Existential Therapy

100 Key Points and Techniques

Susan Iacovou, Karen Weixel-Dixon

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317485414
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Psicologia
• Categoría: Salute mentale in psicologia

Less of an orientation and more a way of understanding the challenges of being human, existential therapy draws on rich and diverse philosophical traditions and ways of viewing the world. Traditionally it has been seen as difficult to summarise and comprehend and the air of mystery surrounding existential ideas has been exacerbated by the dense language often used by philosophers and practitioners. Existential Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to a fascinating and exciting body of knowledge, and the therapeutic approach it informs. Divided into five parts the topics covered include:

Existentialism – inception to present day

Theoretical assumptions

Existential phenomenological therapy in practice

Ethics and existential therapy

Bringing it all together

Existential Therapy: 100 Key Points and Techniques will be essential reading for all trainee and qualified counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists and psychiatrists who want to use the wisdom of existential ideas in their work with clients. It will also benefit clients and potential clients who want to find out how existential ideas and existential therapy can help them explore what it means to be alive.

Part 1

EXISTENTIALISM – INCEPTION TO PRESENT DAY

This section of the book briefly introduces existentialism and existential therapy and highlights the central role existential ideas play in modern life today.

1

WHAT IS EXISTENTIALISM?

Many people have heard the term ‘existentialism’ and some may have some vague notions as to what it refers to. It may, for example, conjure up pictures of Gauloise-smoking philosophers in French cafés, or poets and playwrights producing pessimistic and melancholic reflections on what it means to be human. Some may associate it with amorality or despair, or consider it to be the stuff of academia, with little relevance to the everyday. In fact, the contributions made by existential thinkers to philosophy, art, literature, science and numerous other fields are immeasurable, and existentialism offers those who care to explore it access to the collective wisdom of many of humanity’s greatest thinkers

Perhaps one of the reasons why existentialism evades common understanding is that it resists concise definition. There are a number of reasons why this is the case. First, existentialism isn’t a unitary, coordinated body of knowledge – indeed, for every apparently central tenet identified as existential an equally strongly held but opposing view is readily presented and hotly debated. On the subject of faith, for example, we have Kaufman and Nietzsche (1974) declaring God is dead, while Tillich (2000) exhorts us to have faith and turn to the infinite. Second, many contradictory attempts are made to define existentialism according to a particular time period, often talking about it as a ‘twentieth-century cultural movement’ or as ‘having mid-nineteenth-century origins but coming of age in the twentieth century’, yet existentialism without Nietzsche (1844–1900) and Kierkegaard (1813–1855), to name but two, would be unthinkable. Indeed, existential themes can be found in the works of Aristotle and Plato, in the Old Testament, in ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’ (Jastrow & Clay, 2010) and in the teachings of Buddha. Finally, to add to the confusion, many philosophers and writers defined today as existentialists – Camus and Heidegger, for example – resisted being defined as such while still alive.

There are definitions of existentialism that focus on what it is not, or what it is opposed to. Many see it as a counter to the traditional philosophy and rationalism of the Enlighten ment, as seen in the works of Descartes and Spinoza. (Indeed, Crowell (2010) argues that existentialism is a general approach to rejecting other systematic philosophies rather than being a systematic philosophy in itself.) Others describe it as a reaction against arbitrary social values and institutions such as organised religion, and their attempts to control individual thought and behaviour. However, these negative definitions do nothing to tell us what existentialism actually is, anymore than describing punk music as ‘not rock’ or ‘not jazz’ helps us to understand what ‘God Save the Queen’ by the Sex Pistols actually sounds like.

It is possible to discern some core areas of concern that are central to most, if not all, existential philosophies and, through these, to establish in broad terms a working definition of existentialism on which to base the rest of this book.

