FM1 Flashcards
What is the first fundamental motivation?
To be able to be in the world
Basic question of existence: I am - Can I be?
What personal activities go along with FM1?
To be here: Endurance (of the bad) and Acceptance (of the good)
- Being open, able to let it be, being accepted as oneself
What is courage?
Courage = a life force that makes us strong, gives us inner support, and makes it possible for us to walk up to something threatening in the world. Courage = feeling of vitality: courage to face life = death-defying courage to face death. The courage to face life also looks death in the eye. Contempt of death.
Formal definition:
Courage = the feeling of strength and the willingness to endure anxiety in order to overcome a threat/danger.
Experiential definition:
Courage = the psycho-spiritual state, to be able to face and bear the consequences of a perceived risk.
Short definition:
To feel ready to face a danger.
How is weakness understood in the first FM?
Weakness = a particular form of inability
Factual definition:
Weakness = Experience of inferiority
Feeling without power = having a weakness. Not having the STRENGTH or the ability to control something I am entitled to (internally or internalized)
Experiential definition:
A weakness is that of myself which I am reluctant to allow; or unable to accept
- I won’t admit it to myself, because it makes me feel “less” able to be present
When I tell myself: This is not good enough.
Weakness = that of myself which I have not accepted
What is an existentially appropriate way of dealing with aggression?
We can elucidate three steps that lead to an appropriate dealing with aggression: It is important for dealing with aggression, that it becomes “thrice-seeing”:
- That it becomes seeing outwardly: towards the cause, the “what” of aggression.
- That it is seen inwardly: “What is the value that my aggression wants to protect?
- That it is seen how it can be lived, how can be dealt with purposefully, how it can be brought into the world and to its addressee, to whom it belongs, to the “source of evil”. Therefore it is important that one can stand personally behind it and views the aggression as “justified”, as necessary.
Nevertheless, it may be therapeutically important to act out an excess of aggression, or out of helpless aggression, to activate the dealing with aggression, through exercises (e.g., hitting a pillow, hit a wall) to:
a) represent aggressive impulses and to show what is in me to grasp the affects; b) practice to bring it to the target; c) act it out to be free again and accessible.
The aim of such acting out, is to bring the impotent hate into a flow, to turn him into a thickness that can be used purposeful.
What gives human beings “hold / support / ground”?
Security, protection, and trust.
How do we develop trust in ourselves?
Self-trust is essentially based on previous experiences:
a) The trust of others, for example of parents trusting in me as a child (small tasks, etc.), in which their assessment of my abilities were taken into account.
b) Positive experiences and successes.
c) Own assessment → trust in myself
What is the phenomenological attitude?
Definition of phenomenological attitude: Attitude of openness (looking) by bracketing previous knowledge (without presuppositions) in order to surrender to the content of what is looked at (seeing).
Why is phenomenology so fundamentally important for EA therapy?
Essentially, phenomenology belongs to the 1st FM as it deals with: the perception and cognition as central activities of the 1st FM. However, as part of an integrative and holistic perception, the practice of phenomenology also involves the other FMs, and, thus, it is a bridge between the 1st FM and the other FMs.
Phenomenology is concerned with things as they relate to other things, affect them, and are influenced by them (2nd FM), in order to understand their singularity, essence, and profound distinctiveness (3rd FM), within the context of their becoming, purpose, relevance and meaning (4th FM).
- Phenomenology is a form of perception that corresponds to the 4 FMs.
“Seeing the essential“ => central for EA. EA work is largely but not entirely phenomenological (it is also experimental, explanatory, empirical and interpretative).
The patient appears in his own realm of being and experience. The therapist should let her/him be for him/her to appear. We should help the patient to let him/her be him/herself so that the essence of him/her and his/her life becomes visible.
What is Ground of Being?
The ground of being is the deepest ground of the first fundamental motivation. It is like the soil in which the fundamental trust is rooted.
In → Existential Analysis a term for the final support, which is sensed through the experience in concrete situations (situational experience of being). Ground of being is the ontological fundamental experience, “that there is always something”, which provides support and that is greater than yourself - a world, an order, a cosmos, a god. The Ground of Being conveys the feeling: “When that which produces fear endures, I can accept it, even if I die because of it, because I feel ultimately kept “. The experience of the Ground of Being leads to the attitude of calmness and is a prerequisite for the development of → basic trust (→fundamental motivations), which transcends the domain of psychotherapy into the sphere of personal faith.
Give a brief explanation of Space (a pre-requisite
to I can be) as it relates to FM1.
Having space to be; this is frequently carved through gaining/coming into distance through:
- Reflection (e.g., abstraction means detachment from the concrete)
- Breath
- Observing and noticing→ the lived experience: “the space that arises is as big as the distance that I’ve created for myself”
- Talking about it (the issue/problem) creates space
- Taking time creates space (e.g., to sleep on a decision, to take time for it)
- Changing perspectives
- Adjusting (finding my niche/finding my skills)
The personal activities of FM1, acceptance and endurance, need these three prerequisites: Protection, Space and Support.
Give a brief explanation of Protection (a pre-requisite
to I can be) as it relates to FM1.
Capacity/power, strength, → the feeling that the conditions allow me to be, that there is enough protection so that I can be
The strongest protection is: to experience being accepted by others = to experience that one can be/is let be by others
- By others (friends; accepted in conversations with others)
- By oneself (self-acceptance in the 1st FM: letting myself be, being able to let my feelings be in FM2)
- By God (that is the reason why a prayer can help to accept), it is integrated into faith
- Previous experiences of having been accepted (these provide a sense of security)
+ Even with my problems → I experience: : “I am not threatened by what threatens you”
Being accepted is like wearing a protective sheath
The personal activities of FM1, acceptance and endurance, need these three prerequisites: Protection, Space and Support.
Give a brief explanation of Support (a pre-requisite
to I can be) as it relates to FM1.
Security: in Being which carries me because “It is there” → Support.
In German, “to be” = means literally to build (be/bin-buan- bauen)- “to build the walls of Being” → To be = to have solid ground, also to have shelter
Making contact with the ground, to see that it lasts/endures/it does not collapse or that every bad experience has an end, and that I have ground on which I stand, and from which I can relate to my previous positive experiences, and to myself as my inner ground
- Someone who endures with me gives me support, trust and hope
- The experience that the world doesn’t fall apart gives me the feeling of being carried
- Myself, as the one who carries me, who stands up for myself gives me support; my courage and strength (being able to)
- the experience that a problem may ultimately lead to something positive. Hope.
The personal activities of FM1, acceptance and endurance, need these three prerequisites: Protection, Space and Support.
