Existential Therapy

Question 1

main aspects of existential therapy?

Answer 1

• Philosophical approach
• Death, meaning, freedom, responsibility, anxiety, and aloneness

Question 2

what is our dasein?

Answer 2

being-in-the world; inherent need for all of us to exist in the world and to achieve a sense of being autonomous and distinct.

Question 3

what is the only way of living a meaningful life according to this way of therapy?

Answer 3

by affirming and asserting our Dasein in the face of pressures to conform, misguided rules and standards, and DEATH.

Question 4

why do we get anxiety?

Answer 4

clash between being and the threat of nonbeing (death)

Question 5

what is proposition 1: capacity of self-awareness?

Answer 5

• We are free (willful, creative, and expressive) and limited (environment and social constraints)
• Self-awareness = freedom, choice, and responsibility
• Greater self-awareness = greater freedom
• Trade security of dependence for anxiety of choosing = lose freedom
• Consequence of dependence = Identity is defined by others (need for approval)
• Preoccupied with avoiding suffering (anxiety) and death
• Preoccupied with past and future – not living in the moment
• There is a price for becoming self-aware – movement from deadness to turmoil

Question 6

what is proposition 2: freedom and responsibility?

Answer 6

o We are free to choose among alternatives to shape our destiny
o We long for freedom, but we run from it when we are asked to choose
o Inauthenticity (Sartre) – Not taking control of our lives and assuming we are doomed to be controlled by external forces
o Freedom – responsible for our lives, for our actions, and our failure to take action
o Existential guilt from knowing we have chosen not to choose and contributes to a sense of incompleteness
o Authenticity – the courage to be who we want to be (“we are our choices”)
o Assuming responsibility and not blaming others is a basic prerequisite for change

Question 7

what is proposition 3: striving for identity and relationship with others?

Answer 7

o The tension between being an individual and being in a relationship
- courage to be, experience of aloneness, experience of relatedness, struggling w our identity

Question 8

proposition 3: courage to be?

Answer 8

Our greatest challenge is to confront our fear that there is no core, no self, but merely a reflection of others

Question 9

proposition 3: the experience of aloneness?

Answer 9

 We alone must define meaning to life
 We alone must decide how we want to live
 Derive strength from sense of isolation
 We have to be able to stand alone before we can stand with another

Question 10

proposition 3: the experience of relatedness?

Answer 10

 Being able to stand alone leads to fulfilling and not deprived relationships
 Distinguish between neurotic dependence and life-affirming relationship

Question 11

proposition 3: struggling with our identity?

Answer 11

 Ritualistic behavior patterns attached to an identity acquired early in life
 Not in the “being” mode, but a “doing” mode

Question 12

what is proposition 4: the search for meaning?

Answer 12

• discarding old values
• creating new meaning
• meaninglessness

Question 13

proposition 4 discarding old values?

Answer 13

 Anxiety created as result of discarding old values and not creating new ones
 Natural to flounder for a while as a result of the absence of clear-cut values

Question 14

proposition 4: meaninglessness?

Answer 14

 Emptiness and hollowness = existential vacuum
 If I am going to eventually die, why should I bother doing anything?

Question 15

proposition 4: creating new meaning?

Answer 15

 Meaning/happiness is created from engagement with that is valued
 Meaning cannot be obtained directly; must be pursued obliquely

Question 16

what is proposition 5: anxiety as a condition of living?

Answer 16

o Existential anxiety arises as a result of confronting our own death, meaninglessness, freedom, isolation, aloneness, and our basic fallibility
o We avoid anxiety by creating an illusion of security
o Opening up to life means opening up to suffering and anxiety

Question 17

what is proposition 6: awareness of death and nonbeing?

Answer 17

o Death gives significance to life by reminding us to appreciate the present moment
o Death can be the source of zest for life and creativity

Question 18

therapeutic goals?

Answer 18

 To become more present with oneself and others
 Identify factors that block our ability to be fully present
 Assume responsibility for our one lives
 To live a more enriched life