Existential Personality Theory

1. Existential Personality Theory “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.” ~ Nietzsche

2. History • Was not founded by any particular person or group. • Some key figures were: Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss, Victor Frankl, Rollo May, James Bugental, Irvin Yalom • Existential personality theory was heavily influenced by a number of philosophers in the 19th century, who were concerned with existence and what it meant to be human.

3. What existentialism is … • A philosophical view that emphasizes the importance of existence, including one's responsibility for one's own psychological existence.

4. Existentialism continued … • Is NOT a technical approach to counseling that offers new rules for therapy. • Psychoanalysis – use of transference, free-association • Behaviorism – stimulus/response, +reinforcement/-reinforcement/punishment • It is a frame-of-reference or way of viewing and understanding a client’s suffering

5. Existential Viewof Human Nature • Assumption One: As humans, our basic conflict is between ourselves and the “givens” of our existence. • It’s not from instinctual drives (ego & superego) • It’s not from significant adults in one’s early life (need for acceptance and approval) • It’s this anxiety we experience when we are confronted with the givens of our existence

6. Existential View of Human Nature • Assumption Two: Existing in the world brings about both normal and neurotic anxiety. “Anxiety arises from our personal need to survive, to preserve our being, and to assert our being (Corsini & Wedding, 2005, p. 271) • Anxiety occurs as we try to deal with important life themes: • living and dying • freedom, responsibility, & choice • isolation & loving • meaning & meaninglessness.

7. Existential View ofHuman Nature • Assumption Three: As humans we have the capacity for self-awareness. • The greater our self-awareness, the greater our possibilities for freedom. • We can increase our capacity to live life fully.

8. Existential View of Human Nature • Assumption Four: If a person is to be understood and helped to understand him/herself. That person must be understood from the perspective of the here-and-now. • The past is important only insofar as it is part of one’s current existence. • There are no attempts to uncover what happened in the past, instead there is a focus on experiences in the present.

9. Existential View ofHuman Nature • Assumption Five: The significance of our existence (who we are) is never fixed. We are always re-creating ourselves, evolving, and becoming (Corey, 2005). • The essence of who we are is never fixed until we die. • Resistance to using theorotypes or labels

10. Major Concepts • Being-in-the world = examining oneself, others, and one's relationship with the world, thus attaining higher levels of consciousness (Dasein). • Four ways of being-in-the world: • Umwelt • Mitwelt • Eigenwelt • Uberwelt

11. Major Concepts continued … • Umwelt -“world around”: Relating to the world of objects around us (environment); attending to the biological and physical aspects of the world – biological needs, drives, & instincts. • Mitwelt– “with-world” : A way in which individuals relate to the world by interacting socially with others. The focus is on human relationships rather than relationships that are biological or physical (Umwelt).

12. Major Concepts cont… • Eigenwelt– “own world”:It is the perception of what something in the world means to each individual observer. It is a self-awareness and self-relatedness that is unique to human beings. • Uberwelt:Religious or spiritual beliefs about the ideal world, the way an individual wants the world to be.

13. Major Concepts cont… • Normal anxiety:it’s appropriate to the situation; it does not require repression -- we can come to terms with it; it can be used creatively and may encourage us to identify and confront whatever is causing the anxiety in the first place. • Neurotic anxiety: is not appropriate to the situation; it is repressed; and, it is destructive not constructive. It tends to paralyze a person rather than stimulate creativity. • Existential anxiety: consciousness of our own freedom to make choices. As we become aware of the choices we have, we also become aware of the responsibility for those choices. It also comes from dealing with unforeseen forces (the thrown condition) and is a significant subset of normal anxiety

14. Major Concepts cont… • Guilt: like anxiety can take normal and neurotic forms. • Neurotic guilt – often arises out of fantasized transgressions. • Normal guilt – sensitizes us to the moral aspects of our behavior. • Another form of guilt – failure to live up to our potentialities. If you lock up your potentialities you are guilty for not fulfilling what is given to you in your origin, in your “core” (Corsini & Wedding, 2005, pg. 272).

15. Major Concepts cont… • Thrown Condition- Unforeseen forces or events in the world that one does not cause. • The “I-Am” Experience – this realization of one’s being. It’s the idea that we will be victimized by our circumstances, until we realize that … “I am the one living and experiencing. I choose my own being” (Corsini & Wedding, 2005).

16. Major Concepts cont… • Boundary situation: an experience that compels an individual to deal with an existential situation (confrontation with one’s own death) • Self-transcendence:Going beyond one's immediate situation to understand one's being and to take responsibility for that being. Going beyond one's own needs to take responsibility for others or to see the world in different ways. • Authenticity: Being genuine and real, as well as aware of one's being. Authentic individuals deal with moral choices, the meaning of life, and being human.

17. Givens of the Human Condition • If we put aside everyday concerns … and reflect deeply upon our situation in the world, then we must confront “ultimate concerns” that are an inescapable part of our existence in the world. • Yalom (1981) identified four (4) ultimate concerns

18. Death • We will all die, there is no escape. • This realization haunts us and so we erect defenses to keep these thoughts out of our awareness. • These defenses are denial based and can become maladaptive. • Psychopathology (symptoms & maladaptive behavior) has origins in a person’s terror of death.

