Theory / Proponent Main Tenet/s
Psychopathology
Abraham Maslow:  The holistic-dynamic
Holistic Dynamic Theory theory, assumes that
people are continually
motivated by one or more
need, and that under the
proper circumstances, they
can reach a level of
psychological health called
self-actualization.
 To attain self-actualization,
people must satisfy their
lower level needs. Only
after this they can reach
higher levels of self-
actualization.
Key Terms Development of Application Critique/ View of
Humanity
Maslow’s View of Motivation Basic Anxiety  One of the most Critique
1. The whole person, not any single - develops when there’s notable aspects of Research generation:
part or function is motivated. a failure in attempting to Maslow’s theory of above average
2. Motivation is usually complex, satisfy safety needs. personality is the Falsifiability: low
meaning that a person’s behavior concept of a Organization: excellent
may spring from several separate Aesthetic Needs hierarchy of needs. Guidance of Action:
motives. - People with strong - this has been tested, high/highly useful
3. People are continually motivated by aesthetic needs desire utilized, and supported Internal consistency: high
one need or another. beautiful and orderly by researchers. Parsimony: moderately
4. All people everywhere are motivated surroundings, and when  To Maslow, the aim parsimonious
by the same basic needs. these needs are not met, of therapy would be
5. Needs can be arranged on a they become sick in the for clients to View of Humanity
hierarchy (conative needs). same way that they embrace the Being- Determinism vs Free
become sick when their values, that is, to Choice
Hierarchy of Needs conative needs are value truth, justice,  behavior of people
 Hierarchy of needs - concept frustrated. goodness, motivated by
assumes that lower level needs must simplicity, and so physiological and
be satisfied or at least relatively Cognitive Needs forth. safety needs is
satisfied before higher level needs - When cognitive needs  To accomplish this determined by
become motivators. are blocked, all needs on aim, clients must be outside forces; self-
 5 conative needs composing the Maslow’s hierarchy are free from their actualizing people is
hierarchy: threatened; that is, dependency on at least partially
1. Physiological needs - the most basic knowledge is necessary others so that their shaped by free
needs including food, water,oxygen, to satisfy each of the five natural impulse choice.
etc. conative needs. toward growth and Pessimism vs Optimism
- can be completely satisfied and self-actualization  Maslow was
overly satisfied. Neurotic Needs could become generally optimistic
2. Safety Needs - including physical - lead only to stagnation active. and hopeful about
security, stability, dependency, and pathology. By  The goals of humans, but he
protection, and freedom from definition, neurotic psychology follow recognized that
threatening forces such as war, needs are from the client’s people are capable of
terrorism, illness, fear, anxiety, nonproductive. They position on the great evil and
danger, chaos, and natural disasters; perpetuate an unhealthy hierarchy of needs. destruction.
cannot be overly satiated. style of life and have no Because Causality vs Teleology
3. Love and Belongingness Needs - value in the striving for physiological and  Maslow’s view can be
such as the desire for friendship; the self-actualization. safety needs are considered
wish for a mate and children; the - a neurotic person may proponent, people teleological and
 need to belong to a family, a club, a
neighborhood, or a nation.
4. Esteem Needs - which include self-
respect, confidence, competence,
and the knowledge that others hold
them in high esteem.
- 2 esteem needs:
 Reputation - is the perception of
the prestige, recognition, or
fame a person has achieved in
the eyes of others.
 Self-esteem - is a person’s own
feelings of worth and
confidence; self-esteem is based
on more than reputation or
prestige; it reflects a “desire for
strength, for achievement, for
adequacy, for mastery and
competence, for confidence in
the face of the world, and for
independence and freedom.”
5. Self-Actualization Needs - achieved
when lower level needs are finally
satisfied. However, once esteem
needs are met, they do not always
move to the level of selfactualization.
 Maslow also identified 3 other
categories of needs:
1. Aesthetic needs - are not
universal, but at least some
people in every culture seem
to be motivated by the need
for beauty and aesthetically
pleasing experiences.
2. Cognitive Needs - the desire
to know,w, to solve
mysteries, to understand, and
to be curious.
3. Neurotic Needs - are usually
reactive; that is, they serve as
be able to establish a operating on these purposive.
close relationship with levels will not Conscious vs Unconscious
another person, but that ordinarily be Determinants
relationship may be a motivated to seek  Middle
neurotic, symbiotic one psychotherapy.  Maslow held that
that leads to a Instead, they will self-actualizing
pathological relationship strive to obtain people are ordinarily
rather than genuine love. nourishment and more aware than
protection. others of what they
Deprivation of Needs are doing and why.
- Deprivation of However, motivation
physiological needs is so complex that
results in malnutrition, people may be driven
fatigue, loss of energy, by several needs at
obsession with sex, and the same time, and
so on even healthy people
- Threats to one’s safety are not always fully
lead to fear, insecurity, aware of all the
and dread. reasons underlying
- When love needs go their behavior.
unfulfilled, a person Biological vs Social
becomes defensive, Influences
overly aggressive, or  Individuals are
socially timid. shaped by both
- Lack of esteem results biology and society,
in the illnesses of self- and the two cannot
doubt, self-depreciation, be separated
and lack of confidence. Uniqueness vs Similarity
 moderate emphasis
Methapathology on both uniqueness
- Deprivation of self- and similarities.
actualization needs
- the absence of values,
the lack of fulfillment,
and the loss of meaning
in life.
Noninstinctoid Needs
- produces pathology.
- are usually temporary
 compensation for unsatisfied
basic needs.
General Discussion of Needs
- Maslow (1970) estimated that the
hypothetical average person has his or
her needs satisfied to approximately
these levels: physiological, 85%; safety,
70%; love and belongingness, 50%;
esteem, 40%; and self-actualization, 10%.
Reversed Order of Needs
- Even though needs are generally
satisfied in the hierarchical order,
occasionally they are reversed.
Unmotivated Behavior
- though all behaviors have a cause, some
behaviors are not motivated.
- some behavior is not caused by needs
but by other factors.
- expressive behavior is unmotivated.
and their satisfaction is
not a prerequisite for
health.
Jonah complex
The fear of being one’s
best. The Jonah complex
is characterized by
attempts to run away
from one’s destiny just as
the biblical Jonah tried to
escape from his fate. The
Jonah complex, which is
found in nearly
everyone, represents a
fear of success, a fear of
being one’s best, and a
feeling of awesomeness
in the presence of beauty
and perfection.

