ROLLO REESE MAY:

EXISTENTIALPSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY

EXISTENTIALISM
Concerned with the struggle to work through lifes experiences and to grow toward becoming more fully human

Common elements found in Existential Thinkers:

1. Existence takes precedence over essence 2. Existentialism opposes the split between subject and object 3. People search for some meaning into their lives 4. Existentialists hold that ultimately each of us is responsible for who we are and what we become 5. Existentialists are basically antitheoretical

BASIC CONCEPTS
Being in the world Nonbeing

BEING-IN-THE-WORLD
Expressed in the German word Dasein Dasein-to exist in the world Hyphens in the term imply a oneness of subject and object Many people suffer from anxiety and despair brought on by their alienation from themselves or from their world Feelings of isolation and alienation of self from the world is suffered not only by pathologically disturbed individuals but also by most individuals in modern societies.

Manifestations of Alienation:
1. Separation from nature 2. Lack of meaningful interpersonal relations 3. Alienation from ones authentic self

Simultaneous modes of being in peoples world

1. 2. 3. Umwelt Mitwelt Eigenwelt

Simultaneous modes of being in peoples world

Umwelt environment around us Mitwelt relations with other people Eigenwelt relationship with our self Healthy people live in Umwelt, Mitwelt, and Eigenwelt simultaneously

Healthy people live in Umwelt, Mitwelt, and Eigenwelt simultaneously

Eigenwelt

Umwelt Mitwelt

NON-BEING
Also nothingness Dread of not being Death is not the only avenue of nonbeing Provokes us to live defensively and receive less from life than if we would confront the issue of our nonexistence

Dread of nonbeing can take the form of:

Isolation Alienation

6758&785(
Narra, Julie Anne

CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF
unique mark of the human person enables us to distinguish between ourselves and the world SELFHOOD is not automatic but is born in a social context and grows in interpersonal relations.

ONTOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS

1. All living organisms are potentially centered in themselves and seek to preserve that center 2. Human beings have the need and the possibility of going out from their centeredness to participate with other people

3. Sickness is a method whereby an individual seeks to preserve his or her being 4. Human beings can participate in a level of self-consciousness that permits them to transcend the immediate situation and to consider and actualize a wider range of possibilities

UNCONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE
Self-deception and experiences that an individual cannot actualize

DYNAMICS
Narra, Julie Anne

ANXIETY
the subjective state of the individuals becoming aware that his or her existence can be destroyed, that he can become nothing it exists when one confronts the issue of fulfilling ones potentials

FORMS OF ANXIETY
NORMAL ANXIETY which is proportionate to the threat, does not involve repression, and can be confronted constructively on the conscious level

FORMS OF ANXIETY
NEUROTIC ANXIETY a reaction which is disproportionate to the threat, involves repression and other forms of intrapsychic conflict, and is managed by various kinds of blocking-off of activity and awareness

GUILT
When people deny their potentialities, fail to accurately perceive the needs of fellow humans or remain oblivious to their dependence on the nature 1. UMWELT 2. MITWELT 3. EIGENWELT

INTENTIONALITY
the structure of meaning which makes it possible for us to see and understand the outside world sometimes unconscious

CARE, LOVE & WILL

Mazo, Stephanie

CARE, LOVE & WILL

Care - to recognize a person as a fellow human being, to identify with that persons joy, guilt or pity - is an active process; it is a state where something does matter - is the source of love and will

 Love - to have an active regard for a persons development - a delight in the presence of the other person - affirming of a persons value and development as much as ones own

 Will - capacity to organize ones self so that movement in a toward a certain goal may take place

 UNION of LOVE and WILL - Modern society suffers from an unhealthy division of love and will. Love is seen as sensual sex, whereas will is seen as dogged determination or will power.

- Biological reasons why love and will are separated: - When children come into the world, are at one with the universe, their mother, and themselves. - As will begins to develop, it manifests itself as opposition. The no , unfortunately, is seen by the parents negatively. - Child learns to dissociate will from the blissful love.

- Our task is to unite love and will. - For the mature person, both love and will mean a reaching out toward another person. Both involve care, both necessitate a choice both imply action and both require responsibility.

