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Definitions
Ever hear us mention a philosophical or psychological term and have absolutely no idea what it means? No worries! We’ve got you covered.
Authenticity
In existential therapy, authenticity is defined as standing up for and standing behind what one does, as owning and owning up to one’s deeds as a free person in the world, living with a resolute commitment and care towards one’s existence. Authenticity means becoming oneself and living in a truthful relationship to the givens of one’s existence.
Dialogue
Everything that human beings perceive addresses them or calls them into dialogue. Everything that exists, becomes a question which requires a personal answer via dialogue. As dialogical beings, human beings are in constant exchange between being-questioned and giving-answers. Being human means “being questioned”. Living is “giving an answer”.
Double Dialogue
As dialogical beings, human beings are addressed by what is going on outwardly in the world which touches upon our inwardness (the outer dialogue). At the same time, human beings are also given to themselves, encounter themselves inwardly, and make decisions based on this intimacy with themselves (the inner dialogue).
Existence
From Latin ek-sistere, existence means to stand forth, come out, rise above the conditions of one’s life by making choices, living with inner consent, exercising one’s inherent freedom, and assuming the responsibility for these choices.
Existential Analysis (EA)
Existential Analysis (EA) is as a phenomenological and person-oriented psychotherapy, with the aim of guiding a person to a free experience of their mental and emotional life, to make authentic decisions, and to discover a truly responsible way of dealing with life and the world. Developed by Alfried Längle on the foundation of Frankl's Logotherapy, EA is psychotherapeutic approach that aims to enable people to live with inner consent towards their own actions and own existence.
Existentially Attuned Life
A life lived in tune with one’s existential conditions and possibilities and responds to these existential givens - living with inner consent and responsibility.
Existential Psychotherapy
“At its heart, existential psychotherapy is a profoundly philosophical approach characterized in practice by an emphasis on relatedness, spontaneity, flexibility, and freedom from rigid doctrine or dogma.
Existential therapy generally consists of a supportive and collaborative exploration of clients’ lives and experiences. It places primary importance on the nature and quality of the here‐and‐now therapeutic relationship, as well as on an exploration of the relationships between clients and their contextual lived worlds.
In keeping with its strong philosophical foundation, existential therapy takes the human condition itself – in all its myriad facets, from tragic to wondrous, horrific to beautiful, material to spiritual – as its central focus. Furthermore, it considers all human experience as intrinsically inseparable from the ground of existence, or “being‐in‐the-world,” in which we each constantly and inescapably participate.
Existential therapy aims to illuminate the way in which each unique person – within certain inevitable limits and constraining factors – comes to choose, create and perpetuate his or her own way of being in the world. In both its theoretical orientation and practical approach, existential therapy emphasizes and honors the perpetually emerging, unfolding, and paradoxical nature of human experience, and brings an unquenchable curiosity to what it truly means to be human.
Ultimately, it can be said that existential therapy confronts some of the most fundamental and perennial questions regarding human existence: ‘Who am I?’ ‘What is my purpose in life?’ ‘Am I free or determined?’ ‘How do I deal with my own mortality?’ ‘Does my existence have any meaning or significance?’ ‘How shall I live my life?’”
-Wiley’s World Handbook of Existential Psychotherapy
Existential Psychotherapists
“Existential therapists see their practice as a mutual, collaborative, encouraging, and explorative dialogue between two struggling human beings – one of whom is seeking assistance from the other who is professionally trained to provide it. Existential therapy places special emphasis on cultivating a caring, honest, supportive, empathic yet challenging relationship between therapist and client, recognizing the vital role of this relationship in the therapeutic process.
In practice, existential therapy explores how clients’ here‐and‐now feelings, thoughts and dynamic interactions within this relationship and with others might illuminate their wider world of past experiences, current events, and future expectations. This respectful, compassionate, supportive yet nonetheless very real encounter – coupled with a phenomenological stance – permits existential therapists to more accurately comprehend and descriptively address the person’s way of being in the world. Taking great pains to avoid imposing their own worldview and value system upon clients or patients, existential therapists may seek to disclose and point out certain inconsistencies, contradictions or incongruence in someone’s chosen but habitual ways of being…. [The] therapeutic aim is to illuminate, clarify, and place these problems into a broader perspective so as to promote clients’ capacity to recognize, accept, and actively exercise their responsibility and freedom: to choose how to be or act differently, if such change is so desired; or, if not, to tolerate, affirm and embrace their chosen ways of being in the world”
-Wiley’s World Handbook of Existential Psychotherapy).
