Existential Therapy Flashcards
May
Rollo May (1909-1994)
Yalom
Irvin Yalom (1931-)
Existential Therapy
More a way of thinking.
Focuses on exploring themes such as mortality, meaning, freedom, responsibility, anxiety, and aloneness as these relate to a person’s current struggle.
Frankl
Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)
Logotherapy- “therapy through meaning”
Existential tradition
Seeks a balance between recognizing the limits and tragic dimensions of human existence on one hand and the possibilities and opportunities of human life on the other hand.
Freedom
Implies we are responsible for our lives, actions, and failures to take action.
Existential guilt
Being aware of having evaded a commitment, or having chosen to not choose.
Authenticity
Implies living by being true to our own evaluation of what is a valuable existence for ourselves; it is the courage to be who we are.
Existential vacuum
Meaningless in life can lead to emptiness and hollowness.
Existential anxiety
Unavoidable result of being confronted with the “givens of existence”- death, freedom, choice, isolation, and meaninglessness.
Normal anxiety
Appropriate response to an event being faced.
Neurotic anxiety
Anxiety about concrete things that is out of proportion to the situation.