Expressive and Coping Behavior

 Expressive behavior - is often an end
in itself and serves no other purpose
than to be; often unmotivated.
 Coping behavior - is ordinarily
conscious, effortful, learned, and
determined by the external
environment; which is always
motivated and aimed at satisfying a
need or one’s attempt to cope with
environment.

Instinctoid Nature of Needs

- human needs that are innately
determined even though they can be
modified by learning.
- noninstinctoid needs is the level of
pathology upon frustration.

Comparison of Higher and Lower Needs

1. higher level needs are later on the
phylogenetic or evolutionary scale;
lower level needs must be cared for
in infants and children before higher
level needs become operative.
2. higher level needs produce more
happiness and more peak
experiences; satisfaction of lower
level needs may produce a degree of
pleasure.
 Hedonistic pleasure, however, is
usually temporary and not
comparable to the quality of
happiness produced by the
satisfaction of higher needs.
3. satisfaction of higher level needs is
more subjectively desirable to those
people who have experienced both
higher and lower level needs.
4. a person who has reached the level
of self-actualization would have no
motivation to return to a lower stage
of development.

Self-Actualization
- highest level of human development.

Maslow’s Quest for the Self-Actualizing

Person
- Maslow began to take notes on these
two people; and he hoped to find others
whom he could call a “Good Human
Being.”
- Maslow was forced to conclude that
emotional security and good adjustment
were not dependable predictors of a
Good Human Being.
-

Criteria for Self-Actualization

1. They were free from psychopathology.
2. Self-actualizing people had progressed
through the hierarchy of needs and
therefore lived above the subsistence
level of existence and had no ever-present
threat to their safety.
3. The third criterion for self-actualization
was the embracing of the B-values.
4. The final criterion: “full use and
exploitation of talents, capacities,
potentialities, etc.”
- fulfilled their needs to grow, to develop,
and to increasingly become what they
were capable of becoming.

