Unit 8: Existential theory (humanistic theories)

Emphasis on personal freedom and responsibility for actively shaping one’s life experiences, also phenomenological theories because they stress personal perceptions of reality. In these theories, the human condition is understood in the context of each individual’s internal world, and the affective (or “felt) experience of the client receives considerable emphasis. Key people: Viktor Frankl, Rollo May

Nature and history of Existential theory and therapy

Not founded by any particular person, influenced by many. Arose at the same time in different parts of Europe and among different schools of psychology and psychiatry in the 1940s and 1950s

Influences

1. Soren Kierkaard: angst

2. Friedrich Nietzsche: will to power

3. Martin Heidegger: phenomenology; reminds us we exist

4. Jean-Paul Sartre: Chose now, responsibility= freedom

5. Martin Buber: presence= 3 functions (1. enables true I/Thou relationship, 2. allows for meaning to exist in a situation, 3. responsibility in here-and-now)

6. Ludwig Binswanger: relationship between person and environment

7. Medard Boss: Being-in-the-world

Key figures:

1. Viktor Frankl: Logotherapy (therapy through meaning)

2. Rollo May: brough existentialism from Europe to US

   • emphasized struggle is between security of dependence and the delights and pains of growing

core propositions of the existential view of the human condition

1. Capacity for self-awareness

2. Freedom and responsibility

3. Creating one’s identity and establishing meaningful relationships

4. Search for meaning, purpose, values, and being

5. Anxiety as a condition for living

6. Awareness of death and nonbeing

Human nature of the Existential therapy/theory

Approached based on understanding of what it means to be human, does not follow a specific set of techniques

• stands for respect of the person, for exploring new aspects of human behavior, and for divergent methods of understanding people

• Current focus is on clients who feel alone, and have anxiety about this isolation

• humans are in a constant state of transition, we continually re-create ourselves through our projects

Proposition 1: The Capacity for Self-Awareness

We are finite and do not have unlimited time (death), have potential to take action or not, we choose our actions. Meaning is the product of discovery

• anxiety is an essential part of the living

• are subjected to loneliness, meaninglessness, emptiness, guilt, and isolation

Experiences in counselling:

1. Trading the security of dependence for anxieties they choose themselves

2. view that identity is anchored in someone else’s definition of them (approval from others); past actions make them prisoner

3. Change the way they view and react to events

4. Learn from their past and reshape tehri future

5. learn to appreciate living rather than thinking about dying

6. Learned to live in the present

The greater our awareness, the greater the possibilities for freedom. Self-awareness is at the root of most other human capacities, the decision to expand it is fundamental to human growth 

• Increasing self-awareness, includes: awareness of alternatives, motivations, factors influencing the person, and personal goals, is aim of all counseling  

Proposition 2: Freedom and Responsibility

because we are basically free beings, we must accept the responsibility that accompanies our freedom 

• people are free to choose among alternatives which shape their destiny, people must accept responsibility for directing life and it is the bac action for change

• Existential guilt: being aware of having evaded a commitment, or having chosen not to choose (occurs when we do not live authentically, allowing others to make our choices for us).

Experience in counselling:

1. Therapist assessed clients and discovering how they are avoiding freedom, to teach them how to risk using it

2. Clients seek support because they feel they have lost control of how they’re living

Proposition 3: Creating one’s identity and establishing meaningful relationships with others

we have a concern to preserve our uniqueness and identity; we come to know ourselves in relation to knowing and interacting with others. Trouble of finding answers to conflicts in our lives from others, becoming what others expect of us  

• balance between identity and forming relationships by trusting ourselves, yet avoiding expectations of what others want us to be

Courage to be: struggle to discover, create, and maintain the core deep within our being, client fear they will discover there is no core of themselves

• awareness of limited nature gives us an appreciation of ultimate concerns, 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  

The experience of loneliness: Sense of isolation comes when we recognize that we cannot depend in anyone else for our own confirmation; we alone must give a sense of meaning to life, and we alone must decide how we will live. 

The experience of relatedness: when we can handle being alone, our relationships with others becomes based on our fulfillment and not deprivation.

