Schools and Movements
Existential Psychology
Also Known As Existential Therapy
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Existential psychology (existential therapy) centers on a person's lived experience of their own subjective reality, emphasizing authentic living and personal freedom in confronting existential givens such as death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. Rollo May introduced the approach to American psychology in the 1950s, building on the philosophical foundations of Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche and on the earlier European work of Ludwig Binswanger, Medard Boss and Viktor Frankl.
Facts
Central QuestionHow can a person create an authentic, meaningful life while confronting the existential givens of death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness? 1 Founded YearMarked here by Rollo May's The Meaning of Anxiety (1950), the work that introduced existential thought to American psychology; the wider movement drew on earlier European work by Ludwig Binswanger and Medard Boss from the 1930s and 1940s and has no single canonical founding date the way behaviorism or psychoanalysis do. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Existential and humanistic psychology are closely allied, both part of what is often called the third force in psychology alongside behaviorism and psychoanalysis, and their leading figures overlapped and collaborated.
Founded By
The Meaning of Anxiety (1950) is the work credited with introducing existential thought to American psychology; the wider existential movement drew on earlier European work by Ludwig Binswanger and Medard Boss.
In Branch
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction and historyQuote, Introduction and history
Existential therapy is a form of psychotherapy focused on the client's lived experience of their subjective reality.
1. Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationIntroductionQuote, Introduction
The aim is for clients to use their freedom to live authentic fulfilled lives.
1. Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationHistory sectionQuote, History section
Throughout the 20th century, psychotherapists began incorporating both the themes of existentialism as well as the phenomenological methods of describing experience into their therapeutic practice.
1. Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationBackground sectionQuote, Background section
He thought that both were ways of avoiding the anxiety inherent in human existence.
1. Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationIn Category: Schools and Movements
1. Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationIn Branch: Clinical Psychology, Opening definitionQuote, In Branch: Clinical Psychology, Opening definition
Existential therapy is a form of psychotherapy focused on the client's lived experience of their subjective reality.
1. Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Humanistic Psychology
1. Wikipedia: Existential Therapy
Wikimedia FoundationOpen Questions: Do existential therapy approaches produce measurable clinical benefit, or does the evidence differ sharply by which existential tradition is being tested?, Research support sectionQuote, Open Questions: Do existential therapy approaches produce measurable clinical benefit, or does the evidence differ sharply by which existential tradition is being tested?, Research support section
Existential therapies have shown varying efficacy in adults, with meaning-centered therapies improving life meaning and moderately reducing psychopathology, while other approaches such as experiential-existential and cognitive-existential therapies showing no significant effects.
LibreTexts: Rollo May and Existential Psychology
LibreTextsFounded By: Rollo May, Rollo May and Existential Psychology sectionQuote, Founded By: Rollo May, Rollo May and Existential Psychology section
Rollo May (1909-1994) introduced existentialism to American psychologists, and has remained the best known proponent of this approach in America.
Wikipedia: Viktor Frankl
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Viktor Frankl, Career sectionQuote, Associated With: Viktor Frankl, Career section
founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life meaning as the central human motivational force.
Open Questions (1 open question)
Do existential therapy approaches produce measurable clinical benefit, or does the evidence differ sharply by which existential tradition is being tested?
Outcome studies find meaning-centered existential therapies improve life meaning and moderately reduce psychopathology, while experiential-existential and cognitive-existential approaches show no significant effects in the same research base, leaving open which existential tradition, if any, is reliably effective in the clinic.
What would resolve this Head-to-head randomized outcome trials comparing the distinct existential therapy traditions, logotherapy, daseinsanalysis, experiential-existential and cognitive-existential, against each other and against established treatments.
Clinical psychology and psychotherapy outcome researchWikipedia: Existential Therapy
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