Values of Self-Actualizers
 B-values or Being values
- “eternal verities” that self-
actualizing people are motivated
by.
- are indicators of psychological
health and are opposed to
deficiency needs, which motivate
non-self-actualizers.
 Metamotivation - is characterized by
expressive rather than coping
behavior and is associated with the
B-values; it differentiates self-
actualizing people from those who
are not.

Characteristics of Self-Actualizing People

 Maslow listed 15 tentative qualities
that characterize self-actualizing
people to at least some degree:
1. More Efficient Perception of Reality -
self-actualizing people can more easily
detect phoniness in others.
2. Acceptance of Self, Others, and Nature
- self-actualizing people can accept
themselves the way they are.
- They realize that people suffer, grow
old, and die.

3. Spontaneity, Simplicity, and

Naturalness - self-actualizing people are
spontaneous, simple, and natural.
4. Problem-Centering - their interest in
problems outside themselves.
5. The Need for Privacy - self-actualizing
people have a quality of detachment that
allows them to be alone without being
lonely.
6. Autonomy - self-actualizing people are
autonomous and depend on themselves
for growth even though at some time in
their past they had to have received love
and security from others.
7. Continued Freshness of Appreciation -
Keenly aware of their good physical
health, friends and loved ones, economic
security, and political freedom.
8. The Peak Experience - had experiences
that were mystical in nature and that
somehow gave them a feeling of
transcendence.
9. Gemeinschaftsgefühl: - social interest,
community feeling, or a sense of oneness
with all humanity; self-actualizers had a
kind of caring attitude towards other
people.
10. Profound Interpersonal Relations -
self-actualizing have a nurturant feeling
toward people in general, but their close
friendship is limited to only a few.
11. The Democratic Character Structure -
self-actualizers possessed democratic
values.
12. Discrimination Between Means and
Ends - a clear sense of right and wrong
conducts and has little conflict about basic
values.
13. Philosophical Sense of Humor - self-
actualizing people has non-hostile sense
of humor.
14. Creativeness - they have keen
perception of truth, beauty, and reality.
15. Resistance to Enculturation - self-
actualizing people have a sense of
detachment from their surroundings and
are able to transcend to any culture.

Love, Sex, and Self-Actualization

- self-actualizing people are capable of
both giving and receiving love and are no
longer motivated by the kind of deficiency
love (D-love) common to other people.
- Self-actualizing people are capable of B-
love, that is, love for the essence or
“Being” of the other

Maslow’s Psychology and Philosophy of

Science
- Maslow believed that value-free science
does not lead to the proper study of
human personality.
 Desacralization - the type of science
that lacks emotion, joy, wonder, awe,
rapture .
 Resacralize - instill it with human
values, emotion, and ritual.
 Taoisticattitude for psychology -
one that would be noninterfering,
passive, and receptive

Measuring self-actualization
 Personal Orientation Inventory (POI)

