Exisentialism Psychotherapy
Existential Psychotherapy
Rollo May and Irvin Yalom
OVERVIEW
Existential psychotherapy arose spontaneously in the minds and works of a number of psychologists and psychiatrists in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s who were concerned with finding a way of understanding human beings that was more reliable and more basic than the then-current psychotherapies. The “existential orientation in psychiatry,” wrote Ludwig Binswanger, “arose from dissatisfaction with the prevailing efforts to gain scientific understanding in psychiatry” (1956, p. 144). These existential therapists believed drives in Freudian psychology, conditioning in behaviorism, and archetypes in Jungianism all had their own significance. But where was the actual, immediate person to whom these things were happening? Are we seeing patients as they really are, or are we simply seeing a projection of our theories about them?
These therapists were keenly aware that we are living in an age of transition, when almost every human being feels alienated from fellow humans, threatened by nuclear war and economic upsets, perplexed by the radical changes in marriage and almost all other mores in our culture—in short, almost everyone is beset by anxiety.
Existential psychotherapy is not a specific technical approach that presents a new set of rules for therapy. It asks deep questions about the nature of the human being and the nature of anxiety, despair, grief, loneliness, isolation, and anomie. It also deals centrally with the questions of creativity and love. Out of the understanding of the meaning of these human experiences, existential psychotherapists have devised methods of therapy that do not fall into the common error of distorting human beings in the very effort of trying to help them.
Basic Concepts
The “I-Am” Experience
The realization of one’s being—“I am now living and I could take my life”—can have a salutary effect on a patient. “The idea of suicide has saved many lives,” said
Rollo May and Irvin Yalom
OVERVIEW
Existential psychotherapy arose spontaneously in the minds and works of a number of psychologists and psychiatrists in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s who were concerned with finding a way of understanding human beings that was more reliable and more basic than the then-current psychotherapies. The “existential orientation in psychiatry,” wrote Ludwig Binswanger, “arose from dissatisfaction with the prevailing efforts to gain scientific understanding in psychiatry” (1956, p. 144). These existential therapists believed drives in Freudian psychology, conditioning in behaviorism, and archetypes in Jungianism all had their own significance. But where was the actual, immediate person to whom these things were happening? Are we seeing patients as they really are, or are we simply seeing a projection of our theories about them?
These therapists were keenly aware that we are living in an age of transition, when almost every human being feels alienated from fellow humans, threatened by nuclear war and economic upsets, perplexed by the radical changes in marriage and almost all other mores in our culture—in short, almost everyone is beset by anxiety.
Existential psychotherapy is not a specific technical approach that presents a new set of rules for therapy. It asks deep questions about the nature of the human being and the nature of anxiety, despair, grief, loneliness, isolation, and anomie. It also deals centrally with the questions of creativity and love. Out of the understanding of the meaning of these human experiences, existential psychotherapists have devised methods of therapy that do not fall into the common error of distorting human beings in the very effort of trying to help them.
Basic Concepts
The “I-Am” Experience
The realization of one’s being—“I am now living and I could take my life”—can have a salutary effect on a patient. “The idea of suicide has saved many lives,” said
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