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Existential therapy is one of the major schools of psychotherapy and refers to applying existential philosophy as an approach to psychotherapy and counselling. It is associated with humanist psychotherapy and many professionals in the field who use this approach refer to themselves as humanist psychotherapists, yet it does not follow the Rogerian Person-centered approach.
In Existential psychotherapy the therapist provides a therapeutic and non-judgemental frame where the client feels safe and secure to try out different modes of being in the world, and encouraged to take more responsibility to make decisions and live an authentic life.
History edit
Existentialism as a philosophy is mainly associated with a number of philosophers including Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre, although not all of them acknowledged or accepted the label. However existential thinking has also been associated with much earlier philosophers and thinkers including Socrates. [1]
Existential psychotherapy is rooted in the application of existential and phenomenological philosophies to psychotherapy and mental health. The first attempt at this was by Karl Jaspers in 1912, yet the first practitioners which applied existential concepts were Eugene Minkowsky and Jacques Lacan. [1]
Daseinsanalysis edit
The first method of practice which referred to itself as existential analysis was by Ludwig Binswanger who heavily borrowed from Heidegger and applied his concepts such as Being-in-the-World to Psychotherapy. Daseinsanalysis was furthered by Medard Boss who was inspired by Husserl and thus applied existential and phenomenological frameworks to finding meaning, especially in dream analysis [1]
Logotherapy edit
Logotherapy is an existentialist approach to psychotherapy developed by Viktor Frankl. It is considered the "third Viennese school of psychotherapy"[2] after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology.
It is a type of existentialist analysis that focuses on awill to meaning as opposed to Adler's Nietzschian doctrine of "will to power" or Freud's will to pleasure.
British School edit
Britain became a fertile ground for the further development of the existential approach whenR.D. Laing and David Cooper, often associated with the anti-psychiatry movement, took Sartre's existential ideas as the basis for their work (Laing, 1960, 1961; Cooper, 1967; Laing and Cooper, 1964). Without developing a concrete method of therapy they critically reconsidered the notion of mental illness and its treatment. In the late 1960s they established an experimental therapeutic community at Kingsley Hall in the East End of London, where people could come to live through their madness without the usual medical treatment. They also founded the Philadelphia Association, an organization providing alternative living, therapy and therapeutic training from this perspective. The Philadelphia Association is still in existence today and is now committed to the exploration of the works of philosophers such as Wittgenstein, Derrida, Levinas and Foucault as well as the work of the French psychoanalyst Lacan. It also runs a number of small therapeutic households along these lines. The Arbours Association is another group that grew out of the Kingsley Hall experiment. Founded by Berke and Schatzman in the 1970s, it now runs a training programme in psychotherapy, a crisis centre and several therapeutic communities. The existential input in the Arbours has gradually been replaced with a more neo-Kleinian emphasis.
The impetus for further development of the existential approach in Britain has largely come from the development of a number of existentially based courses in academic institutions. This started with the programmes created by Emmy van Deurzen, initially at Antioch University in London and subsequently at Regent's College, London and since then at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, also in London. The latter is a purely existentially based training institute, which offers postgraduate degrees validated by the University of Sheffield and Middlesex University. In the last decades the existential approach has spread rapidly and has become a welcome alternative to established methods. There are now a number of other, mostly academic, centres in Britain that provide training in existential counselling and psychotherapy and a rapidly growing interest in the approach in the voluntary sector and in the National Health Service.
Recent contributions edit
Theoretical Concepts edit
One of the most crucial concepts in Existential therapy is its view of human nature. It focuses on individual experience of being in the world alone and facing the anxiety of this isolation. However it has a very optimistic view that we have the capacity to exercise our freedom in order to create our own identity and establishing a meaningful life by being authentic and becoming self-aware. [3]
Themes
Kierkgaard - > creative anxiety, despair, fear and dread, guitar, and nothingness
Nietzsche - > death, suicide and will
Heideggar - > authentic being, caring, death, guilt, individual responsibility and isolation
Sartre - > meaninglessness, responsibility, and choice
Baber - > interpersonal relationships, I/Thou perspective in therapy and self-transcendence
There are several important concepts of existential philosophies which are fundamental to existential therapy.
Angst edit
Existential angst has been noted and described differently by various philosophers. This notion refers to the anxiety we face when confronted with our freedom of choice.
The Good Life edit
It is possible for people to face the anxieties of life head-on and embrace the human condition of aloneness, to revel in the freedom to choose and take full responsibility for their choices. They courageously take the helm of their lives and steer in whatever direction they choose; they have the courage to be. One does not need to arrest feelings of meaninglessness, but can choose new meanings for their lives. By building, by loving, and by creating one is able to live life as one's own adventure. One can accept one's own mortality and overcome fear of death. Though the French author Albert Camus denied the specific label of existentialist, in his novel, L'Etranger, his main character Meursault, ends the novel by doing just this. He accepts his mortality and rejects the constrictions of society he previously placed on himself, leaving him unencumbered and free to live his life with an unclouded mind
Four worlds edit
Practice edit
Establishing a genuine relationship is of high prominence in Existential therapy as it is with person centred and other humanist therapies. Although it is unusually not technique oriented, there are a number of objectives which need to be addressed for a successful existential therapy.