Carl Rogers:  If certain conditions exist,
Person-Centered Theory then a process will occur--
certain outcomes are then
expected.
 Without awareness, self-
concept and ideal self
would not exist.
 All persons have within
themselves the capacity,
either active or latent, self-
understanding as well as
the capacity and tendency
to move in the direction
and self-action and
maturity.
 The cornerstone of mental
health was the congruency
between how we really
view ourselves and how we
ideally would like to be.
 Although people share the
actualizing tendency with
plants and other animals,
only humans have a
concept of self and thus a
potential for self-
actualization.
 Not everyone becomes a
psychologically healthy
person. Rather, most
people experience
conditions of worth,
incongruence,
defensiveness, and
- measures values and behaviors of
self-actualizing people, such as time
competence and support.
The Jonah Complex
- is the fear of being or doing one's best
Person-Centered Theory  Not everyone  Rogers’ notion of Critique
becomes a incongruence Research generation:
Basic Assumptions psychologically between real and moderate
 Rogers postulated 2 basic healthy person. ideal self and Falsifiability: high
assumptions Rather, most people motivation to Organization: high
1. Formative tendency - There is a experience pursue goals have Guidance of Action:
tendency for all matter, both organic and conditions of worth, sparked continued unequivocal
inorganic, to evolve from simpler to more incongruence, interest from Internal consistency: very
complex forms. defensiveness, and researchers. high
- human consciousness evolves from a disorganization.  The significance of Parsimony:
primitive unconsciousness to a highly  Rogers always the Rogerian - theory is clear and
organized awareness. remained hypothesis is economical but some
2. Actualizing tendency - an interrelated uncomfortable with revolutionary. languages are awkward
and more pertinent assumption is the terms “neurotic”  With nearly any and vague, concepts are
actualizing tendency or the tendency and “psychotic,” psychotherapy, the too broad and imrprecise
within all humans (and other animals or preferring instead to first and third
plants) to move towards completion or speak of “defensive” conditions are View of Humanity
fulfillment or potentials. and “disorganized” present; that is, the Determinism vs Free
 Enhancement - the need to become behaviors, terms client, or patient, is Choice
more, to develop and to achieve that more accurately motivated by some  Rogers, however,
growth. convey the idea that sort of tension to contended that
psychological seek help, and the people have some
The Self and Self-Actualizaiton maladjustment is on relationship degree of free choice
 Self-Actualization - is a subset of the a continuum from between the client and some capacity to
actualization tendency and is the slightest and the therapist be self-directed.
therefore not synonymous with it. discrepancy will last for some Pessimism vs Optimism
- tendency to actualize the self as between self and period of time.  his concept of
perceived in awareness. experience to the  Rogers’ 7 stages of humanity is
 2 self subsystems: most incongruent. therapeutic change realistically optimistic
1. Self-concept - it includes all the presented the despite the fact that
aspects of one’s being and one’s Incongruence process and he remained
experiences that are perceived in - between our self- outcome of client- cognizant of the
awareness (though not always concept and our centereed-therapy human capacity for
accurately) by the individual. organismic experience is great evil.
disorganization.  Organismic self - not identical the source of Causality vs Teleology
with self-concept; portions may psychological disorders. Client-Centered Theory  Rogers’ theory is also
be beyond person’s awareness - when our own - is deceptively simple in high on teleology,
or simply not owned by person. experiences are statement but decidedly maintaining that
2. Ideal self - the second subsystem of distrusted, we distort our difficult in practice. people strive with
the self is the ideal self. It defines as awareness of them, thus Briefly, the client- purpose toward goals
one view of self as one wishes to be. solidifying the centered approach holds that they freely set
 Incongruence - wide gap between discrepancy between our that in order for for themselves.
the ideal self and the self-concept. organismic evaluation vulnerable or anxious Conscious vs Unconscious
 Awareness - the symbolic and the values we have people to grow Determinants
representation of some portion of introjected from others. psychologically, they  Rogers did not deny
our experience. - in the form of must come into contact the importance of
vulnerability and/or with a therapist who is unconscious
Levels of awareness anxiety and threat. congruent and whom processes, his
 3 levels of awareness: they perceive as primary emphasis
1. First - some events are experiences providing an atmosphere was on the ability of
below the threshold of awareness of unconditional people to consciously
and are ignored or denied. acceptance and accurate choose their own
2. Second - Rogers hypothesized that empathy. course of action.
some experiences are accurately - client-centered therapy Biological vs Social
symbolized and freely admitted to is unique in its insistence Influences
self-structure. Such experiences are that the conditions of  Rogers favored social
both nonthreatening and consistent counselor congruence, influences; In order
with the existing self-concept. unconditional positive to move toward
3. Third - involves experiences that are regard, and empathic actualization, one
perceived in distorted form. listening are both must experience
necessary and sufficient. empathic
Denial Positive Experiences understanding and
- many people have difficulty accepting Self-Discrepancy theory unconditional
genuine compliments and positive - the cornerstone of positive regard from
feedback even when deserved. mental health was the another person who
- they may be distorted because the congruency between is genuine or
person distrusts the giver, or they may be how we really view congruent.
denied because the recipient does not ourselves and how we Uniqueness vs Similarity
feel deserving of them; in all cases, a ideally would like to be.  Rogers placed more
compliment from another also implies the If these two self- emphasis on
right of that person to criticize or evaluation are individual differences
condemn, and thus the compliment congruent, then one is and uniqueness.
carries an implied threat. relatively adjusted and
healthy. If not, then one
Becoming a Person experiences various
- an individual must make contact— forms of mental
positive or negative—with another person discomfort, such as
is said to be the first necessary process in anxiety, depression, and
becoming a person. low self-esteem.
 Positive Regard - a need to be loved,
liked, or accepted by another person. Organismic valuing
 Positive Self-Regard - experience of process (OVP)
prizing or valuing one’s self - that is, a natural
instinct directing us
Barriers to Psychological Health toward the most
 Conditions of Worth - they perceive fulfilling pursuits.
that their parents, peers, or partners
love and accept them only if they
meet those people’s expectations
and approval.
 External evaluations - our
perception of other people’s view
of us. These evaluations, whether
positive or negative, do not foster
psychological health but rather
prevent us from being completely
to our own experiences.
 Incongruence - incongruence
between our self-concept and our
organismic experiences;
 Vulnerability - people are
vulnerable when they are
unaware of the discrepancy
between their organismic self
and their significant experience.
 Anxiety - state of uneasiness or
tension whose cause is
unknown.
 Threat - an awareness that our
self is no longer congruent or
whole.
 Defensiveness - the protection of the
self-concept against anxiety and
threat by denial or distorting of
 experiences inconsistent with it.
- 2 chief defenses:
 Distortion - interpret an
experience in order to fit into
some aspect of self-concept.
 Denial - we refuse to perceive an
experience in awareness or at least
we keep some aspect of it from
reaching symbolization.
 Disorganization - when the
incongruence between people’s
perceived self and their organismic
experience is either too obvious or
occurs too suddenly to be denied or
distorted, their behavior becomes
disorganized.

