“SThere is only one truly serious philosophical problem… Judging whether or not life is worth living answers the fundamental question of philosophy.” Albert Camus.
.
Existential psychotherapy is much less known compared to other approaches to mental well-being. In this article I will try to briefly highlight its principles and outline because I believe it could and should play a larger role in how we deal with the problems we all inevitably face as part of life.
In essence, existential psychotherapy is the application of philosophical ideas to the problems of living. At its most effective, it can enable a person to better understand the potential of their existence and stimulate them to find a new perspective on life and how they live it. It can help people find wisdom and learning in their suffering and equip them to make thoughtful and courageous decisions, allowing them to accept and transcend their current situation that brings them to therapy.
The fundamental question of Albert Camus’s philosophy, of judging whether or not life is worth living, captures a significant part of the philosophy of existentialism: meaning. It is based on the fact that if we start from the point where we accept that life is worth living, then we have to commit to living it to the best of our ability and we have a responsibility to ourselves to create a meaningful existence in the face of inevitable anxiety. existential that comes with the challenge.
If you value articles like this, consider supporting us by becoming a Pro subscriber. Subscribers enjoy access to members-only articles, materials, and webinars.
Existential psychotherapy is a phenomenological approach to therapy, which gives importance to the subjective experience of the individual in therapy and gives even more relevance to the description of that experience, rather than to interpreting and judging it. The work of an existential therapist is philosophically founded on the four questions of existence – problems that naturally arise from the fact that we exist: freedom and the often forgotten responsibility that comes with it, isolation, death and meaninglessness.
Each question is rooted in the philosophical works of existential thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries, from Kierkegaard to Nietzsche; Heidegger to Sartre and the bases of existential therapeutic work. Below I will briefly explore each issue and touch on what phenomenology means in practice, in the hope of bringing greater clarity to this sometimes misunderstood approach to psychotherapy.
Freedom and responsibility
“Man is condemned to be free; because once cast into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give meaning to life.” Jean-Paul Sartre.
As self-aware beings with the ability to reflect and make decisions we are “condemned to freedom.” Sartre uses the word damned to convey the idea that having such freedom is not, as in popular notions of freedom, the ability to do whatever one wants; It comes with a price, and that price is responsibility. Faced with the great responsibility of making the most of the freedom to choose, we become anxious.
Not anxious in the sense we have seen in society, a neurotic disorder, something to be treated with pills and avoided, but a natural state of anguish that comes from having to make our own way in a harsh and unforgiving world. In the words of Emmy Van Deurzen: “It is an illness but not a disease.”
As long as we are alive and aware of our potential to act in different ways, anxiety will be present to alert us to the importance of everything we do. One philosophical approach to anxiety is to use it to inspire courage; to transcend our feelings of worry. The better we deal with such distress and the more courageous decisions we make despite it, the more we realize what we are capable of.
Even those with a deterministic perception of the universe have to work under the illusion of free will and must still make decisions on a daily basis. Rather than dismissing the idea of free will, existential psychotherapy takes it as the starting point for any individual desire to create more direction in their lives and make the most of their potential for change within their limits.
Through therapeutic dialogue, it is possible to reconnect an individual with what matters to them, highlight values they hold dear, and make them able to reflect on the potential consequences of their choices. Being able to think through options philosophically, from a perspective of greater clarity about who they are and where they want to go is a skill that the therapist will seek to instill in any individual they work with, in the hope of empowering them to be more independent and resilient through taking responsibility for your choices in the outside world.
Isolation
“In the depths of winter I finally learned that there was an invincible summer in me.” Albert Camus.
Isolation goes beyond being physically alone or not, it is very possible to be at a massive concert full of life, energy and music and feel completely lonely and psychologically isolated from those around you. On the other hand, it is entirely possible to be alone and still be entirely engaged in your own world where feelings of isolation are far from your mind.
In image: Albert Camus
From an existential perspective, the feeling of isolation comes from being disconnected from the world. The more we give in to anxiety, the further we move away from being the person we would like to be, which can increase feelings of discouragement or depression.
This feeling of existential isolation is linked to what Heidegger referred to as “authenticity.” The more decisions we make based on what others think we should do, the more we stray from our most authentic self – although the idea of an authentic self is a fluid, dynamic concept and changes throughout life – the more isolated we feel. in our personal world to the point where we feel alone in a room full of people or we don’t feel like going out into the world at all.
If we learn to act in a more “authentic” way, we will be able to make decisions that are more in tune with who we are and feel more familiar; what feels right for you at that moment, which decreases our feeling of isolation and makes us feel more alive.
So an existential professional will seek to enable the person to connect or reconnect with the things that make them feel active in life so that, whether they are alone or in company, they are able to feel creatively engaged in the act of living. , connected with a sense of self and a sense of purpose in what they are doing The idea is that a person should live for themselves and through that benefit others, rather than living only for themselves or losing themselves in the world of others.
Death
“If I take death into my life, recognize it, face it directly, I will be free from the anguish of death and the meanness of life – only then will I be free to become myself.” Martin Heidegger.
We have come to see death as something horrible. It is a social taboo. Something that should be swept under the rug and forgotten. We have become complacent in our relative security and have grown to expect any ailments and illnesses to be treated immediately and successfully.
Our technological know-how has removed the specter of death that was always a much more immediate part of past human cultures as most of us in society no longer have difficulty achieving our basic needs. Previously incurable diseases are now easily nullified and we have the ability to keep people alive well beyond their independent abilities to survive naturally.
However, we are mortal beings and what Heidegger is saying is that coming to terms with our mortality, having that idea buzzing in the back of our consciousness as we move through life, recognizing that our time here is finite, can give us a deep motivation to make the most of our time; to value each day and not waste them; to appreciate the experience of living and moving courageously along the path you chose with integrity and gratitude.
The job of an existential therapist will sometimes be to connect an individual to this sense of importance; that life is what we have and can be lived and appreciated on many different levels. We can often lose this perspective and become preoccupied with “the pettiness of life” when, if we take a step back, and think philosophically about our experience, we can reconnect with what is important.
lack of meaning
“It was as if that great wave of anger had cleansed me, emptied me of hope and, as I contemplated the dark sky dotted with signs and stars, for the first time, for the first time, I left my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe.” Albert Camus.
The logical conclusion of the rational, atheistic, scientific human mindset is that there is no evidence that life has any meaning. At the end of the 19th century Nietzsche foresaw the potential danger of the decline of religious beliefs and the rise of nihilism:
“God is dead. And we have killed him… Isn’t the greatness of this death very great for us? Shouldn’t we become gods ourselves simply to appear worthy?”
In the absence of a divine explanation of the universe that automatically gives meaning to the individual’s life, we are left to “become gods” by taking responsibility for creating that meaning ourselves.
What existential philosophy and psychotherapy seek to do is use that idea to empower the individual. When Camus refers to the “benign indifference” of the Universe, he is only saying that: the fact that it is indifferent allows us to be the creators of our own destinies; use it as a scrutiny upon which we create meaning. Whether that is through a commitment to religious ideas or not, it implies that a critical evaluation of one’s beliefs is necessary in order to act in the world from a position of conviction and greater purpose.
In this search for meaning, the existence therapist’s job is to highlight values and encourage reflection. Often the incongruence between values and reality or the way we act in the world and the way we would ideally act can be a source of existential frustration. The process of existential therapy will seek to enable the person to realize this disparity and encourage action to allow the individual to connect their internal world of values…