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.