Psychotherapy
- the client-centered approach holds that
in order for vulnerable or anxious people
to grow psychologically, they must come
into contact with a therapist who is
congruent and whom they perceive as
providing an atmosphere of unconditional
acceptance and accurate empathy.
Conditions:
 Congruence - exists when a person’s
organismic experiences matched by
an awareness of them and by ability
and willingness to openly express
these feelings. To be congruent,
means to be real or genuine, to be
whole or integrated, to be what one
truly is.
 congruent therapists are not static.
 congruence involves (1) feelings,
(2) awareness, and (3) expression.
 Unconditional Positive Regard -
means that therapists accept and
prize their clients without any
 restrictions or reservations and
without regard to the clients’
behavior.
 Positive regard - is the need to be
liked, prized, or accepted by
another person. When this need
exists without any conditions or
qualifications, unconditional
positive regard occurs.
 Empathic listening - the third
necessary and sufficient condition of
psychological growth.
 Empathy - exists when therapists
accurately sense the feelings of
their clients that are able to
communicate those perceptions so
that the clients know that the
other person has entered their
world of feelings without
prejudice, projections or
evaluations.
 Empathy = with the client;
Sympathy = for the client

Process
- If the condition of the therapist’s
congruence, unconditional positive regard
and empathy are present, then the
process of therapeutic change will be set
in motion.

Stages of Therapeutic Change:

Stage 1
- Is characterized by an unwillingness to
communicate anything about oneself.`

Stage 2
- Clients become slightly less rigid. They
discuss external events and other people,
but they still disown or fail to recognize
their own feelings. However, they may
talk about personal feelings as if such
feelings were objective phenomena.`

Stage 3
- They more freely talk about self,
although still as an object. They refuse to
accept their emotions, keep personal
feelings at a distance from the here-and-
now situation, only vaguely perceive that
they can make personal choices, and deny
individual responsibility for most of their
decisions.

Stage 4
- Begin to talk of deep feelings but not
ones presently felt. They deny or distort
experiences, although they may have
some dim recognition that they are
capable of feeling emotions in the
present. They begin to question some
values that have been introjected from
others, and they start to see the
incongruence between their perceived
self and their organismic experience.

Stage 5
- They have begun to undergo significant
change and growth. They can express
feelings in the present, although they
have not yet accurately symbolized those
feelings. They are beginning to rely on an
internal locus of evaluation for their
feelings and to make fresh and new
discoveries about themselves.