Ultimately existentialism concerns itself simply with what it is to exist as a human being. It is a philosophical approach to understanding our experiences, our world, our relationships and this thing we call our ‘self’. It doesn’t deny the validity of natural science, but makes the point that human beings cannot be fully understood in terms of it. Human existence can be understood only through a thorough examination of our experience of what it means to be (Heidegger, 1978) and through an understanding of the universal issues we face in being human, including freedom, responsibility, meaning, isolation, death and anxiety. It’s about life and its challenges. It’s about us as individuals and as beings in relation to others. It’s about how we navigate our journeys from birth to death. It’s about all that we are, and all we might be. Existentialism is, quite simply, about being human. And existential psychotherapy, as this book will reveal, is about exploring each individual client’s experience of what it is to be human in all its complexity.

2

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS

The roots of existential therapy lie in 3,000 years of philosophy and, in particular, in the human quest to understand life and overcome adversity (Deurzen, 2007). These roots encompass the wisdom of the Ancient Greeks, incorporating tenets of Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism and Taoism and taking inspiration from the work of an eclectic mix of philosophers, writers, artists and theologians. However, there are two strands of thought that have most heavily influenced the development of existential therapy – the diverse field of work that is known collectively as existential philosophy, and the philosophy of phenomenology, which seeks to determine how we experience the world.

EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY

Although he never used the term existential, the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard is widely regarded as the ‘father of existentialism’ and, along with Nietzsche, as the precursor of existentialism as a movement. Kierkegaard was one of the first philosophers to focus his work on the exploration of angst, despair, love and the universal contradictions of human ‘existence’, while Nietzsche talked about the importance of individuality, attacking conventional systems of morality and power and encouraging people to live with passion.

The first person to use the term existential to describe a particular philosophical approach is thought to be French philosopher Gabriel Marcel (1949). The word was then adopted by Jean-Paul Sartre and became associated with his literary and philosophical work and with that of his long-term partner Simone de Beauvoir and fellow French philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Albert Camus. Latterly the work of German philosophers Jaspers, Heidegger and Buber was incorporated under this banner, along with that of the Romanian Ionescu and Americans Tillich and May. On the back of the work of these (and other) philosophers and writers, existential philosophy flourished across mid-twentieth-century Europe. Taking root in the imagination of people ravaged by the horror of two world wars, it was a philosophy that emphasised human individuality, freedom and responsibility, and encouraged resistance to systems of thought that sought to control, or to reduce the complexity of human existence to a set of laws, rules or statistics (Cooper, 2003).

PHENOMENOLOGY

The other central strand of existential therapy is phenomenology. Often described as a study of things as they appear, phenomenology was originally developed by the German mathematician Edmund Husserl (1859–1958). Husserl rejected the idea that truth was to be found solely in objective, natural science and instead proposed a method of studying human experience that acknowledged both the objective and the subjective. He recognised the fact that we are participant-observers in the world – we cannot stand outside of the world, and therefore, when we talk about something, we cannot help but talk about it through the lens of our experience of it (Adams, 2013). What phenomenology aims to do is reveal things as they actually are by studying them in a way that removes the assumptions and preconceptions that limit our understanding of them.

EXISTENTIAL THERAPY

Existential and phenomenological ideas went on to influence a number of fields, including theology (through the work of people like Paul Tillich and Karl Barth), psychiatry (through the world of Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss and more recently Ronnie Laing), sociology (through the work of people like Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault) and psychology (through Otto Rank, Victor Frankl and Rollo May, for example). Most significantly for the purposes of this book, existentialism has been applied to the field of psychotherapy. Existential psychotherapies, including Daseinsanalysis, Logotherapy, and the therapies that make up the American and British schools of existential therapy, each bring their own particular blend of ideas from existential philosophy and phenomenology and present credible alternatives to therapies based on the dominant medical model of mental health. And as we will see later on in this book, existential therapy need not be practised to the exclusion of other types of therapy, but rather has something to offer practitioners from a very wide range of other schools.

