EXISTENTIALISM Flashcards
deals with the dynamic or ever-changing transitions.
Existential psychology
It is concerned with how individuals
relate to their objective world, to other
human beings, and to their own sense
of self.
Relationship
Existential psychology emphasizes
the importance of ___ in
understanding oneself and one’s
world.
Time
LIFE HAS NO
INHERENT MEANING,
It is our choices that draws meaning to it.
Points of Existentialism
Proposition 1:
The Capacity for Self-Awareness
Proposition 2:
Freedom and Responsibility
Proposition 3:
Striving for Identity
and Relationship to Others
Proposition 4:
The Search for Meaning
Proposition 5:
Anxiety as a Condition of Living
Proposition 6:
Awareness of Death and Nonbeing
____, ____,____ constitute the foundation of self-awareness.
Freedom, choice, and responsibility
____ explains that the core existential position is that we are both ___ (willful,
creative, and expressive) and ___ (by environmental and social constraints).
Schneider (2008)
free
limited
We are ___ and do not have unlimited time to do what we want in life.
finite
We have the potential to _____inaction is a decision.
take action or not to act;
We choose our actions, and therefore we can partially create our own ____.
destiny
We are subject to ___, ___, ___, ___,___
loneliness
meaninglessness
emptiness
guilt
isolation.
A characteristic existential theme is that people are free to ___ among alternatives and
therefore play a large role in shaping their own destiny
choose
Schneider and Krug write that existential therapy embraces three values:
- the freedom to become
- the capacity to reflect
- the capacity to act
consists of lacking awareness of personal
responsibility for our lives and passively assuming that our existence is largely controlled by external forces.
Inauthenticity
implies that we are responsible for our lives, for our actions, and for our failures to
take action.
Freedom
From Sartre’s perspective _______ to freedom. He calls for a commitment to _________
people are condemned
choosing for ourselves.
is being aware of having evaded a commitment, or having chosen not to choose. This guilt is a condition that grows out of a sense of incompleteness, or a realization
that we are not what we might have become.
Existential guilt
implies that we are living by being true to our own evaluation of what is a valuable existence for ourselves.
Authenticity
Even though we sometimes cannot control things that happen to us we have complete control over how
we choose to perceive and handle them.
People are concerned about preserving their uniqueness and centeredness, yet at the same
time they have an interest in going outside of themselves to relate to other beings and to
nature.
Proposition 3:
Striving for Identity
and Relationship to Others
• It takes courage to discover the true “ground of our being” and to use its power to transcend
those aspects of nonbeing that would destroy us (Tillich, 1952).
THE COURAGE TO BE
entails the will to move forward in spite of anxiety producing situations, such as
facing our death (May, 1975).
Courage
The ability to be consciously aware of themselves and others separates human beings from other species.
BEING-IN-THE-WORLD
refers to the ability of individuals to be able to think about and reflect on events and to attribute meaning to them.
Dasein, or being-in-the-world
is what we generally think of as the world, objects, the environment, and living beings.
Umwelt
refers to interrelationships that only human beings may have.
Mitwelt
emphasizes the importance of beliefs that are religious or spiritual in nature.
Überwelt
one’s “own world,” is more than a subjective, inner experience; it is a self-awareness
from which we see the world.
Eigenwelt
Before we can have any solid relationship with another,
we must have a relationship with ourselves
Existential therapy can provide the conceptual framework for helping clients challenge the meaning in their lives.
Proposition 4: the search for meaning
is designed to help clients find meaning in life. The therapist’s function is not to
tell clients what their particular meaning in life should be but to point out that they can create
meaning even in suffering (Frankl, 1978).
Logotherapy
Yet meaning is not something that we can directly search for and obtain
True
arises from one’s personal strivings to survive and to maintain and assert one’s being, and the feelings anxiety generates are an inevitable aspect of the human condition.
Anxiety
is the unavoidable result of being confronted with the “givens
of existence”—death, freedom, choice, isolation, and meaninglessness.
Existential anxiety (ontological)
arises as we recognize the realities of our mortality, our confrontation with
pain and suffering, our need to struggle for survival, and our basic fallibility.
Existential anxiety
is an appropriate response to an event being faced. Further, this kind of anxiety does not have to be repressed, and it can be used as a motivation to change. Because
we could not survive without some anxiety, it is not a therapeutic goal to eliminate normal
anxiety.
Normal anxiety
, in contrast, is anxiety about concrete things that is out of proportion to the
situation. typically out of awareness, and it tends to immobilize the person.
Neurotic anxiety
awareness of death as a basic human condition gives
significance to living.
is the basic goal of psychotherapy.
Authenticity
Therapists with an existential orientation usually deal with people who have what could be
called a
restricted existence.
• Existential therapists give _____ _____ to their relationship with the client.
central prominence
The core of the therapeutic relationship is _____, which implies faith in clients’ potential to
cope authentically with their troubles and in their ability to discover alternative ways of being.
respect
Not all clients are appropriate for existential counseling and therapy.
Those individuals wishing advice and suggestions from the therapist are likely to be frustrated
by an existential approach.
Initial assessment.
______ experience is important as a precondition
for solving the patient’s problems. Furthermore, this is an experience of the self
and is not related to relationships with the therapist or to society
“I-am”
Four ways of being
Umwelt
Mitwelt
Eigenwelt
Uberwelt
a Greek word referring to the critical point at which a disease is expected to get better or worse
kairos
