Existentialist and Person Centred Flashcards
What is the central idea of existentialist therapy?
By asking and understanding the larger questions of life we can discover the things that mean the most to us.
What does existentialism say about people?
Humans are constantly questioning and moving through an existential process. We are constantly re-inventing our existence, moving through states of transition, emergence, evolution and being of the self.
how do people see themselves in existentialist theory?
How people see and perceive themselves in the world is dependent on them.
What are the four levels of relational existence?
Umwelt
Mitwelt
Eigenwelt
Authenticity
Umwelt
Ourselves in relation to the physical world being-in-nature
Mitwelt
Social wold being-with-others
Eigenwelt
How we reflect on own self being-for-oneself
Authenticity
Brings openness to nature, to others and ourselves
How does meaninglessness instigate problems?
It can generate an existential vacuum. As much as we can create it we can also take it away; so our concept of meaning continues to evolve. When there is an absence of meaning, where there once was, this can create confusion.
What is some problematic behaviour that results from death anxiety?
sexually acting out, unfaithfulness, self success sabotage, addictions, workaholic, heroic acts and bravado
What are the developmental ages and there attitudes in accordance to death anxiety?
6 to puberty
Children merely observe and model parental attitudes
Adolescence
Emerges with force: games, reckless behaviour.
Midlife crisis
Death anxiety emerges once more.
What are the four conditions that fill us with existential anxiety?
Meaninglessness
Death
Freedom
Isolation
How does freedom impact on existential anxiety?
It’s up to us to make it in our world
Responsibility for our own choices
This means there is no ground beneath us; there is only an abyss, a void, a nothingness.
Confronts us with responsibility and uncertainty of choice
How does isolation impact on existential anxiety?
Enter the world alone die alone
There’s no guarantee who will be in our life.
There is no solution to isolation
When we don’t make peace, this will have us searching for love, meaning we can fall into relationships that are unsatisfying.
(existential) How can we support change?
Help people redeem and re-own their authenticity through the therapeutic relationship. Where we help clients face their anxiety generating a responsibility for their sense of self.
(Existential) What are some therapeutic techniques in the relationship?
no definable techniques, more so the philosophy and principles can be integrated into other paradigms.
What is the I/thou relationship?
Relating to each other as authentic beings, without judgement, qualification or objectification. I meet you as you are, and you meet me as who I am.
being fully present, how someone sees you.
What is the fundamental theme of humanism?
People are inherently good with the emphasis on self-actualisation.
How does humanism use empathy to understand people?
We need to understand their frame of reference, how they see the world.
(humanism) What does this theory reject?
Determinism, saying that the expertise is in the person. It assumes that everyone is fully functional and are all living in the moment.
(Humanist) A fully functional person is what?
open to experience
emphasises the ‘here and now’
trusts oneself
has the ability to fully make choices and take responsibility for them
Embraces life of creativity and adaption, abandoning conformity.
has the ability to behave reliably and make constructive choices
What belief does humanism hold?
That people are innately good and morality, ethical values, and good intentions are the strongest driving forces in life.
(Humanism) Where do problems arise?
when we do things outside of our self-concept due to how others perceive them forms incongruence with our self-regard.
This then impacts the concept we hold of ourselves and produces internal issues.
self-satisfied external regard rather than internal generates conflict.
When the overlap of self image and ideal self is small self-actualisation becomes increasingly difficult.
How does Maslow describe they way in which we become our true self?
Through openness and trust in ones experience, an internal frame of reference and the willingness to be in process, we can become our true self.
What is the actualising tendency?
An internal drive that leads people toward growth, development, and realization of their fullest potential
(humanism) How do we support change?
Relationship is key to change. The practitioner comes as themselves and uses empathy and unconditional positive regard to support the clients experience, endowing them as expert, this will lead them to their own discovery of self-actualisation.
What does unconditional positive regard allow?
This asks us to see the human in the conversation and implore empathic understanding, allowing us to step into someones experience rather than assume.
What are some key elements of the therapeutic process in humanistic?
Safe environment
Finding harmony between the self and the real self
Developing healthy self-esteem
Respond empathically always, not just to people when they are being honest
Here to provide a rich relationship
What is existential conflict in relation to isolation, according to Yalom?
It is the tension between our awareness of our absolute isolation and our wish to be part of a larger whole
