SEVEN PAPERS ON EXISTENTIAL ANALYSIS ... - Wagner College

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psychotherapists. In part, it is in recognition of their work and similar efforts in the United States that the <strong>Wagner</strong> <strong>College</strong> Conference on Existential Psychotherapy has been arranged. It is the first meeting of a group of therapists of this stripe to be held in the New York area since the late 1970's. As evidence for such a renaissance, I want to note that, during the past three years, a number of books have been published by representatives of the British school. They include the work of Hans Cohn (1997), Emmy van Deurzen Smith (1997), Simon DuPlock (1997), Freddie Strasser (1997) and Ernesto Spinelli (1989, 1994, 1997). During the present decade, however, we have also heard from some familiar voices – Irvin Yalom (1980, 1998), James Bugental (1963, 1990) and Clark Moustakas (1994) – as well as from some relatively new voices – M.D. Niv (1996), Robert Willis (1994), Kirk Schneider (1999, and Betty Cannon (1991). James Lantz (1993) has written on existential family therapy (work which is based on Viktor Frankl's logotherapy). We have Bruce Moon's (1995) existential art therapy and Mark King's (1993) existential hypnotherapy. Keith Hoeller's Readings in Existential Psychology and Psychiav (1994) remains in print and the Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry continues to appear (if somewhat irregularly), complemented by The Humanistic Psychologist, the Journal of Humanistic Psychology and the Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis,in London. In the background stands the work of Ludwig Binswanger (1960, 1963), Eugene Minkowski (1970), Roland Kuhn (1953), Alfred Storch (1930, 1947), Viktor von Gebsattel (1954) and Viktor Frankl (1939, 1947, 1958,1960,1962), Medard Boss (1 963,1979) and Gion Condrau (1963), (whose 80th birthday is being celebrated at a meeting of the Daseinsanalysis group in a few days in Switzerland) and Rollo May (1960,1983), Adrian van Kaam (1966), Jan van den Berg (1972), (who sends his greetings to the conference), Thomas Hora (1960,1972,1977) (whom I spoke to about this proposed conference only a few months before his death – he was encouraged by our interest), Wolfgang Blankenburg (1979,1985,1989) (with whom I spoke on Thursday and who sends.his greetings and regrets) and Eugene Gendlin (1981, 1996, 1997). My list is by no means complete. There are other lights, including Alvin Mahrer (1983), David Edwards (198I), Elsbeth Martindale (l987), Hanna Colm (1965), Dugald Arbuckle (1975), Torsten Herner (1982), Aaron Ungersma (196 I), Wilson van Dusen (1957,1959), Herbert Holt (1963, 1966) and William Offman (1976). Nor should we omit to mention from it a few early voices outside of professional psychology who prepared the way for the appearance of existential psychotherapy: Paul Tillich (1961,1984) and Rudolf Allers (1961). And what shall we say about Martin Heidegger (1987) in all this! One might well argue that without Being and Time, the turn away from medical psychology might not have been made at all. Apart from providing an occasion for some of us of like mind to meet and encourage each other in our work – which continues to ply so strenuously against the mainstream – another purpose of this conference is to look back at the philosophical origins of existential psychotherapy and the variety of forms it has taken since its beginnings, as well as to review the forms it now takes. Let me briefly recall that as early as 1960, Clemens Benda (1960, 1961), in the first number of the Journal of Existential Psychiatry, wrote about "The Existential Approach in Psychiatry." But even earlier, however, in 1935, in the Journal of General Neurology and Psychiatry, Josef Meinertz (1935) had called attention to the "existential possibilities of a scientific psychology." The following year, Ludwig Binswanger's paper "Anthropology, Psychology, Psychopathology" (1936) appeared in a Swiss medical journal. In 1939, Frankl published "Philosophy and Psychotherapy. On the Bases of an Existential Analysis." By 1951, Roland Kuhn had published his paper on "Existential Analysis in Therapeutic Conversation" (1951) in the Swiss Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. By the late 1950s, existential analysis had been given recognition by Frieda Fromm- Reichmann and Jacob Moreno in their Progress in Psychotherapy (1956), although around the time of the appearance in 1958 of Existence, the classic anthology edited by Rollo May, Henri Ellenberger and Ernst Angel, organized psychiatry had already become critical of existential
psychotherapy. In 1960, Benjamin Wolstein and others had written vigorously against the movement. Still others in the mainstream of psychoanalysis and medical psychology, however, including Henry Ey (1960) and Gregory Zilboorg (1960) supported it. By the late 1960's, there was a fair amount of confusion about the differences between existential psychotherapy, existential analysis and existential psychoanalysis, on the one hand, and existential-phenomenological praxis, on the other. For awhile, at least in print, existential analysis was identified by some with Frankl's logotherapy. During the 1970's and 1980'9, existential and humanistic psychotherapies were further eclipsed by cognitive-behavioral treatment and their influence was less visible, although they were still covered in textbooks and handbooks of psychotherapy. It seems to me that the present decade will prove to have been transitional to a large scale renewal of interest in