Four Fundamental Motivations for Existence
Each of these fundamental existential conditions poses us a challenge expressed as a question:
Can I be here in this existence?
Do I like to live?
May I be myself?
For what am I here?
Engaging with these questions and finding our personal response to these challenges motivate us to live a good life. In this way, these four conditions of existence become the four fundamental existential motivations (FMs) which motivate human beings to seek living a fulfilled life where we can be, enjoy life, are ourselves in intimate encounters with other persons, and experience meaning and fulfillment in our existence.
Freedom
Human beings’ inherent capacity to be open to the possibilities of their existence and endowed with the ability to choose how to live and how to act in every moment, through dialogue with the world and with one’s self. Freedom is the basis for engaging in dialogue by remaining open to being addressed and by choosing one’s own response.
Inner Consent
The felt “yes” to what one does or how one lives. An affirmation of one’s existence. Saying “yes” to life in an emotionally present and attuned way.
Inner Consent and Existential Analysis
Inner consent is a core concept in Existential Analysis defined as a psychotherapeutic approach that aims to help people live with inner consent.
Logotherapy
Logotherapy represents a psychotherapeutic approach developed by Viktor Frankl with the aim to help people find meaning even under the most difficult circumstances. Meaning is understood as the opportunity or task of the moment and can be found by experiencing or creating something of value, enduring what cannot be changed, and/or adopting an attitude that allows oneself to remain true to self.
Structure of Existence
According to EA, there are four fundamental conditions of our existence, which represent the structure of our existence. These conditions are:
the physical world (both the external physical world that surrounds us and our bodies),
the emotional-relational or pathic dimension of life,
the personhood as the personal dimension of authenticity and interpersonal encounter, and
the future oriented dimension of purpose and meaning.
Living with Inner Consent
Living attuned to one’s existence and in accordance with one’s self. Inner consent is the cornerstone of an existentially attuned life because it represents the essence of our existential response.
Noetic
In Frankl’s anthropology, the terms noetic refers to the personal-existential or spiritual dimension of the human beings, differentiated from the somatic and psychological dimension, respectively. Noetically-speaking, human beings are fundamentally free and live within the horizon of fulfilling values, which leads to experiencing meaning and purpose in their existence.
Person
That which is free in the human being (Frankl). The free, dynamic potentiality of the human beings. The human person is ungraspable and can only be encountered in moments of authentic dialogue. As persons, we engage in a double dialogue with ourselves and with the world.
Phenomenological Method
“The one therapeutic practice common to virtually all existential work is the phenomenological method. Here, the therapist endeavors to be as fully present, engaged, and free of expectations as possible during each and every therapeutic encounter by attempting to temporarily put aside all preconceptions regarding the process. The purpose is to gain a clearer contextual in‐depth understanding and acceptance of what a certain experience might signify to this specific person at this particular time in his or her life”.
-Wiley’s World Handbook of Existential Psychotherapy
Phenomenological Openness
An existential attitude marked by openness and the willingness to grapple with everything that is. This openness has the goal of discovering what is essential in each situation.
Responsibility
The human capacity to provide answers to various existential situations and challenges after engaging in free dialogue with what is given in a certain situation. Responsibility counterbalances freedom, as people are asked to take responsibility for the consequences of their free choices.
Interested in Existential Analysis?
If you would like to pursue psychotherapy training in Existential Analysis or receive counselling from an existential psychotherapist, the Existential Analysis Society of Canada provides trainings, workshops, and therapists to connect with. Click on the button below and become part of our community!
For our International Community
Check out the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (GLE-I), for trainings, videos, workshops, resources, and community engagement opportunities. Also be sure to check out the The Viennese School of Existential Analysis Youtube channel for engaging videos on life and existence.
Book List
Existential Philosophy
Ahmed, S. (2000). Strange encounters: Embodied others in post-coloniality. London; New York: Routledge.
Ahmed, S. (2006). Queer phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others. Durham: Duke University Press
Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Buber, M. (1970). I and thou. New York, NY: Touchstone. (Original work published 1923)
Crowell, S. (2012). The Cambridge Companion to Existentialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gadamer, H.-G. (1977). Philosophical hermeneutics. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Gadamer, H.G. (2004). Truth and Method. London, Continuum.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. (J. Macquarrie, & E. Robinson, trans.). Malden, MA: Blackwell. (Original work published 1927)
Heidegger, M. (1998). Letter on humanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jaspers, K. (1968). Reason and Existenz. New York: Noonday Press.
