Existentialism Flashcards
History of existential therapy
Not a formal school of psychotherapy
More of a philosophy/way of thinking
Integrated with other formalized approaches
Why are we afraid of death? Why are we here? Etc.
Kierkegaard and Nietzsche
Dehumanization of people in the technical world
Sartre
coined the word existentialism- brought philosophy that talks about the human condition (big, broad questions)
Choices matter
Rollo May
Classification of people is existential
Against objectification of human beings or making them all into institutions or robots
Talking about existentialism is un-existential
Understanding psychological distress arises from…
A confrontation with our existence
Theory of Personality
People are meaning-making beings who are subjects of experience of self-reflection
How you are viewed to the outside world
Can be in or out of our own awareness (may cause conflict)
What is the central conflict between?
The individual and the ultimate concern of existence
Big ultimate question
Are we living meaningfully?
Must live authentically
Theory of defenses
Drive –> anxiety –> Defenses
Existential theory
Ultimate concerns –> anxiety –> defenses
No such thing as human nature - everything is a choice
Anxiety is caused by the ultimate concerns
What does experiencing ‘angst’ lead to?
Being deeply troubled over the questions that lead to the defense mechanisms
Defense mechanisms come from…
The anxiety we face over overcoming the ultimate concerns
4 ultimate concerns
Freedom
Isolation
Meaning
Death
Freedom
We are the authors of our own lives
Puts a lot of responsibility on us
True freedom is confronting the ultimate concern and will drive us to try to escape the responsibilities
Try to escape where you feel like you have no choices
Not choosing is a choice
We have ultimate choice and that scares us
Givens in life and we can choose how we respond
Destiny
the patterns of the givens of life and then there are things that we think are givens, and we have to be able to tell the difference
We must confront the givens and choose how we respond
there are some things that we start out with that we can change and some things we think we can’t change but we really can and we need to choose how we respond to those things
Freedom requires…
Responsibility and Will
Living without taking responsibility is to live in bad faith
Failures of willing give rise to pathology
Impulsivity
Compulsivity
Decisional Panic
Impulsivity
An idea pops into their head and they just do it
Failure of willing because they aren’t being intentional
Compulsivity
Doing things that don’t make sense outwardly and don’t help us achieve things
Keep us stuck/doing things on repeat
Decisional Panic
Failure of willing where you have an inability to choose
We see people delegate the decisions and acting in a way that says the decision has been make for them and pretending they don’t have to make a decision
“I stopped at a red light, I didn’t have to - I would have made a choice to blow through the red”
This is an example of what ultimate concern?
Freedom
There are things that are set up to make it seem like we don’t have to make choices
Existentialists would tell us that it is a defense that makes us feel better
Must live authentically
Isolation
We can be isolated from ourselves, from others
idea of existential isolation in terms of what does it mean to exist
Requires balance between wish for contact and knowledge of aloneness
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Existential
Interpersonal
Isolated from others
Cannot fully share our consciousness with others
Can try to express ourselves, but we can never fully share that consciousness
Boundary and being ok with that boundary
Intrapersonal
Isolated from ourselves
Can be isolated from parts of ourselves that we aren’t fully conscious of (want to be fully conscious)
Can spill over into other parts- all tied together
Existential
Feeling of loneliness
Inherent aloneness in the universe
Born alone, die alone
Not necessarily that we feel lonely, loneliness is a function of interpersonal isolation; some barriers you put up
Defenses against isolation
Crave Witness
Fusion
Crave witness
Live lives as a way to buffer against feelings of isolation
Looking for how authentic someone is
Looking for people to provide us with services rather than relating to them authentically
Example- if you’re on a beach somewhere and no one knows who you are or you’re there, what is the purpose/meaning? Why are you there?
Example 2- Social media
Fusion
Let go of our boundaries
Awareness of interpersonal boundary between yourself and your partner (must have limits with that boundary)
If not- you will try to become your partner and adopt their preferences or beliefs
Example- when someone starts dating someone new and they become a new person
Example- Stephanie and AJ - Unrealistic expectations for what a relationship should look like especially around boundaries; desperation
Meaning
Ultimate concern with meaning
Search for a purpose
Existence precedes essence
Nothing will mean anything until we make meaning
How does a being who requires meaning find meaning in a universe that has no meaning?
Construct values and narratives of our lives to combat…
Meaninglessness
We look for patterns in random stimuli and our day to day experiences that allow us to construct a story or narrative that have value defends against meaninglessness
Many choose not to construct their own values and go with the norm of society
If you ever look in the norm of cultural values and you don’t share/believe the same values
What defense mechanism is defending against meaninglessness?
Distress
Desire to avoid the anxiety that comes from confronting the four concerns
Death
The consciousness of our existence means we are also conscious of nonexistent
Awareness will be anxiety-provoking and painful
What defense mechanism do we use against ‘death’?
Denial
Denial based defenses
Specialness
Ultimate Rescuer
Specialness
“I am special, this won’t happen to me”
Example- Thinking that if you smoke, you’re going to be one of the people who don’t get lung cancer
Moving up in mortality and avoiding the anxiety about death will result in a shortened life
Ultimate Rescuer
Anti-religion component
Learning about other belief
Belief that someone divine (or a human) is watching over them
Example- “I can feel a loved one who died is watching over me”
Omnipotent savior that guards and protects our welfare will help humans deal with facing mortality
What is “Some religions believe there is an afterlife so they won’t really be dead, they’re just going to be moving onto the next life” an example of?