3

THE BASIS OF AN EXISTENTIAL APPROACH TO THERAPY

Unlike other forms of psychotherapy, which take their inspiration primarily from psychology or medicine, existential therapy is philosophy-based. This doesn’t mean that it is heavily theoretical (in fact, it is arguably less theory-driven than many other forms of therapy). Nor does it ignore the psychological, emotional or behavioural in favour of esoteric allusions, or involve the therapist and client in endless philosophical debates about the meaning of life or the existence of a higher being. Existential therapy is informed by, not focused on, philosophy (primarily – but not exclusively – existential philosophy) and benefits from the wisdom, insight and perspicacity it offers.

The existential therapist recognises that we all face certain universal conditions and that the differences between us come down to how we choose to respond to these conditions. For example, we will all ultimately face our own death – but some of us choose to meet this reality head-on, grabbing any opportunities to truly live in the meantime, while others try to deny their mortality, spending vast amounts of money on products and procedures to help them retain at least the appearance of youth.

Existential therapy focuses on this uniqueness – resisting the tendency to place people in boxes or typologies according, for example, to their personality, age, gender, educational background, behaviour, sexual preferences, political views or choice of lifestyle. It is therefore a ‘non-pathologising’ therapy, in which a very wide range of human thought, behaviour and emotion is considered normal, and where terms like ‘diagnosis’, ‘illness’ and ‘symptoms’ and the medical model of mental health are seen as largely unnecessary and potentially harmful, restricting both our understanding of their world and the sense of responsibility and freedom with which we approach our challenges.

Existential therapy offers both therapist and client an opportunity to discover how the client chooses to express their individuality. It’s about clarifying their worldview, their values and beliefs, and the attitude they take to their world, and to the people and events they encounter. Illuminating these stances leaves the client free to consider whether or not these ways of being, thinking, feeling and behaving will best help them live a life in line with their values, a life that is meaningful, a life in which they engage actively with the choices they make and strive to make them in light of their own needs and the needs of others.

The existential therapist recognises that we are good at deceiving ourselves and that this ability to rationalise, ignore or underestimate the significance of evidence that contradicts what we want to believe can often make us strangers to ourselves, standing in the way of our ability to truly know our reality. As a result, we may refuse to see how we, or other people, are contributing to our unhappiness, distress or lack of fulfilment, perhaps because we are frightened of what we might lose, or how we might have to change if we were to open our eyes.

An existential therapist accepts these strategies as ways of dealing with life and living, and approaches each client’s story with curiosity. Clients are invited to describe and examine their behaviours, relationships, thoughts and ideas and encouraged to be open to those alternative ways of thinking, behaving and being that they are not currently choosing.

Existential therapy is not necessarily about major change (though for many clients it leads to new and profound ways of being). A client may decide to make some, or even many, changes in their life, or they may decide not to make any outward changes at all. Often the inward changes in emotions, attitudes and ideas are enough to allow them to move forward and deal with any challenges they are facing.

Although existential ideas are relevant to everybody, existential therapy is not a flavour of therapy that everyone finds palatable (Tantam, 2002). It demands much of clients, who must be prepared to wrestle with, and ultimately come to accept, the dilemmas and paradoxes of human existence, to take responsibility for the choices they make (and the consequences that result from them) and to confront absurdity, meaninglessness and the finitude of their own existence with courage and tenacity.

4

EXISTENTIAL THERAPY HERE AND NOW

Over the last ten years, the number of schools of existential therapy around the world, together with the number of practising existential therapists, has grown rapidly. At the time of writing, the first World Congress for Existential Therapy is being planned and will take place in London in 2015. The venue for this event reflects the continuing dominance of the British School of Existential Therapy in the development and promotion of existential theory and practice (Cooper, 2012). Historically in the UK, concepts from existential philosophy were first incorporated into the care of those with mental health problems by Laing and Cooper, who opened therapeutic communities offering refuge to those who wanted to dea...