Week 6 - Humanistic and Existential

Question 1

Key people in Existential

Answer 1

Victor Frankl 1905-1997 –> Human nature is
motivated by a search for life’s purpose.

Rollo May 1909-1994–> Anxiety and Love. Love is
intentionally willed by an individual, whereas sexual
desire is the complete opposite

Irvin Yalom 1931 –> Death, Freedom, Isolation,
& Meaninglessness. Existential therapy can be
integrated in any form of psychotherapy

Question 2

What does existentialism say about people?

Answer 2

• Championed relationship for the first time
• The significance of our existence is never fixed once and for all – we continually recreate ourselves.
• Humans are in a constant state of transition, emerging, evolving and becoming.
• discovering and making sense of our existence – continuously questioning ourselves, others and the world is what it means to be innatly human
• Continuously questioning – Who am I? Who have I been? Whom can I become? Where am I going?

Question 3

In existentialism, what are the three elements of the world

Answer 3

We exist in relation to different levels

1. Umwelt – ourselves in relation to the physical world being in nature (if you struggle with the physical world it could look like sensory overload)
2. Mitwelt – Social World – being-with-others (relationships and connections with others)
3. Eigenwelt – how we reflect on own self – Being-for- oneself (our internal self, our self awareness and how we see ourselves)

Authenticity - brings openness to nature, to others and
ourselves

the idea is that if someone cant connect to one of these worlds then it might lead to sadness or depression

Question 4

What is the key point about existentialism - what does it say about anxiety? ( Existential Anxiety)

Answer 4

Exstentialism suggests that having anxiety is okay.

When we have anxiety it means we are facing the key life quastions (meaning, morality, freedom, isolation) about who we are and why we are here.
If we dont have anxiety surrounding these big questions it means we are avoiding them and therefore it gets in the way of how we feel about ourselves.

Question 5

What is M e a n i n g l e s s n e s s within Exstentialism

Answer 5

Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’”

Frankl survived Auschwitz yet lost everyone is in family except his sister. In his time he noticed:

• Man’s “will to meaning” that allows him to endure in the face of senseless suffering and pain – life is suffering, and to have any hoping of surviving or thriving, we must find meaning in that suffering.
• Choosing laughter and a sense of humour, more than
  anything else, can help us to “rise above any situation.” Prisoners found small moments of reprieve during which they cracked jokes and laughed together.
• An Existential Vacuum is the absence of meaning which will
  lead to anxiety, despair, depression, confusion

Question 6

What is Death (Mortality) within existentialism

Answer 6

• humans know we are going to die and we recognise that but we don’t like the idea of it
• According to exsistentialism humans need to be able to recognise and to able to face their mortality. That’s what we’re looking for in a healthy human being. They don’t have to do this all the time though

*People who cannot face the idea of death may have death anxieties where behaviors arise such as sexually acting out, unfaithfulness, self success sabotage, addictions, workaholic, heroic acts, bravado etc.

*“By having our ultimate demise at the center of psychotherapy, life takes on more significance and we can learn to live from a more authentic place and put petty anxieties aside.” - Irvin Yalom

Question 7

What is freedom within Existentialism?

Answer 7

Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude” - Victor Frankl

*Usually thought of as a universal positive in many cultures- but has potentially Frightening Implications: If It is true that we create our own selves and our own world- then it also means there is no ground beneath us; there is only an abyss, a void, nothingness.

*Freedom creates anxiety because it confronts us with
both the responsibilities and uncertainties of the outcomes of our choices.

*A person who is free to make choices about his life- has
no one else to blame except themselves for the consequences of their decisions

Question 8

What is isolation in Existentialism

Answer 8

• Central focus of the therapy
• An unbridgeable gap between oneself and any other being
• There is no solution to isolation (born alone die alone)

For some people not being able to accept that leads to:
*Constant Searching for love
*Existing only in the eyes of others
*Enduring unsatisfactory relationships
*Compulsive sexuality
*“Ultimate Rescuer”
*Putting the needs of others first

Question 9

How does existentialism support change?

Answer 9

Assisting clients in moving toward authenticity and learning to recognize when they are deceiving themselves

Helping clients face anxiety and engage in action that is based on creating a worthy existence

Helping clients to reclaim and re-own their lives; teaching them to listen to what they already know about themselves

To help clients become more present to themselves and others – develop greater communication skills to allow for closer relationships

To assist clients in identifying ways they block themselves from fuller presence

To challenge clients to assume responsibility for designing their present lives

To encourage clients to choose more expanded ways of being in their daily lives

Question 10

What are therapeutic techniques of exstentialism

Answer 10

No therapy just a process.

However, requires the counsellor too:

• be authentic, to model their own authenticity
• Recognises transference – point out and make a topic for discussion
• Recognises resistance and may address in counselling session

Question 11

What is I-thou Relationship

Answer 11

In the I-Thou encounter, we relate to each other as authentic
beings, without judgment, qualification, or objectification. I meet you as you are, and you meet me as who I am.

In the I-Thou relationship, what is key is how I am with you in
my own heart and mind.

The I-It encounter is the opposite in that we relate to another as object, completely outside of ourselves (see lecturer as the lecturer not a person, see parent as a parent not a person)

Question 12

History of Humanism

Answer 12

• Carl ROgers
• Humanism arose in the late 1950s
• Arose in response to the behaviourist andpsychoanalytic schools of thought.
• The belief that people are innately good.
• Belief that morality, ethical values, andbgood intentions are the strongest driving forces in life.
• Humanism incorporates a variety of therapeutic techniques, including Rogerian person-centred therapy. Influenced Roger’s ideas.
• Empathises goal of self-actualization

Question 13

What does humanism say about people?