Kierkegaard, S. (2009). Kierkegaard’s Writings, I–XXVI. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lévinas, E. (1985). Ethics and infinity. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
Marcel, G. (1951). The mystery of being. Reflection and mystery. (G.S. Fraser trans.). London, United Kingdom: The Harvill Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception. (C. Smith, Trans.). New York, NY: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1945)
Nietzsche, F. (1969). On the genealogy of morals. Tr. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage Books.
Nietzsche, F. (1974). The gay science. Tr. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage Books.
Nietzsche, F. (1975). Thus spoke Zarathustra. New York: Viking Press.
Olafson, F. (1967). Principles and persons: An ethical interpretation of existentialism, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Ortega y Gasset, J. (1985). Revolt of the masses. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Sartre, J.-P. (1992). Being and nothingness. New York: Washington Square Press.
Sartre, J.-P. (2007). Existentialism is a humanism. Tr. Carol Macomber. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Scheler, M. (1973). Formalism in ethics and non-formal ethics of values: A new attempt toward the foundation of an ethical personalism. (M. S. Frings & R.L. Funk, trans.). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. (Original work published 1913-1916)
Scheler, M. (1987). Person and self-value. Three essays. (M.S. Frings, trans.). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff.
Spaemann, R. (2006). Persons: The difference between ‘someone’ and ‘something’. Stuttgart, Germany: Klett-Cotta.
Ratcliffe, M. (2008). Feelings of Being. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ricoeur, P. (1981). Hermeneutics and the human sciences: Essays on language, action, and interpretation. (J. B. Thompson, Trans.). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Ricoeur, P. (1992). Oneself as another. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Taylor, C. (1991). The ethics of authenticity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Tillich, P. (1952). The courage to be. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Unamuno, M. (1954). The tragic sense of life. New York: Dover.
Yannaras, C. (2007). Person and eros. Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press.
Book List
Existential Psychotherapy
Binswanger, L. (1963). Being‐in‐the‐World: Selected Papers of Ludwig Binswanger. New York: Basic Books.
Boss, M. (1963). Psychoanalysis and Daseinsanalysis. New York Basic Books.
Bugental, J.F.T. (1976). The Search for Existential Identity. San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass.
Frankl, V. (1980). Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning. London: Hachette.
Frankl, V. (1998). Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy. London: Random House. (Original work published 1946.)
Frankl V. E. (1969). The Will to Meaning: Foundations and Applications of Logotherapy. New York: Plume.
Frankl V. (1973). The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy. New York: Vintage.
Jaspers, K. (1964). The Nature of Psychotherapy: A Critical Appraisal. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Laing, R.D. (1967). Us and them. In: The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise, 71–72. London: Penguin.
Laing, R.D. and Esterson, A. (1964). Sanity, Madness and the Family. London: Penguin.
Längle, A. (2003). The search for meaning in life and the existential fundamental motivations. Psychotherapy in Australia 10 (1): 22–27.
Längle, A. (2003a). The art of involving the person. European Psychotherapy, 4(1), 25-36.
Längle, A. (2011). The existential fundamental motivations structuring the motivational process. In: Motivation, Consciousness and Self‐Regulation (ed. D.A. Leontiev), 27–42. Hauppauge, New York: Nova.
Längle, A. (2012). The Viennese school of existential analysis: The search for meaning and the affirmation of life. In: Existential Therapy: Legacy, Vibrancy, and Dialogue (ed. L. Barnett and G. Madison), 159–170. New York: Routledge.
May, R. (1981). Freedom and Destiny. New York: Norton.
May, R. (1958). The origins and significance of the existential movement in psychology. In: Existence (ed. R. May, E. Angel, and H.F. Ellenberger), 3–36). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Rank, O. (1932). Art and Artist (trans. C. Francis). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Schneider, K.J. and Krug, O.T. (2010). Existential‐Humanistic Therapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Spinelli, E. (1997). Tales of Un‐Knowing: Therapeutic Encounters from an Existential Perspective. London: Duckworth.
Spinelli, E. (2005). The Interpreted World. An Introduction to Phenomenological Psychology. London: Sage.
Van Deurzen, E. (2010). Everyday Mysteries: A Handbook of Existential Psychotherapy. London: Routledge.
Van Deurzen, E. (2012). Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy in Practice. London:
Van Deurzen, E. (2019). The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy. London, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.
Yalom, I.D. (1980). Existential Psychotherapy, New York: Basic Books.