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Existential Psychology
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Sander L. Koole
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
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Sander L. Koole
VU University Amsterdam
November 4, 2008
come to terms with the basic givens of human existence. The existential perspective
has important roots in philosophy, which has long tried to made sense of people’s
being in the world. The philosophical tradition most associated with existential
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. These and other existential philosophers have
written about the anxiety that is inherent in human existence, people’s need for
meaning in a meaningless world, and the importance for people to make their own
choices according to their own authentic desires. Existential psychology has also been
found in the work of novelists such as Dostoevsky and Kafka, and existentialist
the early 20th century has become increasingly experimental and oriented towards the
domain, however, where their ideas and methods were incorporated in an emerging
the here-and-now, along with relational themes. Rank’s will therapy sought to use the
person’s creative will as a vehicle for transformation and psychological growth. Rank
is credited with having an important influence on Rollo May, a leading figure in the
existential psychotherapy was Victor Frankl, who developed his logo-therapy, which
Yalom in 1980. This important work describes the historical background of existential
psychotherapy, and the main ideas and methods that are used by existential
their associated anxiety and alienation not as dysfunctional, but rather as an inevitable
existential fears, existential psychotherapy seeks to make clients free to appreciate the
for a new and increased awareness of what matters in the present. This awareness is
intended to enable clients to achieve a new freedom and responsibility to act. Various
of the British Society of Phenomenology and the Society for Existential Analysis. In
2006, Emmy van Deurzen and Digby Tantam founded the International Community
Since the mid 1980s, there has been a renewed interest in studying existential
development was given by terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Solomon, &
perspective, most notably the work of sociologist Ernest Becker. TMT has
emphasized the important role of existential anxiety in social behavior. The theory
assumes that people’s realization of the inevitability of their own death gives rise to a
tremendous potential for death anxiety. To manage this death anxiety, people rely on
Prominent among these constructions are people’s sense of self-esteem, which gives
people a sense of enduring value, and cultural worldviews, which assure people that
One of the most important scientific innovations of TMT has been to render
classic existential thought into a form that can be tested through empirical, and even
experimental methods. More specifically, one of the key tenets of TMT has been
psychologists refer to as “priming”. The effects of death reminders are then observed
and stable worldviews are increased by the psychological confrontation with death.
Accordingly, reminders of death should lead to increased strivings for self-esteem and
increased efforts to uphold one’s cultural worldviews. Both predictions have been
extended to other existential themes. Indeed, these developments have given birth to a
Koole, & Solomon, in press). XXP studies how people are coping with existential
rejected the use of experimental methods, it is important to recognize that the split
between existential and experimental psychology occurred during the 1920s, a time
when experimental psychology was theoretically and methodologically more narrow
and less sophisticated than it is today. Indeed, modern experimental methods and
modern methods in XXP includes priming, response time measures, and even neuro-
distinguished five major existential concerns that are central to current research in
XXP. A first major existential concern is death, and refers to the psychological
conflict between people’s awareness of the inevitability of death versus their desire
for continued existence. A second major existential concern is isolation, and arises
from the conflict between people’s need to feel connected to others versus
experiences of rejection and the realization that their subjective experience of reality
can never be fully shared. A third major existential concern in XXP relates to people’s
sense of identity, and arises from the conflict between people’s desire for a clear sense
of they are and how they fit into the world versus uncertainties because of conflicts
between self-aspects, unclear boundaries between self and non-self, or limited self-
insight. A fourth major existential concern is freedom, and originates from people’s
experience of free will versus the external forces on behavior and the burden of
responsibility for their choices. Finally, a fifth major concern in XXP is meaning and
stems from the conflict between people’s desire to believe that life is meaningful and
the events and experiences that appear random or inconsistent with one’s bases of
meaning.
A host of experimental studies have confirmed that the “big five” existential
(Koole et al., 2006). Notably, XXP research indicates that existential concerns are
often most influential in human behavior when these concerns are activated outside of
cognitive computations, XXP research suggests that the unconscious may also harbor
motivational conflicts that have existential implications for people (Westen, 1998). In
a way, these findings confirm what many classic existential thinkers have long
suspected: That existential concerns are a major force in human behavior, and that
ignoring these concerns only serves to deepen the psychological conflicts that are
Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences
(Ed.), Public self and private self (pp.189-212). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Pyszczynski, T. (1997). Terror management theory of
Koole, S. L., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2006). Introducing science to the
Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Koole, S. L., & Solomon, S. (in press). Experimental
existential psychology: How people cope with the facts of life. In S. T. Fiske
Hill.
124, 333–371.
Suggested Readings
Greenberg, J., Koole, S. L., & Pyszczynski, T. (Eds.) (2004). Handbook of
Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Koole, S. L., & Solomon, S. (in press). Experimental
existential psychology: How people cope with the facts of life. In S. T. Fiske
Hill.