Existential and Humanistic Therapies

Lekshmi Priya.K.B1st MSc Psychology

What is PSYCHOTHERAPY?

• Psychotherapy is a general term that is used to describe the process of treating psychological disorders and mental distress. 

• During this process, a trained psychotherapist helps the client tackle a specific or general problem such as a particular mental illness or a source of life stress.

• Depending on the approach used by the therapist, a wide range of techniques and strategies can be used. 

Some of the major approaches to psychotherapy include:

• Psychoanalytic Approach• Cognitive-behavioral Approach• Humanistic Approach

• Psychoanalytic: An approach to therapy that involved delving into a patients thoughts and past experiences to seek out unconscious desires or fantasies.

•Cognitive-behavioral: A type of psychotherapy that involves cognitive and behavioral techniques to change negative thoughts and maladaptive behaviors.

•Humanistic: A form of therapy that focuses on helping people maximize their potential.

What is Humanistic Psychology??

Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic psychology focus on each individual's potential and

stressed the importance of growth and self-actualization

•Humanistic psychology emerged during the 1950s as a reaction to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, which dominated psychology at the time.

•Psychoanalysis was focused on understanding the unconscious motivations that drive behavior

•while behaviorism studied the conditioning processes that produce behavior.

• Humanist thinkers felt that both psychoanalysis and behaviorism were too pessimistic, either focusing on the most tragic of emotions or failing to take into account the role of personal choice.

• In 1962, Abraham Maslow published ”Toward a Psychology of Being”, in which he described humanistic psychology as the "third force" in psychology..

1943 - Abraham Maslow described his hierarchy of needs in "A Theory of

Human Motivation" 

Focus of Humanist

• It emphasize the role of individual

• Each individuals have potentials and stressed the importance of growth and self actualization.

• People are innately good and mental and social problems results in deviations from the natural tendency.

Criticism on Humanism

• It if often seen as too subjective, importance of individual experience make it difficult to study and measure human phenomena.

• There is no accurate way to measure/quantify these qualities

Humanistic therapies

Humanistic therapies focus on self-development, growth and responsibilities. They seek to help individuals recognize their strengths, creativity and choice in the 'here and now'.

• Three types of humanistic therapy are especially influential

1. Client-centered therapy rejects the idea of therapists as authorities on their clients' inner experiences. Instead, therapists help clients change by emphasizing their concern, care and interest.

2. Gestalt therapy emphasizes what it calls "organismic holism," the importance of being aware of the here and now and accepting responsibility for yourself.

3. Existential therapy focuses on free will, self-determination and the search for meaning.

Existential Psychotherapy

• Focuses on concerns rooted in existence

• From the Latin word “existere” meaning “to stand out””o emerge”

Existential Psychotherapy

 Is a philosophical method of therapy that focuses on free will, self determination and search for meaning.

The goals of existential therapy are to enable people to:

• successfully negotiate and come to terms with past, present and future crises;

• become more truthful with themselves;• widen their perspective on themselves and the world

around them;• find clarity on what their purpose in life is and how they

can learn from the past to create some-thing valuable and meaningful to live for;

• understand themselves and others better and find ways of effectively communicating and being with others;

• make sense of the paradoxes conflicts and dilemmas of their, existence.

• Therapeutic Goals:To expand self-awareness.To increase potential choices.To help client accept the responsibility for their choice.To help the client experience authentic existence.

• Key FiguresRollo May.Irvin Yalom.

Viktor Frankl.

• Rollo May:Rollo May has been instrumental in translating some concepts drawn from existential philosophy and applying them to psychotherapy.

Basic concept of Existential Psychotherapy

Being-in-the-world

Being-in-the-world

Humans can chose their own being.The choices that they make about being are not just concerned with whether or not to commit suicide but are relevant to every instant of their lives.

3 Forms of being on the world

• Umwelt(World around)• Mitwelt(With world)• Eigenwelt(Own world)

Irvin Yalom:

According to Yalom, the concerns that make up the core of existential psychodynamics are1.death.2.freedom.3.isolation.(interpersonal,intrapersomnal,existential)4.meaninglessness.

• Viktor Frankl:Viktor Frankl's approach to existential theory is known as logotherapy.

Logotherapy• LOGOS is a Greek word connotes

“Meaning” “spirit”• Main purpose of logo therapy is to

assist clients in their search of meaning

According to Franckl the original

term “Logotherapy” is derived from the Greek word, “logos”, which is defined as “meaning”. The word “therapy” deals with the treatment for disorders and maladjustment. Frankl’s concept is based on the premise that our primary motivational force is to find a meaning in our life.

Logotherapy

• The core of this theory is the belief that man’s primary motivational force is search for meaning and the work of the logotherapist centers on helping the patient find personal meaning in life

Assumptions about Logotherapy

• The human being is an entity consisting of body, mind, and spirit

• Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable

• People have a will to meaning • People have freedom under all circumstances to

activate the will to find meaning • Life has a demand quality to which people must

respond if decisions are to be meaningful. • The individual is unique

Specific Techniques

Victor Franckl used the following techniques

1. Empty chair techniques/Multi chair technique

2. Existential vaccume

Empty chair techniques/Multi chair technique

• When the client expresses a conflict with another person, through this technique, the client is directed to talk to that another person who is imagined to be sitting in an empty chair beside or across the client. This helps the client to experience and understand the feeling more fully. Thus, it stimulates your thinking, highlighting your emotions and attitudes.

Existential vacuum The psychological condition in which a

person doubts that life has any meaning.This new neurosis is characterized by loss of interest and lack of initiative.According to Viktor Frankl, the existential vacuum is apparently a concomitant of industrialization. When neither instinct nor social tradition direct man toward what he ought to do, soon he will not even know what he wants to do, and the existential vacuum results.

Techniques used in logotherapy

1. Paradoxical intention2. Dereflection

Paradoxical intention

The harder you try to get rid of some thought or behavior,

the stronger it seems to become.

• Paradoxical intention assist the client to ridicule the problem

• Paradoxical intention involves asking for the thing we fear the most. For clients who suffer anxiety or phobias, fear can paralyze them. But by using humor and ridicule, they can wish for the thing they fear the most, thus removing the fear from their intention and relieving the anxious symptoms associated with it.

Dereflection

•Dereflection assist the client to ignore the problem

Dereflection

• Dereflection is used when a person is overly self-absorbed on an issue or attainment of a goal. By redirecting the attention, or dereflecting the attention away from the self, the person can fully become whole by thinking about others rather than themselves.

Application of therapyI. Empathically understand the unique

personal world-view and self concept of he patient

II. Foster full self-awareness by encouraging the patient to experience all facets of himself ,including those previously denied

III. Encourage full acceptance of his unique self and his freedom and responsibility in acting on choices

IV. Thus actualizing his full potential as a person

Outcome of therapy

• Cognitive change • Behavioral change • Affective change