Transcript Person-Centered Therapy Carl Rogers (1902

Existential Personality Theory
“He who has a why to live for can
bear with almost any how.”
~ Nietzsche
History
• Was not founded by any particular person
or group.
• Some key figures were: Ludwig
Binswanger, Medard Boss, Victor Frankl,
Rollo May, James Bugental, Irvin Yalom
• Existential personality theory was heavily
influenced by a number of philosophers in
the 19th century, who were concerned with
existence and what it meant to be human.
What existentialism is …
• A philosophical view that emphasizes the
importance of existence, including one's
responsibility for one's own psychological
existence.
Existentialism continued …
• Is NOT a technical approach to counseling
that offers new rules for therapy.
– Psychoanalysis – use of transference, freeassociation
– Behaviorism – stimulus/response,
+reinforcement/-reinforcement/punishment
- It is a frame-of-reference or way of viewing
and understanding a client’s suffering
Existential View
of Human Nature
• Assumption One: As humans, our basic conflict
is between ourselves and the “givens” of our
existence.
– It’s not from instinctual drives (ego & superego)
– It’s not from significant adults in one’s early life (need
for acceptance and approval)
• It’s this anxiety we experience when we are
confronted with the givens of our existence
Existential View of
Human Nature
• Assumption Two: Existing in the world brings
about both normal and neurotic anxiety. “Anxiety
arises from our personal need to survive, to
preserve our being, and to assert our being (Corsini
& Wedding, 2005, p. 271)
• Anxiety occurs as we try to deal with important
life themes:
–
–
–
–
living and dying
freedom, responsibility, & choice
isolation & loving
meaning & meaninglessness.
Existential View of
Human Nature
• Assumption Three: As humans we have
the capacity for self-awareness.
– The greater our self-awareness, the greater
our possibilities for freedom.
– We can increase our capacity to live life fully.
Existential View of
Human Nature
• Assumption Four: If a person is to be
understood and helped to understand
him/herself. That person must be understood
from the perspective of the here-and-now.
• The past is important only insofar as it is part
of one’s current existence.
• There are no attempts to uncover what
happened in the past, instead there is a focus
on experiences in the present.
Existential View of
Human Nature
• Assumption Five: The significance of our
existence (who we are) is never fixed. We
are always re-creating ourselves, evolving,
and becoming (Corey, 2005).
• The essence of who we are is never fixed
until we die.
• Resistance to using theorotypes or labels
Major Concepts
• Being-in-the world = examining oneself,
others, and one's relationship with the
world, thus attaining higher levels of
consciousness (Dasein).
• Four ways of being-in-the world:
– Umwelt
– Mitwelt
– Eigenwelt
– Uberwelt
Major Concepts continued …
• Umwelt -“world around”: Relating to the
world of objects around us (environment);
attending to the biological and physical
aspects of the world – biological needs, drives,
& instincts.
• Mitwelt – “with-world” : A way in which
individuals relate to the world by interacting
socially with others. The focus is on human
relationships rather than relationships that
are biological or physical (Umwelt).
Major Concepts cont…
• Eigenwelt – “own world”: It is the
perception of what something in the world
means to each individual observer. It is a
self-awareness and self-relatedness that is
unique to human beings.
• Uberwelt: Religious or spiritual beliefs
about the ideal world, the way an
individual wants the world to be.
Major Concepts cont…
• Normal anxiety: it’s appropriate to the situation; it does not
require repression -- we can come to terms with it; it can be
used creatively and may encourage us to identify and
confront whatever is causing the anxiety in the first place.
• Neurotic anxiety: is not appropriate to the situation; it is
repressed; and, it is destructive not constructive. It tends to
paralyze a person rather than stimulate creativity.
• Existential anxiety: consciousness of our own freedom to
make choices. As we become aware of the choices we
have, we also become aware of the responsibility for those
choices. It also comes from dealing with unforeseen forces
(the thrown condition) and is a significant subset of normal
anxiety
Major Concepts cont…
• Guilt: like anxiety can take normal and
neurotic forms.
– Neurotic guilt – often arises out of fantasized
transgressions.
– Normal guilt – sensitizes us to the moral
aspects of our behavior.
– Another form of guilt – failure to live up to our
potentialities. If you lock up your potentialities
you are guilty for not fulfilling what is given to you
in your origin, in your “core” (Corsini & Wedding, 2005, pg.
272).
Major Concepts cont…
• Thrown Condition - Unforeseen forces or
events in the world that one does not
cause.
• The “I-Am” Experience – this realization
of one’s being. It’s the idea that we will be
victimized by our circumstances, until we
realize that … “I am the one living and
experiencing. I choose my own being” (Corsini
& Wedding, 2005).
Major Concepts cont…
• Boundary situation: an experience that compels
an individual to deal with an existential situation
(confrontation with one’s own death)
• Self-transcendence: Going beyond one's
immediate situation to understand one's being and
to take responsibility for that being. Going beyond
one's own needs to take responsibility for others or
to see the world in different ways.
• Authenticity: Being genuine and real, as well as
aware of one's being. Authentic individuals deal
with moral choices, the meaning of life, and being
human.
Givens of the Human
Condition
• If we put aside everyday concerns … and
reflect deeply upon our situation in the
world, then we must confront “ultimate
concerns” that are an inescapable part of
our existence in the world.
• Yalom (1981) identified four (4) ultimate
concerns
Death
• We will all die, there is no escape.
