Existential Psychotherapy: existential

philosophy turns into humanistic therapy

Copyright © 2020 by Paul B. Whittemore, Ph.D., ABPP

Viktor Frankl, MD,PhD Rollo May,PhD Irvin Yalom, MD

 Existentialists and their themes
• Kierkegaard (1813-1855), “father of existentialism” was a Danish Christian
who wrote scathing critiques of the church and passionless Christianity.
“Man is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, the temporal and the
eternal, freedom and necessity, possibility and actuality.”
• Nietzsche (1844-1900), atheistic German philosopher, philologist, and poet
who wrote uncompromisingly criticisms of European morals and religion,
usually in an aphoristic style, advocating “the will to power.”
• Heidegger (1889-1976), non-theistic German philosopher who analyzes
“Being” through human experience understood non-dualistically, and later
focused on the disclosiveness of language and the dangers of technology.
Controversial Nazi affiliation during the 1930s.
• Sartre (1905-1980) atheistic French philosopher, novelist, playwright,
famous for “existence precedes essence,” “we are condemned to be free,”
“bad faith” (and it’s opposite “authenticity”).
• Tillich (1886-1965) German-American Protestant theologian (“The
Courage To Be,” 3 vol. “Systematic Theology”) Coined the term “Ultimate
Concern” & “the God beyond god.” Mentor/supervisor to Rollo May’s
Ph.D.
• Buber (1878-1965) Austrian Jewish Philosopher best known for his “I-
 Yalom has summarized four common themes of
Frankl, May, & all the existential psychotherapists
• Freedom: One of the inescapable foundations of human nature; it
generates existential anxiety due to having to choose without knowing
all the consequences. Attempts to escape freedom are at the root of
some pathologies and succumbing to authoritarianism.
• Isolation: “We enter and exit life alone;” we are intrinsically separate
from others but we can be with others. Intimacy requires accepting
both realities---our separateness and our relatedness---or we lose our
true self through alienation or failed attempts to merge completely.
• Meaning: Discovered or created, it always entails acknowledging
one’s freedom, limitations, possibility of error, and the need for
authentically deciding and pursuing what matters most to you.
Whether spiritually or non-spiritually oriented, your “ultimate
concern” is whatever is worth living for or dying for.
• Death: The second inescapable ingredient to human nature is our
limitedness, juxtaposed to the first, our freedom. Refusal to see and
honor this component of our self is another basis for “neurosis.”