BECOMING: AN EXISTENTIAL-DEVELOPMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN DILEMMAS AND EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOTHERAPY Evgenia Georganda, PsyD., ECP. Hellenic Association for Existential Psychology (original) (raw)

Challenges and New Developments in Existential-Humanistic and Existential-Integrative Therapy (Extended Version of Chapter)

The Wiley World Handbook of Existential Therapy, 2019

This essay considers psychotherapy as creative endeavor amid multiple points along the therapeutic dialectic. It recalls both a Nietzschean adage (“self-creation, the most difficult art”) and the injunction he adapted ever-soslightly from the Greek poet Pindar: “How one becomes what one is.” The presuppositions and potentials underwriting this piece tap into bedrock existential themes of ephemerality and ultimate insignificance on one hand while holding out for possibility, some semblance of significance within the void, on the other. These ongoing tensions elicit the apprehension and novelty that inhere in genuine exchange and the fashioning of character out of fragment, chance, and hard work. “Life,” Nietzsche observed, “is only justified as an aesthetic experience.” It is this feeling for the intrinsic, albeit difficult, place of novelty (a beckoning of, and striving for, a Jamesean “more” or “ever not quite”) that serves as both touchstone and beacon in this reverie on psychotherapy and art.

BECOMING: AN EXISTENTIAL/ DEVELOPMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE & GROWTH

EXISTENTIA: Journal of the East European Association for Existential Therapy, 2020

The art work of our life is constantly in progress. We are in the process of becoming who we are through our choices. With every choice we take (either for action or inaction) we are moving to a new position in our life. However, many of our choices are based on past experiences. Attachment and affect regulation theories are giving evidence of the influence of our primary relationships for our way of being, relating and experiencing the world. We have been thrown into a body that carries a specific biological DNA which predisposes us to be in the world in a unique way. Similarly, we are thrown into a specific set of circumstances (era, country, family) which creates a unique 'psychological or psychical DNA' that predisposes us to be, to act and react to relationships, life events and ontological givens in a personal ontic manner. This paper attempts to demonstrate the influence of developmental milestones for the ways in which we evolve and relate to others and to life. It has grown out of my effort to 'know myself' and the world, by synthesizing different developmental theories and understandings of human nature. Introduction:

Human development and existential counselling psychology

This paper argues for the coherence of an existential approach to human development with the principles of counselling psychology. It first reviews the points of contact between existentialism and counselling psychology and then briefly reviews current approaches to human development and compares them epistemologically. Following this, the principles of an existential theory are reviewed. Then some examples from the phenomenological and existential literature are reviewed and conclusions drawn about the implications for theories of human development. Finally, some guidelines for existential counselling psychology practice are given. Keywords: Process; paradox and dilemma; opening; meaning and purpose; freedom and responsibility.

“And Yet It Was a Blessing”: The Case for Existential Maturity

Journal of Palliative Medicine

We are interested in the kind of well-being that can occur as a person approaches death; we call it ''existential maturity.'' We describe a conceptual model of this state that we felt was realized in an individual case, illustrating the state by describing the case. Our goal is to articulate a generalizable, working model of existential maturity in concepts and terms taken from fundamentals of psychodynamic theory. We hope that a recognizable case and a model-based way of thinking about what was going on can both help guide care that fosters existential maturity and stimulate more theoretical modeling of the state.

A Review of Existential Therapy

This paper looks at the beginnings of existential therapy and some of the founders of it. Some of their early ideas will be seen. Also looked at are a couple of more modern existentialists, one still with us today. It will be seen that existential therapy is not a set of techniques used in every situation, but more a way of thinking, an attitude of thought. A major reason people seek therapy is because they have lost their way in their lives, forgotten the track they need to be on to experience joy and energy once more. How does one get back on that track? Can we as therapists help them find that joy once more?

Personal Existential Analysis - the Method. - EP 2003

Existential analysis (V. Frankl) as clarification of possibilities for an existence that is appropriate to human dignity, gives a general anthropological frame for psychotherapeutical forms of intervention. In theory and practice the further development of the existentialanalytical concept of person pointed to three basic faculties of personhood: they form the framework for a methodically structured procedure of existential analysis termed "personal existential analysis". This begins with personal conditions for existence, where personhood is unable to break through to a meaningful existence by obstruction of just those basic faculties. In addition to that, personal existential analysis offers a theoretical structure for the application of different psychotherapeutical forms of intervention and techniques.

Existential Theories 1 RUNNING HEAD: EXISTENTIAL THEORIES Existential and Humanistic Theories

This chapter presents the historical roots of existential and humanistic theories and then describes four specific theories: European existential-phenomenological psychology, Logotherapy and existential analysis, American existential psychology and American humanistic psychology. After examining these theories, the chapter presents a reformulated existential-humanistic theory, which focuses on goal-striving for meaning and fulfillment.

Towards an Existential Phenomenological Model of Life Span Human Development

This paper looks at a number of existing theories of human development from an existential- phenomenological perspective. Most existing theories are stage theories which attempt to find common factors in human development in terms of invariant stages, phases or periods. Human development therefore is in terms of movement from one stage to the next. It is suggested that this passive view of human life is incompatible with an existential-phenomenological perspective because it does not take into account the givens of existence i.e. the primacy of time, death, freedom and responsibility to make meaning, and the lived body. An alternative existential model is proposed whereby the person moves towards a greater understanding and ownership of their existence in a world of others through encounters with largely chance events which they make, to a greater or lesser extent, a part of their own autobiography. Key Words stage theory, opening, moment, episode, narrative, responsibility, opportunity.