Existentialism: An Introduction
Existentialism is a philosophical perspective which was also expressed
in art, literature and other forms of socio-psychological comment.
Existentialism was at its height during the 1930'-1950's in Europe.
Key figures included Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, also Friedrich
Nietzche and Soren Kierkegaard who were earlier philosophers.
Existentialism understands the human to be challenged by the reality of
temporary existence, and the view that life has no inherent meaning;
meaning had to be constructed. Authentic human beings were those
who could face existential futility and yet still go on to construct a
meaningful life. The existential perspective could be understood
thus:
All existence ends in death
Therefore, what is the point?
The
human challenge:
Descend
into nothingness
or have
the ‘courage to be’?
Existentialism represents the philosophical root of the phenomenological
approach to personality.
After WWII this philosophy gained a large
following in Europe. The purpose of existential philosophy was to
regain contact with the experiences of being ALIVE and AWARE.
Key questions of existential philosophy: What is
the nature of existence? How does it feel? What does it mean?
The key issue for existential psychology is: All
existence ends in death. Therefore, what is the point? The human
challenge: Do we descend into nothingness or have the ‘courage to be’?
All we have is existence. So existential psychology is about helping
people to BE and helping people take responsibility for their lives.
Existential Psychology - Key Elements
According to the existentialists human beings
have no existence apart from the world. Being-in-the-world or “dasein”
IS man’s existence. Dasein is the whole of mankind’s existence. The
basic issue in life is that life inevitably ends in death. Thus we
experience angst or anguish because of our awareness of death’s
inevitability.
So we either retreat into nothingness or have
the courage to BE. The extreme of the retreat into nothingness is
suicide but we can also retreat into nothingness by not living authentic
lives.
From this perspective it is extremely important
that we BE, that we live authentically. This entails living a life that
is honest, insightful and morally correct. Authenticity is about living
genuinely with one’s angst and achieving meaning despite the temporary
nature of one’s existence. Life has no meaning, unless you create it.
Friedrich Nietszche said the only logical response to this void and
meaninglessness was to rise above it and become a superman (sadly
Nietszche went insane and died in an asylum!).
We are all responsible for our choices but even
honest choices won’t always be good ones. You will still feel guilty
over failing to fulfill all the possibilities in your life. Existential
guilt, or existential anxiety or ANGST is inescapable.
Ludwig Biswanger
Ludwig Biswanger, an existential psychologist,
suggested in 1958 that in order to understand how existence feels, which
is at the heart of the phenomenological approach, we need to understand
our experiences at three different levels. That is, that the conscious
experience of being alive has three components: biological (Umwelt),
social (Mitwelt) and inner or psychological experience (Eigenwelt).
-
Umwelt: In order to understand how existence
feels we need to be aware of our physical sensation such as pain,
pleasure, hunger, warmth, cold etc.
-
Mitwelt: In order to understand how existence
feels we need to be aware of our social relations. What we think and
feel as a social creature who exists in a world with other people. Your
thoughts and feelings about others and the thoughts and feelings you
receive from them is your experience of Mitwelt.
-
Eigenwelt: This could be simply classified as
“introspection”. In order to understand how existence feels we need to
be aware of the inner workings of ourselves. This is all about our
attempt to understand ourselves: the experience of experience itself.
Rollo May (1909-1994)
The existential perspective was introduced into
the US by Rollo May. May accepted many psychodyanmic principles (such as
neurosis, repression and defense). May believed that individuals can
only be understood in terms of their subjective sense of self. He felt
that abnormal behaviour is often just a stratagem for protecting the
centre this is the subjective sense of self) against perceived threats.
The person may give up on self-growth if he or she feels his centre is
threatened and retreat to the secure, known centre. As May put it in
196, this is a “a way of accepting nonbeing…in order that some little
being may be preserved” (p.75).
May was concerned with people’s loss of faith in
values. If we lose our commitment to a set of values we will feel lonely
and empty. Life will be meaningless. Ultimately we need therefore to
take responsibility for ourselves and find meaning in our lives.
Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)
Viktor Frankl spent from 1942-1945 in Nazi
concentration camps. Frankl’s father died in the Nazi concentration
camp, Theresienstadt, in 1943.
In 1944, Frankl and his wife Tilly, and shortly
later his 65 year old mother, were transported to the extinction camp
Auschwitz. His mother was immediately murdered in the gas chamber, and
Tilly was moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she dies at the age of 24. In
cattle cars Viktor Frankl is transported, via Vienna, to Kaufering and
Türkheim (subsidiary camps of Dachau).
In 1945, in the last camp he comes down with
typhoid fever. To avoid fatal collapse during the nights he kept himself
awake by writing on slips of paper stolen from the camp office. On April
27 the camp was liberated by U.S. troops. In August Frankl returned to
Vienna, where he learned, within a span of a few days, about the death
of his wife, his mother and his brother who has been murdered in
Auschwitz together with his wife.
During his time in the camps, he observed people
who survived horrific circumstances but were able to resist despair. He
felt that those who were able to do so were people who found some
spiritual meaning in their lives. He believed that the prime motive of
human behaviour is the “will-to-meaning”. In order to find a meaning in
our troubled existence we need to discover meaning through values and we
have a moral duty to discover these values. And we discover our values
through work, through love for others and through confrontation with our
own suffering.
Frankl devised a treatment for to help people
find the meaning in their lives. It is called Logotherapy from the word
Logos = Greek for meaning. Logotherapy views psychological problems as
symptomatic of the person having lost meaning in life. Once meaning is
rediscovered, the problems tend to resolve. This is done by confronting
patients with their RESPONSIBILITY for their existence and by helping
them choose values.
R. D. Laing (1927-1989)
According to the R. D. Laing, the British
psychiatrist and existentialist the mind of modern man is a divided
entity: the false self and the true self. He believes that modern social
communication and the family in particular is very damaging. He believes
the family requires us to stifle our true feelings and to pursue
meaningless goals. According to Laing, the family discourages authentic
(real) behaviour. By the time we reach adulthood we are cut off from our
“true self”. We might seem normal but we are really deeply impaired (Laing,
1967). According to Laing, abnormal behaviour a function of
relationships. Schizophrenia, according to Laing (1979, p. 115), is “a
special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable
situation”. Laing conceded that there may be some biological
predisposition towards schizophrenia but he firmly believed that
interpersonal stresses could lead people to find they can no longer
maintain their “false self” and hence they retreat from reality into
their own inner worlds.
Existential Psychology – Therapeutic Approach
Existentialists: freedom is a constant struggle,
something people may wish to avoid, and that once embraced still comes
with a price: existential guilt and anguish. The goal of existential
therapy though is to set the client on this hard road. It encourages a
sense of responsibility for their symptoms by attempting to make them
see that this way of being is something they have chosen and helps to
show them that they are free (in fact obligated) to choose better ways
of coping; ways that will give meaning to their lives. The therapists
tries to help restore a sense of self-responsibility & courage and to
facilitate self-discovery of meaning & purpose. They try to see the
world as the patient sees the world but they are less emphatically warm
than the humanist therapist. The most important source of meaning is
honest, respectful personal relationships.
Therapy is good in that it deals with the person
as a whole but it is long and costly and is best for neurotic disorders.
Existential Psychology - Conclusions
The existential approach also has much more
negative undertones than the humanistic approach. It emphasizes
powerlessness, loneliness, emptiness, and angst and admits that it is
very hard to find meaning and value in our lives. |