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33 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Angst |
A meaning between "dread" and "anxiety" which in existentialism refers to the uncertainty in life and the role of anxiety in making decisions about how we want to live. |
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Anxiety |
Condition resulting from having to face choices without clear guidelines or knowing what the outcome will be. |
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Authenticity |
Process of creating, discovering or maintaining the core deep within one's being; the process of becoming the person one is capable of becoming. |
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Existential analysis |
Emphasis of therapeutic approach on subjective and spiritual dimensions of human existence. |
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Existential Anxiety |
An outcome of being confronted with the four givens of existence: death, freedom, existential isolation and meaninglessness. |
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Existential Guilt |
The result of or the consciousness of evading the commitment to choosing for ourselves. |
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Existential Neurosis |
Feelings of despair and anxiety that result from inauthentic living, a failure to make choices and avoidance of responsibility. |
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Existential Tradition |
Seeks balance between recognizing limits and tragic dimensions of human existence and possibilities and opportunities of human life. |
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Existential Vacuum |
Condition of emptiness that results from meaninglessness in life. |
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Existentialism |
Philosophical movement stressing individual responsibility for creating one's way of thinking, feeling and behaving. |
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Freedom |
Inescapable aspect of human condition. We are authors of our lives and responsible for our destiny and accountable for our actions. |
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Givens of Existence |
Universal/Core themes in therapeutic process: death, freedom, existential isolation and meaninglessness. |
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Inauthenticity |
Lacking awareness of personal responsibility and passively assuming that existence is largely controlled by external forces. |
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Intersubjectivity |
The fact of our interrelatedness with others and the need for us to struggle with this in a creative way. |
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Logotherapy |
"Healing through reason." Focuses on challenging client to search for meaning in life. Developed by Frankl. |
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Neurotic Anxiety |
Response out of proportion to the situation. Typically out of awareness and tends to immobilize the person. |
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Normal Anxiety |
An appropriate response to an event being faced. |
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Phenomenology |
Method of exploration using subjective human experience as the focus. Part of the fabric of existentially oriented therapies: Adlerian therapy, person-centered therapy, Gestalt therapy, reality therapy. |
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Presence |
Both a condition and goal of therapeutic change. Serves the dual functions of reconnecting people to their pain and attuning them to opportunities to transform their pain. |
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Resistance |
Existential-humanistic perspective - Manifest as a failure to be fully present both during therapy and in life. |
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Restricted Existence |
State of functioning with limited degree of awareness of oneself and being vague about the nature of one's problems. |
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Self-awareness |
The capacity for consciousness that enables us to make choices. |
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Key Figures in Philosophy |
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Buber, Binswanger and Boss. |
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Key Figures in Psychotherapy (existential) |
Frankl, May, Yalom and Bugental. Emmy van Deurzen in the UK founded New School of Psychotherapy and Counseling focusing on training existential counselors. The approach examines the central concerns of a persons existence. |
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Philosophy |
Reaction against therapy as system of well defined techniques. Focuses on exploring themes such as mortality, meaning, choice, freedom, responsibility, self-determination, anxiety and aloneness and relating these to person's current struggle. Significance of existence never fixed: we continually re-create selves through projects. Existential anxiety arises when we recognize realities of mortality, confrontation with pain and suffering, need to struggle for survival and basic fallibility. It is healthy and motivation to change. Arises from awareness of freedom and responsibility. |
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Key Concepts |
1. We have capacity for self awareness 2. Basically free beings and must accept responsibility that comes with that. 3. We want to preserve our uniqueness and come to know selves in relation to knowing and interacting with others. 4. significance of our existence/meaning of life never fixed. 5. Anxiety is part of human condition 6. Death is also a basic human condition and awareness of it gives significance to living.
Clients are confronted with addressing ultimate concerns rather than immediate problems and expected to put into action what they learn about selves in therapy in daily life. |
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Goals |
Invite clients to recognize how they are not living fully authentic lives and to make choices that will lead to becoming what they are capable of being. Assist clients in exploring givens of life and how they are ignored or denied and how addressing them can lead to more meaningful existence. Aimed toward removing roadblocks to meaningful lives and helping clients assume responsibility for actions. Help clients develop greater presence in quest for meaning and purpose.
1. Recognize factors that block freedom 2. Recognize what they are doing that they formerly thought was being done to them. 3. Widen perspectives on choice. 4. Accept freedom and responsibility that go along with action. |
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Relationship |
Attention given to client's immediate, ongoing experience especially in interaction between therapist and client. Quality of I/Thou encounter offers context for change. Emphasis on being fully present and striving for caring relationships with clients. Therapists willing to make themselves known through appropriate self-disclosure. Therapy is collaborative journey of self-discovery. |
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Techniques |
Emphasis on understanding client's experience, not techniques. Not bound by prescribed procedures. Interventions used in service of broadening ways clients live in their world. Techniques as tools to help clients become aware of choices and potential for action. Interventions guided by philosophical framework about what it means to be human. |
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Applications |
Appropriate for those seeking personal growth. Can be useful for development crisis (ex: career/marriage failure). In brief therapy focus on encouraging clients to examine issues of personal responsibility, expanding awareness of current situation, making commitment to decision and action. Time-limited can be catalyst for maximum involvement in therapy. Applicable to groups if open attitudes towards life and willingness to explore unknown. Members learn how others view them and their behavior affects others. Increased responsibility for change. Members can discover how to acquire more authentic ways of being. |
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Multicultural Perspectives |
Highly applicable to multicultural clients because universal themes and subjective reality. Existential therapy takes into account life contexts. International interest in existential approach. |
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Contributions |
Person to person therapeutic relationship lessens chances of dehumanizing therapy. Applicable regardless of theoretical orientation. Stresses self-determination, accepting personal responsibility. Perspectives for understanding anxiety and guilt, role and meaning of death, creative aspects of being alone and choosing for oneself. Can be integrated into most other orientations. |
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Limitations |
Lacks system of practices/principles of therapy. Vague. Not empirically validated because no procedures associated. Doesn't match techniques for specific problems because "every psychotherapy experience is unique." Limited applicability to lower-functioning clients, clients in extreme crisis, clients concerned with meeting basic needs and those lacking verbal skills. |
