SEVEN PAPERS ON EXISTENTIAL ANALYSIS ... - Wagner College

few who have persevered through such courses of study, especially to the terminal degree,
remain existential in orientation.
The heart of the matter, however, is not whether models for training exist and whether
they work. Clearly, they do, as the example of the British group attests. What calls for our
attention is accrediting agencies, the government, and other professional psychotherapists.
Here where we find ourselves at a crossroads. The only solution is clean severance from the
tradition based on the medical model. Like Freud and the first-generation psychoanalysts,
existential psychotherapists must declare their independence from the practices of psychiatry.
Unlike the psychoanalysts, however, we must not remain connected with the medical
profession.
How should an existential psychotherapist be prepared? Broad liberal education and
personal psychotherapy are the key elements in the training of an existential psychotherapist.
We may recall Freud's view that, apart from a personal analysis, wide reading, not knowledge
and experience of science, was the best preparation for a psychoanalyst. The same holds for an
existential psychotherapist. Unlike Freud, however, we would say that lack of allegiance to any
theoretical model is another criterion an existential analyst.
Anyone in the field of clinical psychology knows that one can meet every requirement of
a training program and still not be an effective psychotherapist. Many attempts have been
made to discriminate personality characteristics of good therapists in general, but there are no
helpful lists of personal characteristics that mark a good psychotherapist. I think we must finally
admit that we do not know what the characteristics of a good psychotherapist are. That does
not admit lack of clarity, but rather points to some imponderables. Freud once spoke of the
three "impossible professions": teaching, leading and healing. They are impossible because
what makes a good teacher, leader or psychotherapist is nothing he has been taught. All three
are callings. No one is ever a success in these areas, perhaps because in practicing in these
fields, we are always trying to find out what our impulse to teach others, lead others, or do
therapy with others really amounts to. Here we may recall the common origin of teachers,
judges and physicians in the shaman. I suspect that any insights about what makes a good
psychotherapist (like a good physician, judge or teacher) will have to wait until we understand
what makes a good shaman.
We know only this much: all three ways of life are callings, not professions. One cannot
fabricate a good teacher, no matter how many courses on materials and methods she takes.
The discernment of a great leader or judge is not the result of instruction. Finally, the features of
an effective psychotherapist are elusive, yet palpable in his personality. It is just this unique
quality that existential psychotherapists recognize in therapists of any theoretical commitment
when they say that all effective therapists are existential.
Can we be more specific here? I would follow Freud by saying that a lifetime of wide
reading, especially of history and literature, is without doubt the best preparation for doing
psychotherapy. Familiarity with languages and the great variety of cultures, characters and
civilizations, including their literatures and religious traditions, that have grown up is also essential
best background for someone seeks to understand another human being.
I think we must admit that, like a joke, a human being can be described but not
explained. This is where clinical psychology has failed. In attempting to explain (which is what
science hopes to do) what cannot be explained, clinical psychology has destroyed its object.
He has ruined the joke. The existential psychotherapist accepts who is there before him, without
attempting to explain her. He assumes a mystery, not an instance of a pattern or configuration
of traits. He sees the individual as an order, not a disorder. As Boss used to say, the therapist
does not ask the client "Why" but says "Why not?". As Wilfred Bion said, he approaches the
person without desire, memory or understanding, as though he is meeting the person for the first
time, every time. An existential psychotherapist must value the freedom of the individual to
discover who she is and to change, if she desires to do so.