The Use of Existential-Philosophic Concepts in Psychotherapy

A critical commentary in a recent issue of The Journal of Existentialism¹ points out that phenomenology and existential philosophy should not be viewed as entirely novel achievements of modern times. Throughout classical antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, literary passages can be found which find an echo in the “insights” of modern existentialists. Existential philosophy is thus not new, nor is its scope clearly defined. What has rendered it so popular in recent years is a combination of frequently contradictory factors. The emphasis upon a radical phenomenologic approach to the human being is largely the result of the impasse which natural-scientific and analytic methods have reached. Simultaneously, the hope for or promise of new meanings gained by inner search (rather than imposed by an outer authority) appeals to those who despaired over the moral and spiritual relativism which had been fostered by natural science. The intense preoccupation with concepts such as freedom, responsibility, commitment and encounter appealed to those who sought moral laws, but for whom the term “morality” smacked of mediocrity or insincerity. And, finally, the great need of many to belong to a group which might bolster weak self-esteem swelled the ranks of the “third force.”

Yet, since existential philosophy is not a rigid, completed system, and because existential psychotherapy is practiced in so many different ways, it is difficult to establish clearly the relationship between the two. Some have evaded this difficulty by claiming that existential philosophy and existential psychotherapy are two entirely separate fields. However, it would seem more accurate to say that these two disciplines deal with the same basic problem—created by the so-called “subject-object split” in natural science—in two diverse ways. Philosophy which has no need to be concerned with any immediate plausibility and applicability of its views or findings can attempt to pursue a radically phenomenol