SEVEN PAPERS ON EXISTENTIAL ANALYSIS ... - Wagner College

The therapist's existence passes under the gaze of the patient, whose own existence is
validated. The therapist brings his existence to the patient somewhat as a newborn's mother
brings her existence to the infant, and as in neonatal life, access is opened for the patient to
look and speak, and for his existence to become visible.
One human interaction exemplifies the validation of existence: the greeting. In
mentioning it at this point, I want to highlight what is typically the first encounter between a
therapist and a patient, and at the same time an opportunity for validation of the patient's
existence. The greeting combines the three modes of existential encounter: the gaze, touch and
speech, I do not mean to imply that the greeting is in and of itself therapeutic, but what
happens in the exchange of a greeting often sets the stage for other experiences of validation
in existential therapy.
The patient suffers. He says "I feel depressed." His complaint is a question that cannot be
asked. It masks as an assertion or it speaks mutely, for example, as a feeling, a physical
complaint (pain), or an unverifiable and unusual perception (hallucination). For the existential
therapist, all symptoms speak for the existence of the person, not for what he is. For this reason, it
has never been possible in psychology to explain symptoms in a satisfactory way in either
physical or psychological terms alone. A symptom is neither something physical nor something
psychological, but rather belongs to the existence of the person. It expresses the person's
existence, not what he is, like the physical sign of a disease process.
The therapist helps the patient express in words or other forms of expression what his
existence is expressing mutely or in other forms of communication such as play and fantasy.
There is as much in the gaze and the human touch as there is in words to evoke the words the
patient lacks. In working with so-called deteriorated or decompensated patients, the
therapeutic gaze or touch may evoke more than the therapeutic word is capable of doing, yet
the look or gesture must eventually be translated into words.
Each existential therapist's approach is unique. How could it be otherwise, since his
existence is unique. Following the ancient rule to "do no harm," certain interventions can be
specified which are to be avoided, so that an existential therapist can be taught what not to do,
but he cannot be taught what to do as a therapist.
Notes
1. I present the lineaments of an existential psychology on Heideggerian principles in "Human
Being and Existence.The Beginnings of and Existential Psychology."
2. "Einleitung zu 'Was ist Metaphysik?'. Der Ruckgang in den Grund der Metaphysik"(1949), in
Wegmarken, Martin Heideggerr Gesamtausgabe 9, 1976, p. 374. I translate Sein with the
somewhat awkward construction 'be[-ing]', which I pronounce "be." This is meant to point out
the problematic nature of Sein in Heidegger's thinking and to illustrate the be in every kind of being
(Seiende).
3. For Jaspers, Existenz is human life as characterized by limit situations. His notion of Existenz is
grounded in Wilhelm Dilthey’s Lebensphilosophie, which, along with Nietzsche's challenging view
of European man, spawned twentieth-century Existentialism. Heidegger is emphatically not an
Existentialist in this tradition, as his usage of the word Existenz illustrates. For some of the
background of the use of the term Existenz by Heidegger and Jaspers, see Theodore Kisiel,
"Existenz in Incubation on the Way Toward Being and Time," in Babette E. Babich (ed.), From
Phenomenology to Thought, Errancy, and Desire (1995) Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 89-114, and the
author’s Translating Heidegger (Amherst: Humanity Books, 2004).