FORMS OF LOVE
Sex - a biological function that can be satisfied through sexual intercourse or some other release of sexual tension - the source at once of the human beings most intense pleasure and his most pervasive anxiety

 Eros - a psychological desire that seeks procreation or creation through an enduring union with a loved one; making love; wish to establish a lasting union - built on care and tenderness - salvation of sex

 Philia - intimate nonsexual friendship between two people - cannot be rushed; it takes time to groow and develop - necessary requisite for healthy erotic relationships during early and late adolescence

 Agape - concern for the others welfare beyond any gain that one can get out of it - altruistic love

FREEDOM AND DESTINY

Ong, Ivy Camille

FREEDOM
Comes from an understanding of our destiny Possibility of changing, although we may not know what those changes might be
Increases anxiety

FORMS OF FREEDOM
Existential Freedom
freedom of doing freedom to pursue tangible goals

Essential Freedom
freedom of being freedom to think, to plan, to hope

DESTINY
Biological, psychological, and cultural factors Terminus, goal
Death

As we challenge our destiny, we gain freedom, and as we achieve freedom, we push at the boundaries of destiny

MYTHS
Conscious and unconscious belief systems that provide explanations for personal and social problems Oedipus story
Birth Exile and separation Identity Incest and patricide Repression of guilt Conscious meditation and death

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Martin, Mc Bain

May divided personality development into 4 stages.



Centers on the physical and psychological ties between us and our parents and parental substitutes the conflict is between every human beings need to struggle toward enlarged selfawareness, maturity, freedom and responsibility. And his tendency to remain a child and cling to the protection of parents or parental substitutes Dependency struggle

STAGE OF INNOCENCE
Stage before consciousness of self is born Characteristic of the infant

STAGE OF REBELLION
Takes place

at age 2 or 3 and again during adolescence seeks to establish some inner

Individual

strength
may

involve defiance and hostility

STAGE OF REBELLION
Rebellion

is defiance, an active rejection of parental and societal rules. Behavior is automatic rigid and reflexive. involves openness, a readiness to grow: it means being flexible, ready to change for the sake of greater human values.

True freedom-

ORDINARY CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF

Healthy

personality

able

to learn from ones mistakes and live responsibly of understanding some of his errors and of recognizing some of his prejudices

capable

CREATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SELF

Signifies

maturity

Ability

to see something outside ones usual limited viewpoint and gain a glimpse of ultimate truth as it exists in reality through the dichotomy between subjectivity and objectivity only rarely

Cuts

Achieved

Consciousness of self gives us the power to stand outside the rigid chain of stimulus and response, to pause, and by this pause to throw some weight on either side, to cast some decision about what the response will be

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Orquia, Patricia Denise Z.

 People have become alienated from:

- the natural world (Umwelt) - other people (Mitwelt) - themselves (Eigenwelt)
* Feeling of insignificance = apathy and emptiness

APATHY AND EMPTINESS

- malaise of modern times - chief existential disorders

Deny their destiny/ Abandon their myths

(Thus, one loses his freedom)

DIRECTIONLESS

Become sick and engage in selfdefeating and selfdestructive behaviors

NEUROTIC SYMPTOMS

a way to renounce freedom narrows the persons phenomenological world to a size that makes coping easier

NEUROTIC SYMPTOMS

represent a proper and necessary adjustment by which ones Dasein can be preserved

PSYCHOTHERAPY
Orquia, Patricia Denise Z.

EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

should make people more human set people free must be concerned with helping people experience their existence

EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

- an encounter between the patient and therapist coming together and sharing their experience - I-thou encounter - EMPATHY for the client key ingredient - partly religion, partly science and partly friendship - PHILOSOPHICAL

CRITIQUE
Orquia, Patricia Denise Z.

Low in generating a scientific research Low in falsifiability Moderate in organizing data Low in guiding action Low in internal consistency Moderate in parsimony

CONCEPT OF HUMANITY
Orquia, Patricia Denise Z.

Free Choice over Determinism Optimism over Pessimism Teleology over Causality Conscious and Unconscious Social and Biological Influences Uniqueness over Similarities