• Functions of therapy to help clients distinguish between neurotically dependent attachment to another and a life-affirming relationship in which both persons are enhanced  

Struggling with our identity: some clients may attempt to avoid accepting their aloneness and isolation. can become trapped in a "doing" mode rather than a "being" mode because of the fear of dealing with aloneness.

• Part of therapeutic journey consists of therapist challenging clients to examine the ways in which they have lost touch with their identity 

Proposition 4: The search for meaning, purpose, values, and goals

the significance of our existence and the meaning of our life are never fixed once and for all; instead, we re-create ourselves through our projects 

The problem of discarding old values: issues in therapy that clients may discard old traditional values without finding other, suitable ones to replace them. may face anxiety as they learn and discover new values that fit them.

Meaninglessness: leads to emptiness and hollowness (existential vacuum) or existential guilt.

• Experiencing meaninglessness and establishing values that are part of a meaningful life are issues that may be taken up in counselling  

Creating new meaning (logotherapy): finding meaning in life is a by-product of engagement, which is commitment to creating, loving, working, and building.

Proposition 5: Anxiety as a condition of living

arises from one's personal strivings to survive and to maintain and assert one's being.

• Feelings from anxiety are an inevitable aspect of the human condition.

• Existential anxiety is considered normal anxiety and a stimulus for growth.

• Neurotic anxiety: out of proportion to the situation, typically out of awareness and tends to immobilize the person  

• Opening up to new life, means opening up to anxiety  

Proposition 6: Awareness of death and non-being

death motivates us to live our lives fully and take advantage of each opportunity to do something meaningful

• live in present as fully as possible to not obsess with death

Therapeutic goals for existential therapy

ET gives invitation to clients to recognize ways in which they are not living fully authentic lives and to make choices that will lead to their becoming what they are capable of being (toward authenticity)

• Basic therapeutic goals are: (a) recognize factors that block freedom, (b) to challenge clients to recognize that they are doing something that they formerly thought was happening to them, (c) accept the freedom and responsibility that go along with action  

• Increased awareness is the central goal of existential therapy, which allows clients to discover that alternative possibilities exist where none were recognized before 

3 main tasks of therapy: (1) being present in the process, (2) Confront anxieties, (3) help clients redefine themselves

Time focus of existential theory

attention is given to clients immediate, ongoing experience with the aim of helping them develop a greater presence in their quest for meaning and purpose  

Therapist function and role in existential theory

• Understanding the subjective world of clients to find options  

• Focus in client current life situations NOT the past 

• Use diverse theoretical orientation  

Client experiences in therapy

• Encouraged to review subjective experience 

• Take responsibility for how the now choose to be 

• Describe how they will live differently 

• Confronting ultimate concerns rather than coping with immediate problems

Relationship between therapist and client

• Quality of relationship encourages positive change 

• Honesty integrity and courage 

• The I/Thou relationship is essential for connecting to self to the spirit and achieving true dialogue meaning there is direct, mutual, and present interaction 

• Therapy is the collaborative relationship 

• Therapists strive to create a caring and intimate relationships with clients 

• If a counsellor lacks the sense of presence, its negativity affects the relationship  

discuss the role of the therapeutic relationship versus the techniques of therapy in facilitating client growth and change. 

This approach places primary emphasis on understanding the clients current experience, not on using techniques. ET are free to adapt their interventions to their own personality and style, and the pay attention to what each client requires  

• Therapists are not bound by any prescribed procedures and can use techniques from other schools. Techniques are tools to help clients become aware of their choices and their potential for action 

• Interventions are used in the service of broadening the ways in which clients live in their world 

• Although existential practitioners may use techniques from other theoretical orientations, their interventions are guided by a philosophical framework about what it means to be human  

contributions of the ET approach

• Humanity is highlighted 

• Person-to-person to therapeutic relationship 

• Self-determination 

• Accepting responsibility and freedom 

• Use the individua; as their own author 

• Understanding anxiety and guilt, meaning of death 

• Examines behavior influenced by social and cultural conditioning  

Limitations of ET

• Lacks system a statement of principles and practices 

• Abstract concepts 

• Procedures not scientifically validated 

• Does not benefit lower functioning clients or play in extreme need of direction  

