Humanistic · 1961
Existential therapy
To live is to choose in the face of freedom, take responsibility for one's decisions and find meaning within the inevitable limits of existence.
Existential therapy centres on the individual's relationship with the fundamental conditions of existence: freedom, responsibility, death, isolation and the search for meaning. It does not start from a closed model of psychopathology, but from a phenomenological understanding of human living and of how avoiding these existential givens can generate anxiety, emptiness or a loss of life direction. Its purpose is to help the person confront their own existence with lucidity, clarify authentic values, hold the anguish inherent in freedom and take decisions aligned with a meaningful life. Rather than eliminating symptoms, it seeks to widen awareness, authenticity and responsibility, helping the individual take up their capacity for choice within the inevitable limits of the human condition.
Core ideas
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Existence precedes psychological essence
Existential therapy starts from the philosophical principle that the human being possesses no fixed, predetermined nature, but is configured through their choices. Identity is not an essence to be discovered but an active construction over time. This conception shifts the focus from psychopathology towards existential responsibility and situated freedom. (Sartre; May, 1958; Yalom, 1980).
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Anxiety is inherent in the human condition
Anguish is not necessarily pathological, but an inevitable consequence of facing freedom, death, isolation and the absence of absolute guarantees. Existential therapy distinguishes normal anxiety (proportionate to the existential situation) from neurotic anxiety (arising from avoidance), directing the work towards widening tolerance and awareness. (May, 1950; Yalom, 1980).
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Avoiding the existential givens generates emptiness and disorientation
When a person avoids confronting their freedom, their finitude or their fundamental solitude, they may develop inauthentic ways of living characterised by emptiness, alienation or over-adaptation. Suffering does not arise solely from intrapsychic symptoms, but from an evasive relationship with the basic conditions of existing. (Yalom, 1980).
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Responsibility is a condition of authenticity
Taking on responsibility does not mean self-blame, but recognising one's own capacity for choice within given limits. Authenticity emerges when the person recognises their active part in decisions, renunciations and omissions, and reorganises their life from a more conscious position. (May, 1953; van Deurzen, 2012).
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Meaning can be built even within suffering
From the standpoint of logotherapy, meaning does not depend on favourable external circumstances, but on the attitude adopted towards them. Even in the face of loss or unavoidable pain, the person retains the freedom to choose their inner stance, which makes it possible to rebuild coherence and life direction. (Frankl, 1959).
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Death organises psychological life
The awareness of mortality acts as a deep organiser of priorities and decisions. Avoiding death can generate rigid defences and superficiality, whereas accepting it can intensify commitment, urgency and authenticity in present life. (Yalom, 1980).
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Existential isolation is irreducible
Although human connection is essential, there is a dimension of ontological solitude that no relationship can entirely eliminate. Recognising this reality makes it possible to build more authentic relationships, free of illusory dependence or defensive fusion. (Yalom, 1980).
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Therapy is an authentic encounter
The therapeutic relationship is neither neutral nor technical in the strict sense, but a human encounter in which the therapist's genuine presence is an essential part of change. Existential dialogue makes it possible to experience a relationship based on authenticity, responsibility and mutual recognition. (May, 1958; Yalom, 1980).
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To choose is to renounce
Every existential choice entails the loss of possible alternatives. Conflict does not disappear on deciding; it is transformed into conscious commitment. Existential maturity consists in tolerating ambivalence and taking on the cost inherent in living according to one's own values. (van Deurzen, 2012).
Influences
- Phenomenology
- Existentialism
- Logotherapy (Frankl)
- Phenomenological humanism
- Relational psychodynamics
Key references
- May, R. (1953). Man’s Search for Himself.
- Yalom, I. (1980). Existential Psychotherapy.
- Frankl, V. (1959). Man’s Search for Meaning.
- van Deurzen, E. (2012). Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy.