of the client and attends to the client’s capacity for self-actualization, even self-transcendence, through engagement in life.
The therapeutic focus is on the self experience of the client and attends to the client’s capacity for self-actualization, even self-transcendence, through engagement in life.
Desein
Being-in-the-world (subcategories umwelt, mitwelt, eigenwelt)
Unwelt
The environment and the world around us - - animate and inanimate
Mitwelt
social environment
Eigenwelt
self-world of inner feeling / within our bodies
Becoming
A process of transcending
Transcendence
Overcoming the wounds
Throwness
Stuck in an Existential issue
Freedom
As authors of our own lives, we face responsibilities we dread and try to escape. “Humans are condemned to freedom.”
Meaning and Meaningless
The search for purpose
Lumination (Boss - - that shows itself)
Illumination (Binswanger - - phenomenal experiences frame the meaning)
Intrapersonal, or existential isolation
The fact that we are isolated from parts of ourselves.
To cope with death anxiety
We erect defenses against death awareness
The failure to deal with the inevitability of death
causes psychopathology
Being psychologically healthy entails living with as little ______ _______ and _______ _______ as possible.
neurotic guilt neurotic anxiety (while accepting and struggling with normal anxiety that is a part of living)
Neurotic Guilt
When you feel guilt over things you “should do” or “should have done” or “should not have done” based upon the standards of this “insane” society.
Phenomenal
The client’s truth is the truth.
Cultures create belief systems that defend against the terrors of stark confrontation with existential concerns.
Cultures create belief systems that defend against the terrors of stark confrontation with existential concerns.