Stage 6
- Experience dramatic growth and an
irreversible movement toward becoming
fully functioning or self-actualizing. They

Rollo Reese May:  Existence takes
Existential Psychology precedence over essence.
 Existentialism opposes the
split between subject and
object.
 People search for some
meaning to their lives.
 Existentialist holds that
ultimately each of us is
responsible for who we are
and what we become.
 Existentialists are basically
anti-theoretical.
freely allow into awareness those
experiences that they had previously
denied or distorted. They become more
congruent and are able to math their
present experiences with awareness and
with open expression. It signals an end to
the therapy.
Stage 7
- Can occur outside the therapeutic
encounter, because growth at Stage 6
seems to be irreversible. Clients who
reach Stage 7 become fully functioning
“persons of tomorrow”. They are able to
generalize their in-therapy experiences to
their world beyond therapy.
Whatis Existentialism?  Many people suffer  Rollo May’s Critique
 Existentialism from anxiety and existential theory Research generation: very
- philosophical theory which emphasizes despair brought on has been low
the existence of the individual person as by their alienation moderately Falsifiability: very low
free agents who have control over their from themselves or influential as a Organization: average
choices and actions. from their world. method of Guidance of Action: quite
- concerned with the struggle to work They either have no psychotherapy, but weak/low
through life’s experiences and to grow clear image of it has sparked Internal consistency: falls
toward becoming more fully human. themselves or they almost no direct short
- common elements found in existential feel isolated from a empirical research. Parsimony: moderate
thinkers: world that seems  May made an
1. Existence takes precedence over distant and foreign. extensive writing View of Humanity
essence. They have no sense about Determinism vs Free
 Existence - means to emerge or to of Dasein, no unity psychotherapy Choice
become;. existence suggests of self and world. stating the rejection - rated high on
process; existence is associated  Alienation, Apathy, of the idea that the dimension of free
with growth and change; and Emptiness are psychotherapy choice; believed that
 Essence - implies a static immutable the principal should reduce people, within the
substance; essence refers to a ingredients of anxiety and ease confines of their destiny,
product; essence signifies psychopathology. feelings of guilt. have the ability to make
stagnation and finality.  May saw Instead, he free choices. However,
2. Existentialism opposes the split psychopathology as suggested that free choice does not come
between subject and object. lack of psychotherapy with anxiety.
3. People search for some meaning to communication— should make people Pessimism vs Optimism
their lives. the inability to know more human.  May was not
4. Existentialists hold that ultimately each others and to share  May believed that pessimistic
of us is responsible for who we are and oneself with them. the purpose of Causality vs Teleology
what we become.  Psychologically psychotherapy is to  Clearly favored
5. Existentialists are basically disturbed individuals set people free. teleology over
antitheoretical. deny their destiny  The techniques of causality
and thus lose their existential Conscious vs Unconscious
Basic Concepts freedom. psychology does not Determinants
 2 basic concepts of existentialism: apply to patients  May assumed a
1. Being-in-the-World - expressed in Alienation but more on the moderate stance on
the German word “Dasein” meaning - is the illness of our therapists with the issue of conscious
to exist in the world. time, and it manifests themselves and versus unconscious
 the hyphens in this term imply a itself in three areas: their humanity to forces in personality
oneness of a subject and object, of 1. separation from offer. development.
person and world. nature, Biological vs Social
 3 modes of Being-in-the-world 2. lack of meaningful Influences
1) Umwelt - one’s relationship with the interpersonal relations  an intermediate
world of things. 3. alienation from one’s position on social
- is the world of object and things authentic self versus biological
and would exist even people had influences.
no awareness. Apathy Uniqueness vs Similarity
- It is the world of nature and - the feeling of  May’s view of
natural law and includes helplessness to prevent a humanity definitely
biological drives , such as hunger natural disaster, ot leans toward
and sleep and such as birth and reverse industrialization, uniqueness. Each of
death. or to make contact with us is responsible for
2) Mitwelt - one’s relationship with the another human being. shaping our own
world of people. They feel insignificant in personality within the
- we must relate to people as a world that increasingly limits imposed by
people, not things. dehumanizes the destiny.
3) Eigenwelt - our relationship with our individual. This sense of
self insignificance leads to
- it means that to be aware of apathy and to a state of
one-self as a human being and to diminished
understand who we are as we consciousness.
relate to the world of things and
to the world of people. Neurotic Anxiety
- when anxiety becomes
 Healthy people live in Umwelt, neurotic
Mitwelt and Eigenwelt - reaction, which
simultaneously. disproportionate to the
threat, involves
Nonbeing or nothingness repression, and other
- dread of not being forms of intrapsychic
- death is not the only avenue of conflict, and is managed
nonbeing, but it is the most obvious one. by various kinds of
- it is an awareness of the possibility of blocking-off of activity
ones not being through death or loss of and awareness.
awareness. 

