SEVEN PAPERS ON EXISTENTIAL ANALYSIS ... - Wagner College

As Erich Fromm pointed out many years ago, human freedom does not amount to an
exoneration from constraints or a liberation from bondage, but is rather access to one’s
ownmost [eigenste] possibilities. [22] This is the very sort of freedom sought in existential analysis—
freedom for . . . in contrast to freedom from . . ..
As the goal of existential analysis, authenticity is the way to be that a human be-ing is as
things are, or, to use Heidegger’s term, “factically.” Being free is what we do, first and foremost;
it is what we first and foremost are (in a transitive use of the verb ‘to be’). Freedom is our
ontological heritage and authenticity is its existential meaning. As already pointed out, that from
early childhood on we are forced to slip further and further into inauthenticity is no fault of our
own; in fact, it is an inevitability of what we do, day in and day out, in becoming human. In
other words, the decline into inauthenticity is part of the bargain of being human. But
authenticity is implied in its absence (in-authenticity) and we yearn for it. We experience this
longing as anxiety or distress [Angst], which are not signs of trouble, illness or disease, but rather a
door that, when allowed to open, lets in the light of authenticity.
There are many ways back to authenticity. Psychotherapy is not the only one, nor may it
be the best or most effective way. But given the absence of spirituality in modern life, most of
our fellow human beings have few other ways back to existential authenticity left open to them.
It is fair to say that many individuals raised in the late 20 th century do not even know about their
original authenticity until, in a moment of existential crisis, it dawns on them. Moreover, they do
no even know about the absence of that lost freedom. As post-World War II existentialists such
as Jean-Paul Sartre said, if and when they get wind of it, most flee from their freedom.
As a group, adolescents seem keenly aware that something of this kind is missing. This
may be why the need for a therapeutic partnership is often so compelling at the end of
adolescence and why that time in life is so notable for its existential turning points. Other
moments that bring awareness of freedom lost include epiphanies such as a brush with death,
the passing of a parent, or religious conversion.
What distinguishes the people who enter into therapeutic partnerships is their having
sensed n some way the loss of their freedom. The point I want to make is that their complaints
and suffering are welcome signs, and we must read them as such. What lies open to them but
remains closed off to most is the discovery that they are not free. Inauthenticity is the felt sense
of this loss. As Medard Boss’s well-known reply to a patient’s query “Why?” indicates, an
existential analyst must affirm this loss. In response to being told about a puzzling impulse, Boss
confirmed the other’s recognition of the possibility of her existential freedom and how it might be
turned to therapeutic advantage with his response: “Why not?”
Like authenticity, human freedom is necessarily abrogated in the process of socialization.
What, if anything, can ever compensate for that loss? The obvious trade-off for freedom
sacrificed on the altar of socialization is power, first in the form of independence (control over
one’s own body and impulses) and then in the establishment of a balance of power (relative
dominance) in each relationship with another human being. Power, however, is ultimately a
poor substitute for the freedom handed over to each of us with our existence.
As R. D. Laing suggested, the “mad” among us may be the most sensitive to the loss of
existential freedom. The most adamantly “insane” stridently refuse to play at the game of
balancing power in relationships. They may take the extreme position of omnipotence and
(including magical thinking about their powers), refuse to participate in certain areas of social
life, or entirely abandon independence and give in to catatonic passivity. Their suffering is surely
great, but it may be the refresher course the rest of us need to be reminded of what we have
given up to a greater or lesser extent in growing up.
The less “disturbed” and those labeled “delinquent” or “antisocial” have also not
compromised by taking their assigned place in the social network. They protest against their loss
of freedom with “neurotic” complaints or acting out. Those who have been traumatized have
also had their freedom wrenched from them and comprise an important group of individuals
who can perhaps benefit most by the therapeutic partnership available in existential analysis.