19. Freedom vs. Responsibility • Each person is ultimately responsible for and the author of his/her own world, own life design, and own choices and actions (Corsini & Wedding, 2005, p. 280). • If we create our own world and our own meaning of the world, than there is no ground beneath us: there is only nothingness. Conflict between awareness of freedom/groundlessness vs. a need for ground and structure. • Responsibility – we do things to avoid it • Displace it onto other people, circumstances, etc. • Deny it (even though they have set certain events into motion) • Shuck it (being irrational or in a state where they are not accountable for their behavior)

20. Isolation • Interpersonal isolation: gulf between self and other people (lack in social skills and fear of intimacy) • Intrapersonal isolation: isolated from parts of ourselves (experience, affect, desire) that are dissociated out of awareness. • Existential isolation: no matter how closely we relate to another individual, there remains an unbridgeable gap. • We enter existence alone • We must die alone – people may be there with us when we die, but we alone experience death.

21. Isolation continued … • This fear of existential isolation (and the defenses we erect against it) underlies a great deal of interpersonal psychopathology (Corsini & Wedding, 2005). • We may form relationships with others for some function (a defense against isolation), rather than out of caring for that person’s being. • May attempt to deal with isolation through fusion -- soften ego boundaries and become part of another individual. Or fuse with a group, cause, etc. and become like everyone else and avoid isolation of the lonely self.

22. Meaninglessness • If we all die … If we all create our own world … and if each of us is ultimately alone … then what possible meaning can life have? • As humans we require meaning. We strive to organize and lend meaning to our experiences. • In a chaotic world, we search for an explanation or a meaning for our existence. • If there is no preordained design in life, then we must construct our own meaning in life. • From this meaning schema we generate a hierarchy of values. • These values give us a blueprint for life – not only a why we live but how to live. • There is this dilemma resulting from: how we as humans require meaning and find meaning in a universe that has no meaning?

23. Theory of Illness Awareness of ultimate concerns  Anxiety  Defense Mechanism • We engage in defense mechanisms to deal/cope with the anxiety we experience. • These defense mechanisms provide safety/security, but they also restrict our growth.

24. Theory of Illnesscont … • These defense mechanisms may be ineffective or maladaptive. • They may provide only temporary respite from anxiety, but • Ultimately cripple a person’s ability to live fully (authentically) and creatively, and • May result in further secondary anxiety

25. Theory of Cure • A person must embark on a journey of self-investigation where the goals are: • Understand the unconscious conflict. • Identify the maladaptive defense mechanisms • Diminish secondary anxiety by correcting these maladaptive ways of dealing with self and others. • Develop other ways of coping with primary anxiety so that this person can live life more fully or authentically.

26. Theory of Cure cont … • The existential therapist strives to understand a person’s current life situation and current unconscious fears related to the ultimate concerns or givens. • Responsibility  confront how they avoid it • Isolation  confronting this in small doses • The nature of the therapist-client relationship is fundamentally important in and of itself. • Yalom stated “it is the relationship that heals”

27. Goals of Therapy • Does not have the goal of immediately alleviating a person’s anxiety. • Instead there is a goal to promote greater personal growth, which leads to symptom alleviation. • To help client’s understand and confront the ways they avoid dealing with existential anxiety related to the human existence. • Help client’s discover and find a meaning or purpose that transcends themselves. • Help client’s live their lives more authentically

28. Techniques • They may employ a variety of techniques used in other approaches insofar as they are consistent with basic existential presuppositions and a human, authentic therapist-patient encounter.

29. Existential Therapists • Different existential therapists may emphasize different aspects of existential concerns. • Yalom – emphasizes four ultimate concerns and discusses the importance of living life authentically. • Frankl – emphasized the importance of people finding meaning or purpose in their lives. • Unlike other existential therapists he developed a form of therapy that uses specific techniques that a therapist might use with clients (Logotherapy, “Mans Search for Meaning”)

30. Logotherapy Concepts • A type of existential therapy that focuses on challenging clients to search for meaning in their lives. • Socratic dialogue: A series of questions designed to help the client arrive at logical answers to and conclusions about a certain hypothesis; also called guided discovery. • Dereflection: A technique in which clients focus away from their problems instead of on them to reduce anxiety. • Paradoxical intention: A therapeutic strategy in which clients are instructed to engage in and exaggerate behaviors they seek to change. By prescribing the symptom, therapists make patients more aware of their situation and help them achieve distance form symptoms.

31. Existential Therapists cont … • Other existential therapists may focus on “thrown conditions” that can lead to “restricted existences” • Confront how they are living life in a restricted or stuck fashion (inauthentic) and help them become aware of their own part in it and increase their options. • Thus, many therapists, trained in different modalities of treatment may in fact employ some aspects of an existential approach from time to time.

32. Questions???

33. Case Study • What are the underlying causes of this client’s symptoms? • What would you focus on in your work with this client? • What interventions or techniques would you use? • What are the goals of counseling?