Existential Psychology
- is concerned with the individual’s
struggle to work through life’s
experiences and to grow toward
becoming more fully human.

Anxiety
- it is the subjective state of the
individuals becoming aware that his or
her existence can be destroyed, that he
can become nothing.
- it exist when one confronts the issue of
fulfilling one’s potentialities.
- Freedom cannot exist without anxiety,
nor can anxiety exist without freedom.
 Forms of anxiety:
1. Normal Anxiety - experienced by
everyone and which is proportionate
to the threat, does not involve
repression and can be confronted
constructively on the conscious level.
2. Neurotic Anxiety - reaction, which
disproportionate to the threat,
involves repression, and other forms
of intrapsychic conflict, and is
managed by various kinds of
blocking-off of activity and
awareness.
Guilt
- arises when people deny their
potentialities, fail to perceive the needs of
fellow humans and remain oblivious to
their dependence on the nature.
 3 forms of Ontological Guilt
- each corresponds to one of the three
modes of being-in-the-world.
1. Ontological guilt need not stem from
one’s own action or failures to act
(Umwelt). This type of guilt is a result
of our separation from nature also
referred to it as separation guilt.
2. Form of guilt stems from our inability
to perceive accurately the world of
others (Mitwelt).
3. Form of ontological guilt associated
with our denial of our own
potentialities or with our failure to
fulfill them. This guilt is grounded in
our relationships with self (Eigenwelt).

Intentionality
- the structure that gives meaning to
experience and allows people to make
decisions about the future
- action implies intentionality, just as
intentionality implies action; the two are
inseparable.
- is sometimes unconscious.

Care, love and will

 Care - is a state in which something
does matter.
 the source of love and will
 Love - delight in the presence of
other person and affirming that
person’s value as much as one’s own.
 Will - the capacity to organize the
 one’s self so that movement in a
certain direction may take place.
 requires self-consciousness

Union of love and will

- modern society suffers from an
unhealthy division of love and will.
- love has become associated with sensual
love or sex whereas will is seen as dogged
determination or will power.
- for the mature person, both love and will
mean a reaching out toward another
person, both involve care, both
necessitates choice, both imply action and
both require responsibility.
 Forms of Love
1. Sex - a biological function that can
be satisfied through sexual
intercourse or some other release
of sexual tension.
- it is the source at once the
human being’s most intense
pleasure and his most pervasive
anxiety.
- desire to experience pleasure.
2. Eros - a psychological desire that
seeks procreation or creation
through an enduring union with a
loved one.
- wish to establish a lasting union.
- built on care and tenderness.
3. Philia - an intimate nonsexual
friendship between two people.
- it cannot be rushed; it takes time
to grow and develop.
- the form of love that seeks
nothing from the other person.
4. Agape - altruistic love and seeks
nothing from the other person.
- it is a kind of spiritual love that
 carries with it the risk of playing
God
- undeserved and unconditional.

Freedom and destiny

- a blend of the four forms of love
requires both self-assertion and
affirmation of the other person.
- it also requires an assertion of one’s
freedom and confrontation with one’s
destiny.
 Freedom - comes from an
understanding of our destiny: an
understanding that death is a
possibility at any moment
 entails being able to harbor different
possibilities in one’s mind even
though it is not clear at the moment
which way one must act
 Forms of freedom:
1. Existential Freedom - it is the
freedom of action- the freedom of
doing.
 freedom to pursue tangible goals.
2. Essential freedom
 it is the freedom of being.
 freedom to think, to plan and to
hope
 Destiny - it is our destination, our
terminus and our goal.
 as we challenge our destiny, we gain
freedom, and as we achieve freedom,
we push at the boundaries of destiny

Power of myths
 Myths - conscious and unconscious
belief system that provide
explanations for personal and social
problems.
 May believed that people
 communicate with one another on
two levels.
1) The first is rationalistic language -
on this level, truth takes
precedence over the people
who are communicating.
2) The second is through myths - on
this level, the total human
experience is more important
than the empirical accuracy of
the communication.
 Oedipus Story - a powerful myth in
our culture because it contains
elements of existential crises
common to everyone:
1) Birth
2) Separation or exile from parents
and home
3) Repression of guilt
4) Search for identity
5) Death