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Existential therapy starts with the belief that although humans are essentially alone in the world, they long to be connected to others. People want to have meaning in one another's lives, but ultimately they must come to realize that they cannot depend on others for validation, and with that realization they finally acknowledge and understand that they are fundamentally alone (Yalom, 1980). The result of this revelation is anxiety in the knowledge that our validation must come from within and not from others.
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23 Apr 09
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Existential psychotherapy is partly based on the existential belief that human beings are alone in the world.[citation needed] This feeling of aloneness leads to feelings of meaninglessness which can be overcome only by creating one's own values and meanings. Existential psychotherapy suggests that in making our own choices we assume full responsibility for the results and blame no one but ourselves if the result is less than what was desired. The psychotherapist helps his or her patients/clients along this path: to discover why the patient/client is overburdened by the anxieties of aloneness and meaninglessness, to find new and better ways to manage these anxieties, to make new and healthy choices, and to emerge from therapy as a free and sound human being.
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Kierkegaard (1813–55) protested vigorously against popular misunderstanding and abuse of Christian dogma and the so-called 'objectivity' of science (Kierkegaard, 1841, 1844). He thought that both were ways of avoiding the anxiety inherent in human existence. He had great contempt for the way in which life was being lived by those around him and believed that truth could ultimately only be discovered subjectively by the individual in action. What was most lacking was people's courage to take the leap of faith and live with passion and commitment from the inward depth of existence. This involved a constant struggle between the finite and infinite aspects of our nature as part of the difficult task of creating a self and finding meaning. As Kierkegaard lived by his own word he was lonely and much ridiculed during his lifetime.
OR: Holding to the view that objectivity is unavailable to actual (finite and temporal) human beings, he sought to demonstrate that the role of Christian dogma, within an actual human life, was misunderstood; eg subjected to explanation and/or justification. The rejection of the objectivity of possessed truth does not imply subjective relativism, and the consequence of ineradicable anxiety, since a stable and concrete view may be established by way of the decision to trust God who is Love (unassailable, unassailed dogma as bedrock or pole-star for thought). A fully developed subjectivity recognises itself to be 'untruth'; trusting itself not to itself, nor the instances of society, but to its Creator and Saviour. Specifically and concretely, a relationship with Christ - a relationship to God, within concrete existence. Kierkegaard was often alone, but not lonely.
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Existential Therapy's View of the Human Mind
Existential therapy starts with the belief that although humans are essentially alone in the world, we long to be connected to others. People want to have meaning in each others lives, but ultimately we must come to realize that we cannot depend on others for our validation, and with that realization we finally acknowledge and understand that we are fundamentally alone.[citation needed] The result of this revelation is anxiety in the knowledge that our validation must come from within and not from others.
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Because we are alienated and isolated our lives are also meaningless. Nothing exists which is greater than ourselves, therefore there are no external sources of values and absolutes from which we can draw. Taken to an extreme, we might conclude that there is nothing for which to live. However, we also possess the freedom to create our own values and personal life-meaning, and apply them to our condition. This freedom gives us feelings of significance and purpose that are strong enough to carry us through life. Still, the freedom to choose is another source of anxiety: we must summon the requisite strength and courage to choose our personal life-meaning and hold fast to it. This is undoubtedly a task which many find difficult.
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Finally, humans are responsible. Being isolated, alone, and free to choose means that one cannot assign blame for his or her problems to someone else. The individual alone makes the choices and therefore is responsible for the outcomes. At any point we are free to make different choices and thus re-invent ourselves; we are at once the architect, the planner, and the builder of our lives, throughout our lives. Being able to choose is to be constantly in touch with one's potentiality. Often we find this too much of a burden and so we pretend we do not have a choice and are not responsible for what happens in our life and in the world. This is what Sartre called living in bad faith. (Sartre, 1943) He believed it was nearly impossible to live without such self deceptions
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Psychological Dysfunction
In the existential view, there is no such thing as psychological dysfunction or being ill. Every way of being is merely an expression of how one chooses to live one's life. However one may feel unable to come to terms with the anxiety of being alone in the world. If so an existential psychotherapist can assist one in accepting these feelings rather than trying to change them as if there is something wrong.
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The Good Life
Existential belief suggests that 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.[
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Existential Therapy
The existential psychotherapist is generally not concerned with the client's past; instead, the emphasis is on the choices to be made in the present and future. The counselor and the client may reflect upon how the client has answered life's questions in the past, but attention ultimately shifts to searching for a new and increased awareness in the present and enabling a new freedom and responsibility to act. The patient can then accept they are not special, and that their existence is simply coincidental, without destiny or fate. By accepting this, they can overcome their anxieties, and instead view life as moments, in which they are fundamentally free.
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Four worlds
Existential thinkers seek to avoid restrictive models that categorize or label people. Instead they look for the universals that can be observed cross-culturally.[citation needed] There is no existential personality theory which divides humanity into types or reduces people to part components. Instead there is a description of the different levels of experience and existence with which people are inevitably confronted. The way in which a person is in the world at a particular stage can be charted on this general map of human existence (Binswanger, 1963; Yalom, 1980; van Deurzen, 1984). One can distinguish four basic dimensions of human existence: the physical, the social, the psychological and the spiritual. On each of these dimensions people encounter the world and shape their attitude out of their particular take on their experience. Our orientation towards the world defines our reality. The four dimensions are obviously interwoven and provide a complex fourdimensional force field for our existence. We are stretched between a positive pole of what we aspire to on each dimension and a negative pole of what we fear
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Physical dimension On the physical dimension (Umwelt) we relate to our environment and to the givens of the natural world around us.
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Social dimension On the social dimension (Mitwelt) we relate to others as we interact with the public world around us. This dimension includes our response to the culture we live in, as well as to the class and race we belong to (and also those we do not belong to). Attitudes here range from love to hate and from co-operation to competition. The dynamic contradictions can be understood in terms of acceptance versus rejection or belonging versus isolation.
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Psychological dimension On the psychological dimension (Eigenwelt) we relate to ourselves and in this way create a personal world. This dimension includes views about our character, our past experience and our future possibilities. Contradictions here are often experienced in terms of personal strengths and weaknesses. People search for a sense of identity, a feeling of being substantial and having a self. But inevitably many events will confront us with evidence to the contrary and plunge us into a state of confusion or disintegration. Activity and passivity are an important polarity here. Self-affirmation and resolution go with the former and surrender and yielding with the latter. Facing the final dissolution of self that comes with personal loss and the facing of death might bring anxiety and confusion to many who have not yet given up their sense of self-importance.
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Spiritual dimension On the spiritual dimension (überwelt) (van Deurzen, 1984) we relate to the unknown and thus create a sense of an ideal world, an ideology and a philosophical outlook. It is here that we find meaning by putting all the pieces of the puzzle together for ourselves. For some people this is done by adhering to a religion or other prescriptive world view, for others it is about discovering or attributing meaning in a more secular or personal way. The contradictions that have to be faced on this dimension are often related to the tension between purpose and absurdity, hope and despair. People create their values in search of something that matters enough to live or die for, something that may even have ultimate and universal validity. Usually the aim is the conquest of a soul, or something that will substantially surpass mortality (as for instance in having contributed something valuable to humankind). Facing the void and the possibility of nothingness are the indispensable counterparts of this quest for the eternal.
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