Multicultural contributions of ET

• Focus is on issue of love, anxiety, suffering, and death which anyone can relate to  

• Infuses technique to benefit all cultures  

Multicultural limitations ET

• Excessively individualistic 

• Ignore social factors that cause human problems  

• Some cultures do not offer musch choice 

• Environmental circumstances restrict 

• Highly focused on the assumption of self-determination  

• Lacks direction form counselor  

Aloneness (isolation)

The sense of isolation comes when we recognize that we cannot depend on anyone else for our own confirmation; that we alone must give a sense of meaning to life and decide how we will live  

Courage to be

We struggle to discover, create, and maintain the core deep within our being. Client fears they will discover there is no “core” of themselves 

Death (nonbeing)

Basic human condition that gives significance to living  

Existential anxiety (inauthenticity)

being aware of having evaded a commitment, or having chosen not to choose. Guilt experienced when we do not live authentically 

• Results from allowing others to define us to make choices for us  

• It is our awareness that our actions and choices express less than our full range as a person 

Basic human condition that gives significance to living 

Freedom, responsibility

being free and being human are identical, freedom and responsibility go hand and hand. We are the authors of our lives in sense that we create our destiny, our life situation, and our problems 

I/Thou relationship

is the relationship essential for connecting the self to the spirit and, in so doing, to achieve true dialogue. Relating in an I/Thou fashion means that there is direct, mutual, and present interaction 

Meaninglessness (existential vacuum)

A condition of emptiness and hollowness that results from meaninglessness in life  

Restricted existence

A state of functioning with a limited degree of awareness of oneself and being vague about the nature of one's problems  

Self-awareness

Ways they are in contact with themselves. The greater our awareness, the greater our possibilities for freedom  

The human condition

(1) Capacity for self-awareness, (2) Freedom and responsibility, (3) Creating one’s identity and establishing meaningful relationships, (4) Search for meaning, purpose, values, and being, (5) Anxiety as a condition for a living, (6) Awareness of death and nonbeing  

phenomenology

method of exploration that uses subjective human experiencing as its focus.  

Logotherapy

developed by Frankl, brand of existential therapy means “healing through reason.” it focuses on challenging clients to search for meaning in life  

Existentialism

a philosophical movement stressing individual responsibility for creating ones ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving  

Existential neurosis

feelings of despair and anxiety that results from inauthentic living, a failure to make choices, and avoidance of responsibility  

Inauthentic mode of existence

consists if lacking awareness of personal responsibility for our lives and passively assuming that our existence is largely controlled by external forces  

Authentic mode of existence

being true to self and own evaluation of what is a valuable existence for ourselves 

Identify the fundamental differences between this perspective and the two major theoretical streams explored to this point (psychodynamic approaches and behavioral and cognitive approaches)

Difference from psychoanalytic approaches 

• The existential approach rejects the deterministic side of human nature and instead acknowledges some of these facts about human nature yet emphasizes humans' freedom to choose what to make of our circumstances.  

• Existential therapy not designed to cure people in traditional of the medical model, rather clients viewed as being sick of life and unable to live a productive life  

 

Difference from behavioral and cognitive-behavioral approaches 

• Emphasis on client's insight, narrative of their life/situations, responsibility  

How are freedom and responsibility related? Describe how these core concepts affect the counselling process.

Although we have no choice about being throw into the world, the manner we live and what we become are the results of our choices. Because of this we must accept responsible for directing our lives, yet it is possible to avoid this reality by making excuses.  

• We are responsible for our lives, for our actions, and for our failures to take action. Need commitment to choosing for ourselves 

• Assuming responsibility is a basic condition for change, and freedom and responsibility go hand in hand  

How it affects the counselling process: Clients seen as avoiding own freedom, living inauthentic life. See client as responsible for life, actions etc...   

• Therapist helps clients in discovering how they are avoiding freedom and encourages them to learn to risk using it (freedom and choice). Make client accept that they have choices  

• Two central tasks of therapist are inviting client to recognize for themselves how they allow others to decide for themselves and encouraging them to take steps toward autonomy  

• Initiative for changing it will have to come from the client