Ultimate rescuer
Preoccupation with the future
People that want to amass a lot of goods and plans and power
Feeling if you have a plan and stuff
“Workaholism” - don’t have to pay attention to what might be coming down the line
Fellow travelers
Intrapersonal isolation
Therapist and the patient are “fellow travelers”
No one is immune to the ultimate concerns
Therapist must also confront the ultimate concerns for themselves
Idea that both patient and therapist are going through the same thing (hope therapist is further along in that journey)
Goals of existential therapy
Understand- Understand unconscious conflicts
Identify- Identify defense mechanisms
Discover- Discover their destructive influence
Develop- Develop other ways of coping
Anxiety
Life can’t be lived without this
we can use therapy to alleviate the levels of anxiety that keep us from authentically navigating these concerns, we can bring it down to a level where we can use it constructively (optimal level that is motivating
Example- if you have no stress about something, you are not particularly motivated to do it
Find tolerable levels and use them constructively
What does it mean to get deep in therapy?
Deep according to freud- been there the longest and it goes far back in the past (psychoanalyst)
Deep according to existentialists- looking at the things that are most important in that moment
Looking to reduce anxiety → to tolerable levels (NOT get rid of it)
Addressing Freedom
Point out instances in the moment
Correct “can’t” to “won’t”
Inquire about patient’s role
Encourage ownership (about thoughts and feelings)
Correct inability to wish
Reduce impulsivity
Help patients decide
Point out instances in the moment
We set up systems where we avoid taking responsibility
Will be looking for different clues where patient is not taking responsibility
Correct “can’t” to “won’t”
Idea of “can’t” → Example - “I can’t go to the gym after work”
Confronting that idea - “is it that you can’t, or that you are choosing not to?”
It is ok not to, but you need to be conscious of the idea that it’s that you don’t want to
Inquire about patient’s role
What are the decisions that led them to the situations they are in
Only care about the past that brought them to where they are today
Encourage ownership
(about thoughts and feelings)
They way they think, feel, and behave
Ultimately, the choices they make
Correct inability to wish
People may be stuck in decisional panic and become unable to wish at all and stuck waiting for people to make decisions around them
Have people confront and think about what is it they really want
When we can identify and wish, then we can make constructive freedom about which wishes we act upon
Help patients decide
Help patient learn to distinguish between wishes and assign priorities
Helping patients make a decision for themselves
If i have 5 different choices I make, and I need to make one, I have to exclude the others (could make people stuck)
Going through the what ifs
Being able to tolerate the what ifs
Example- They will make a choice about which school to go to and they won’t go to the others - they will have to exclude all the others (choosing one to go to will not PERMANENTLY exclude the other)
Addressing Meaning
Help- Help patients focus on values beyond themselves
Develop- Develop curiosity and concern for others
Remove- Remove obstacles to whole-hearted engagement
Help patients focus on values beyond themselves
Listen
What are the things they choose to value and how is that in line with the meaning they are talking about?
Develop curiosity and concern for others
Investigator mentality and being curious and investigating these things
All the concerns are intertwined
The way we can get into some of the meaning is how meaning and isolation interact
Thinking about empathy for others
In the way of relating in a way that is empathetic and meaningful
Addressing Death
Awakening Experience
Examine regret
Choice towards a “lived life”
Awakening experience
Forces their existential conflict with death
Could be own death or own experience, serious illness, etc. OR Loss of someone close to you
Activates the idea of nonexistence
Examine regret
Making the conscious decision to move forward and not rehashing the old regrets and what you could’ve done differently
“You are here now with these regrets. Do you want to move forward to minimize making more regrets”
Choice towards a ‘lived life’
Idea of building a life worth living
Making choices towards your lived life
Addressing Isolation
Balance isolation and support
Reciprocity and mutuality
Authenticity
Alone Together
Balance isolation and support
We are always isolated in some way
Intrapersonal conflict- We never fully know another person’s consciousness- there will always be a boundary and a limit
Born alone and die alone
Support seeking and developing a support system
Isolation can be a healthy boundary
reciprocity and mutuality
Building an authentic relationship - dont want fused people, want people to participate in reciprocity
The therapist being a fellow traveler is modeling what an authentic relationship could look like on the outside
Empathy
Therapist authenticity and their presence will help allow the patient in feeling more safe and experience their concerns
Both therapist and patient aren’t immune to the ultimate concern
Hear and Now
Interactions that the fellow travelers are having and asking them to reflect on the experiences they’re having in the room
Willing → “can’t” to “won’t”
Evidence Base
Challenges to research on existential psychotherapy
Reductions in anxiety could mean that the patient is using defenses
Skills that focus on meaning-making and addressing death can be relevant for people facing cancer conditions
Empirical support derived from research on common factors
Ultimate concerns transcend culture
Regardless of the culture you are in, they need to be faced by every human
Culture influences defenses
Culture will influence the defenses we use
Example- many people who are religious
Is it wrong to believe you are saved with a savior if you genuinely believe it
Increase meaning, engagement and purpose with the lived life they are experiencing
Existential dilemma
although we crave to persist in our being, we are finite creatures;
We are thrown alone into existence without a predestine life structure and destiny
Each of us must decide how to live as fully, happily, ethically and meaningfully as possible
Logotherapy
A form of psychotherapy focused on will, freedom, meaning, and responsibility
“Deep”
the most fundamental concerns facing the individual in that moment
Process Of psychotherapy
Responsibility
equated with authorship
Willing
wishing and deciding
Decision
the bridge between wishing and action
Alternatives exclude
Therapist task is not to create will but to disencumber it
Awakening experience
a type of urgent experience that propels the individual into a confrontation with an existential situation
Most powerful is a confrontation with your own death
Genuineness
has a new dimension when a therapist deals honestly with existential issues - therapist is open about own existential concerns
Unfolding
the way of the educator and the therapist- one uncovers what was there all along
Meeting- existential communication
