Existential Therapy

Abstract

There are existential philosophies which investigate what is fundamental, what constitutes an essence, but they are not reductionist, and the search by Heidegger for the nature of Being is not an attempt to reject complex explanations of human living. On the other hand, in the works of Nietzsche, the notion of will to power is a reduction, for it seeks to explain the complex by means of what is simple. As with all reduction, the question stands whether it has sufficient explanatory power. Generally, existential psychotherapists object to reductionistic explanations of human behavior such as are found in cognitive or behavioral approaches to psychology. For instance, R.D. Laing fought against the kind of reductionist explanations generated by the medical model, which he complained attempted to explain rather than understand human experience and motivation. In this paper, we try to focus on the Existential Therapy. The paper defines Existential Therapy. The paper also explains Existential Therapy basis and theory and finally concludes where Existential Therapy would be most effective in application.

Introduction

Existential psychology is an approach to psychology and psychotherapy that is based on several premises, including: understanding that a "whole" person is more than the sum of his or her parts; understanding people by examining their interpersonal relationships, understanding that people have many levels of self-awareness that can be neither ignored nor put into an abstract context, understanding that people have free will and are participants rather than observers in their own lives, and understanding that people's lives have purpose, values, and meaning. Therapists who practice existential psychology treat their clients by submerging themselves in the client's world. For the therapist, therapy is a process in which they, too, are participating. This is a process that seeks meaning within the whole of the person's existence, including the...