• This realization haunts us and so we erect
defenses to keep these thoughts out of our
awareness.
– These defenses are denial based and can
become maladaptive.
• Psychopathology (symptoms &
maladaptive behavior) has origins in a
person’s terror of death.
Freedom vs. Responsibility
• Each person is ultimately responsible for and the
author of his/her own world, own life design, and
own choices and actions (Corsini & Wedding, 2005, p. 280).
– If we create our own world and our own meaning of the
world, than there is no ground beneath us: there is only
nothingness. Conflict between awareness of
freedom/groundlessness vs. a need for ground and
structure.
• Responsibility – we do things to avoid it
– Displace it onto other people, circumstances, etc.
– Deny it (even though they have set certain events into
motion)
– Shuck it (being irrational or in a state where they are not
accountable for their behavior)
Isolation
• Interpersonal isolation: gulf between self and other
people (lack in social skills and fear of intimacy)
• Intrapersonal isolation: isolated from parts of
ourselves (experience, affect, desire) that are
dissociated out of awareness.
• Existential isolation: no matter how closely we
relate to another individual, there remains an
unbridgeable gap.
• We enter existence alone
• We must die alone – people may be there with us when we die,
but we alone experience death.
Isolation continued …
• This fear of existential isolation (and the defenses
we erect against it) underlies a great deal of
interpersonal psychopathology (Corsini & Wedding, 2005).
• We may form relationships with others for some
function (a defense against isolation), rather than
out of caring for that person’s being.
– May attempt to deal with isolation through fusion -- soften
ego boundaries and become part of another individual.
Or fuse with a group, cause, etc. and become like
everyone else and avoid isolation of the lonely self.
Meaninglessness
• If we all die … If we all create our own world … and if each
of us is ultimately alone … then what possible meaning can
life have?
• As humans we require meaning. We strive to organize and
lend meaning to our experiences.
• In a chaotic world, we search for an explanation or a
meaning for our existence.
• If there is no preordained design in life, then we must
construct our own meaning in life.
• From this meaning schema we generate a hierarchy of
values.
• These values give us a blueprint for life – not only a why we
live but how to live.
• There is this dilemma resulting from: how we as humans
require meaning and find meaning in a universe that has no
meaning?
Theory of Illness
Awareness of ultimate concerns  Anxiety
 Defense Mechanism
• We engage in defense mechanisms to
deal/cope with the anxiety we experience.
• These defense mechanisms provide
safety/security, but they also restrict our
growth.
Theory of Illness
cont …
• These defense mechanisms may be
ineffective or maladaptive.
• They may provide only temporary respite
from anxiety, but
• Ultimately cripple a person’s ability to live
fully (authentically) and creatively, and
• May result in further secondary anxiety
Theory of Cure
• A person must embark on a journey of
self-investigation where the goals are:
– Understand the unconscious conflict.
– Identify the maladaptive defense mechanisms
– Diminish secondary anxiety by correcting
these maladaptive ways of dealing with self
and others.
– Develop other ways of coping with primary
anxiety so that this person can live life more
fully or authentically.
Theory of Cure cont …
• The existential therapist strives to understand a
person’s current life situation and current
unconscious fears related to the ultimate
concerns or givens.
– Responsibility  confront how they avoid it
– Isolation  confronting this in small doses
• The nature of the therapist-client relationship is
fundamentally important in and of itself.
– Yalom stated “it is the relationship that heals”
Goals of Therapy
• Does not have the goal of immediately
alleviating a person’s anxiety.
• Instead there is a goal to promote greater
personal growth, which leads to symptom
alleviation.
• To help client’s understand and confront the
ways they avoid dealing with existential anxiety
related to the human existence.
• Help client’s discover and find a meaning or
purpose that transcends themselves.
• Help client’s live their lives more authentically
Techniques
• They may employ a variety of techniques
used in other approaches insofar as they
are consistent with basic existential
presuppositions and a human, authentic
therapist-patient encounter.
Existential Therapists
• Different existential therapists may emphasize
different aspects of existential concerns.
• Yalom – emphasizes four ultimate concerns and
discusses the importance of living life authentically.
• Frankl – emphasized the importance of people
finding meaning or purpose in their lives.
– Unlike other existential therapists he developed a form of
therapy that uses specific techniques that a therapist
might use with clients (Logotherapy, “Mans Search for
Meaning”)
Logotherapy Concepts
• A type of existential therapy that focuses on challenging clients
to search for meaning in their lives.
• Socratic dialogue: A series of questions designed to help the
client arrive at logical answers to and conclusions about a
certain hypothesis; also called guided discovery.
• Dereflection: A technique in which clients focus away from their
problems instead of on them to reduce anxiety.
• Paradoxical intention: A therapeutic strategy in which clients are
instructed to engage in and exaggerate behaviors they seek to
change. By prescribing the symptom, therapists make patients
more aware of their situation and help them achieve distance
form symptoms.
Existential Therapists cont …
• Other existential therapists may focus on
“thrown conditions” that can lead to “restricted
existences”
– Confront how they are living life in a restricted or
stuck fashion (inauthentic) and help them become
aware of their own part in it and increase their
options.
• Thus, many therapists, trained in different
modalities of treatment may in fact employ some
aspects of an existential approach from time to
time.
Questions???
Case Study
• What are the underlying causes of this
client’s symptoms?
• What would you focus on in your work with
this client?
• What interventions or techniques would
you use?
• What are the goals of counseling?