Answer 13

*Human beings have a powerful, innate capacity for growth that is constantly striving for expression.

*“It is that the individual has within himself or herself vast resources for self-understanding, for altering his or her self-concept, attitudes and self-directed behavior - and that these resources can be tapped if only a definable climate of facilitative psychological attitudes can be provided” (Rogers, 1980, p.115-117).

*Rejects the deterministic nature of both psychoanalysis and
behaviorism and maintains that we behave as we do because of the way we perceive our situation.

• “As no one else can know how we perceive, we are the best experts on ourselves.” Rogers, 1961

Question 14

What does humanism say about people? (CONT)

Answer 14

Every person is considered as a ‘potentially competent
individual’

Goal – self actualisation

Fully functioning person as a person who:

• Is open to experience, is non defensive.
• Emphasizes fully living in the moment “ here and now”.
• Trusts in oneself.
• Has the ability to freely make choices and takes
  responsibility for their own choices, highly self- directed.
• Embraces a life of creativity and adaptation, including an abandonment of conformity.
• Has the ability to behave reliably and make constructive choices

Question 15

Maslows Heirachy

Answer 15

Self-actualization
Esteem
Love/belonging
Saftey
Pysiological

Question 16

How do problems arise in the humanstic approach?

Answer 16

*Self-concept - “the organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself”.

*Self-concept is a central component of our total experience and influences both our perception of the world and perception of oneself.

*We develop a need for positive regard for that self - we
begin to regard ourselves in the way that others view us

*Some behaviours are regarding positively that are not actually satisfying and vice versa

*Conditions of worth – we can only see ourselves positively when we live within these conditions

*The more conditions – the more problems

*Typically, people respond to actions and behaviours in particular ways that have us giving value to things that may or may not be things we actually give value to. (sees the person going Im a good person when….because other people have rewarded the idea.) They doesn’t innately feel good in themselves because they don’t care about it.

Question 17

What is inconcruenties

Answer 17

• How I see myself is different to my ideal self (I have had to step so far away from what I give value to in order to be rewarded by others)
• Self-image is different to ideal self
• Here self-actualisation is difficult

Question 18

What is congruent

Answer 18

• Becoming our authentic self
• Self-image is similar to ideal self
• This person can self actualise

Question 19

How do we support change in humanism?

Answer 19

*The idea, is that the therapist doesn’t set goals - totally up to the client

*The idea is that we shed the self that we are not, to become the self that we want

• counsellor wants to create a garden that’s perfect for the self growth of the client
• This is a process not a technique (it’s about the presence and connection between client and counselor)

*Through this dialogue with the counselor we are able to find out who we are (not who people think/want us to be)

*Idea that therapy could be simpler, warmer and more optimistic than that carried out by behavioral or psychodynamic psychologists

Question 20

Three conditions people must have for people to feel like they can self-actualize (the necessary conditions for therapeutic change to occur)

Answer 20

*Counsellor is congruent in the relationship and is seen by the client as congruent ( Genuineness)

*Unconditional positive regard (Respect)

*Empathic understanding of the client’s world.

Question 21

Neuroscience of Empathy

Answer 21

• monkey example (neruon fires when it eats banana and neuron fires again when scientist eats banana)
• There’s this idea that we can experience things that we’re watching or noticing in other people as if it’s happening to ourselves. So there is this idea of mirror neurons and it might explain, for example, why we cry atm movies. So the idea of empathy. In counseling its the idea that can we feel into the experience that that person is having.

Challenge is to communicate that empathy back to the person

Question 22

What is empathy?

Answer 22

feeling oneself into’ the experience of another person or ‘to feel within’ in response to an artistic work

To see with the eyes of another, to hear with the ears of another, (and) to feel with the
heart) of another.”

Question 23

Empathy questions

Answer 23

• Is it possible to truly understand someone’s experience?
• Is it as valuable as we’ve been led to believe
• Is there an element of judgement?
• Might we get stuck in an empathy pit?
• What about compassion?

Question 24

What is Unconditional Positive Regard

Answer 24

• Unconditional positive regard invites us to hold this human as a whole human and see them as a complete human regardless of what they do and how they do it and why they do it.
• Accepting the person completely in a non-judgmental way,
  as the person they are.
• Valuing clients as people and remaining unjudgmental
  about their behavior
• A belief that every person has their own personal resources
• At the heart of unconditional positive regard, then, is hope. The therapist, by putting aside their own biases, shows optimism that the client can create positive change for themselves. They are more than what they have done.

Question 25

Genuineness or Congruence

Answer 25

This idea that we can be absolutely ourselves. So this is about noticing our own response that we’re having so when someone tells us a story about how they reacted to a partner and you feel disgusted by it, but you’re able to notice that and respond to that before you respond to the person, so you still hold a lot of unconditional, positive regard, right? There’s a whole lot of things that are happening, so this approach needs us to be really self-aware of particular biases and ideas that we’re holding on to, so don’t impose those on others. So what it’s asking us is to be completely congruent and so we can use transparency and these sorts of things when we work with people

Question 26

Therapeutic Process

Answer 26

• not many technniques just a process –> It’s all about relationships, all about creating this safe space for exploration, for insight. What we wanna do is support people between that kind of ideal self and real self who want to become much more congruent. And we also want to work towards this idea of self actualization. So rather than trying to be someone that we’re not.
• Develop a safe and trusting therapeutic environment.
• Develop good rapport.
• Client defines and clarify their own goals.
• Self-exploration and self-reflection.
• Develop from external valuing to internal valuing.
• Help to reduce the façade and increase authentic living.
• Develop towards more harmony between ideal self and real self.
• Develop healthy self-esteem.
• Move towards “Self-Actualisation”