existential analysis. During the second half of the twentieth century, the professionalization of psychotherapy, chiefly in social work, following on its medicalization, seems to have had the effect of foreclosing its inherent possibilities. The involvement of professional psychotherapists in the contemporary managed health care industry in this country often precluded the establishment and maintenance of the covenant formed between therapist and patient partner. Finally, the current exclusive domination of a biological approach to the study of behavior and the concept of experience it implies, rather than an existential interpretation of embodied existence – that is, of human be-ing as being in a world and not merely as an organism understood to be a very complicated mechanism – has encouraged therapists to take their start far past the place where experience arises for any of us. Nonetheless, there are many psychotherapists (perhaps many more than we know) who yearn to break free from these constraints. Such a liberation happened in the 1950's and 1960's, resulting in the first wave of existential analysis. And as I have suggested, we are encouraged to see that in the work of the British school of existential analysis, a fresh wave of interest is underway. It is important to bring together as many representatives of existential practice (in all its diversity) as possible, in order to hear from each other about what existential psychotherapy now means. Equally important, we also want to review the philosophical background of existential psychotherapy, in order revisit our common sources. We will make a start at doing some of that today. The questions that this conference raises, then, include the following: What is meant today by existential psychotherapy or existential analysis? How is existential psychotherapy related to Sartre's phenomenologica ontology and to Binswanger's Daseinsanalysis? How is existential psychotherapy related to psychoanalysis, in particular the reading of psychoanalysis given by Jacques Lacan? What is its relation to other forms of psychotherapy, such as Gendlin's focusing? Finally, to what extent is the practice of existential psychotherapy possible in the current climate of psychobiology and medical psychology, which dominates the field of clinical psychology? Today we will make a start at responding to them. _______________________________________________________ Bibliography Allers, R. (1961). Existentialism and Psychiatry: Four Lectures. Springfield: Thomas. Arbuckle, D. (1975). Counseling and Psychotherapy: An Existential-Humanistic View. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Page 1: SEVEN PAPERS ON EXISTENTIAL ANALYSI
Page 5 and 6: Frankl, V. (1958). On Logotherapy a
Page 7 and 8: Ungersma, A. (1961). The Search for
Page 9 and 10: our work may parallel that of our c
Page 11 and 12: current revival of existential psyc
Page 13 and 14: Cannon. 12 James Lantz 13 has writt
Page 15 and 16: World War II, in 1951, Kuhn 47 had
Page 17 and 18: Of course, Freud never found any ev
Page 19 and 20: the DSM-IV of the etiology and trea
Page 21 and 22: few who have persevered through suc
Page 23 and 24: III. Existential Therapy on Heidegg
Page 25 and 26: and underlying presuppositions? Wha
Page 27 and 28: I would like to characterize the ex
Page 29 and 30: Existential Pathology and Therapy L
Page 31 and 32: The therapist's existence passes un
Page 33 and 34: 15. See Part II of Heidegger's Die
Page 35 and 36: My gaze thus remains fixed on a per
Page 37 and 38: tantamount to saying that I do not
Page 39 and 40: eyes. That reflection gives me the
Page 41 and 42: consciousness is not a unified powe
Page 43 and 44: is the source of all possibilities.
Page 45 and 46: consciousness is therefore always i
Page 47 and 48: existence, that I exist, which othe
Page 49 and 50: takes its place as part of the proj
Page 51 and 52: 8. When I brush up against the body
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they do exist. Recognition, as the
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the names applied to them designate
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the death of a parent or child, bei
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Certainly, some ways of comporting
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hopelessness), extreme anxiety, or
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In contrast to these technical reco
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VI. Authenticity in Existential Ana
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structures, which were in effect pe
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a result, their feelings and behavi
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I will forego discussion of the wor
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As Erich Fromm pointed out many yea
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a role to play (“B”) while she
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Existential Therapy (New York: New
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VII. “Eros in Existential Analysi
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conditions of sex are complementary
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to be the god of “sexual desire a
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“Why not?” In this way, he bega
Page 87 and 88:
theme of “important events” eng
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the first time. Evidently, this was
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