existential psychology studies life, human being in its formation and development, and comes from the word existentia - existence. A person comes into this world and solves the problems of loneliness, love, choice, search for meanings and confrontation with the reality of the inevitability of death.

Existential Psychology - Definition

Existential traditional psychology is a direction that has grown out of existential philosophy, which considers a person as a unique creature, and his whole life is unique and of great value. The existential direction in psychology began to develop actively two centuries ago, and is in demand in the modern world.

History of existential psychology

The founder of existential psychology - it is difficult to name one specific person, a whole galaxy of philosophers and psychologists influenced the development of this direction. Existential traditional psychology takes its development from phenomenology and ideas Russian writers L.N. Tolstoy and F.I. Dostoevsky. At the beginning of the XX century. the German psychologist and philosopher K. Jaspers, while revising the traditional approaches of psychiatry, introduced the ideas of existentialism into them.

Ludwig Binswanger, a Swiss physician, introduced existentialism into psychology by studying the works of Jaspers and Heidegger. A person becomes no longer a simple controlled receptacle of psychological mechanisms and instincts, but an integral, unique entity. Then there is a rapid development of existential psychology and its offshoots, which include the famous logotherapy of V. Frankl.

The main ideas of the existential approach in psychology

Existential-humanistic psychology relies on key aspects:

• consciousness and self-awareness;
• freedom;
• a responsibility;
• search for meaning;
• choice;
• awareness of death.

Existential psychology, its ideas and principles are taken from existential philosophy, which is the "mother":

• the free will of a person helps him to be in constant development;
• knowledge of one's inner world is the leading need of the individual;
• awareness of one's mortality and acceptance of this fact is a powerful resource for revealing the creative component of the personality;
• existential anxiety becomes the trigger for finding one's own unique meaning in a seemingly meaningless existence.

Existential psychology - representatives

The existential psychology of V. Frankl is the clearest example of not giving up, finding in yourself the desire to live on. Frankl aroused great confidence in himself by the fact that all his psychotherapeutic methods were tested on himself and those people who, by a fatal coincidence, were in the dungeons fascist concentration camp. Other notable existential psychologists:

• Rollo May;
• Irvin Yalom;
• James Bugenthal;
• Alfred Lenglet;
• Alice Holzhey-Kuntz;
• Boss Medard;
• Ludwig Binswanger.

Existential approach in psychology

The existential-humanistic approach in psychology is a direction in which a person's personality is of great value due to its unique inner picture of the world, its uniqueness. Existential psychology teaching simple techniques and patient exercises in situations of doom and emptiness from being helps people find new meanings and choices, get out of the position of a victim when nothing can be done to improve.

Basic provisions of humanistic and existential psychology

Existential psychology is an offshoot of humanistic psychology, so many of the central concepts of human personality have a similar description. Humanistic and existential psychology main points:

• the openness of a person's personality to the world, experiencing oneself in this world and feeling the world in oneself is the main psychological reality;
• the nature of man is such that he constantly needs self-disclosure and continuous development of his potentialities;
• a person has freedom, will and the ability to choose within the framework of his values;
• personality is a creative, active entity;
• the life of a single person should be considered as a single process of becoming and being.

Understanding Personality in the Framework of Existential Psychology

Personality in existential psychology is unique, unique and authentic. Existential psychology does not put a frame on a person, locking him in the present, but allows him to grow, to change. When describing a personality, existentialists use the category of processes, and are not based, like other areas of classical psychology, on describing character traits and states. The individual has free will and

Methods of existential psychology

Existential psychology as a science must be based on specific methods, techniques, empirical research, but here one can stumble upon a number of contradictions. The most basic method is to build a relationship between client and therapist that can be described in words: authenticity, devotion and presence. Authenticity involves the full disclosure of the psychotherapist to the patient in order to create a trusting relationship.

Methods of work of an existential psychologist with the fear of death:

1. "Permission to Endure" - In order to work with the awareness of death, the therapist himself must work through his fears in this area and strive during therapy to encourage the patient to talk about death as much as possible.
2. Working with defense mechanisms. The therapist leads the patient to change his ideas about death gently but persistently, working through and identifying inadequate defense mechanisms.
3. Dream work. Nightmares often contain unconscious repressed fears of death.

Problems of existential psychology

The main ideas and theories of existential psychology were reduced by specialists in this direction to a general number of problem areas that existential psychology faces. Irvin Yalom identified 4 sets of key issues or knots:

1. Problems of life, death and time - a person realizes that he is mortal, that this is an inevitable given. The desire to live and the fear of death form a conflict.
2. The problems of communication, loneliness and love are the awareness of loneliness in this world: a person comes to this world alone and leaves it just as lonely, awareness of himself alone in the crowd.
3. Problems of responsibility, choice and freedom - a person's desire for freedom and the absence of patterns, restraining, ordered structures and at the same time the fear of their absence gives rise to conflict.
4. The problems of the meaning and meaninglessness of human existence - stem from the first three problems. A person is constantly in the knowledge of himself and the world around him, creates his own meanings. The loss of meaning comes from the realization of one's loneliness, isolation and the inevitability of death.

Existential Crisis in Psychology

The principles of existential psychology come from the presence of problems that arise in a person. An existential crisis overtakes any person from youth to old age, everyone at least once wondered the meaning of life, their existence, being. For some, these are ordinary thoughts, for others, the crisis can be acute and painful, leading to indifference and a lack of further motivation for life: all meanings have been exhausted, the future is predictable and monotonous.

An existential crisis can penetrate into all spheres of human life. It is believed that this phenomenon is inherent in people of developed countries who have satisfied all their own and have time to analyze and reflect on their own lives. A person who has lost his loved ones and thought in terms of “We” is faced with the question: “Who am I without them?”

Books on existential psychology

Rollo May's "Existential Psychology" is one of the unique publications of an authoritative existential therapist, written in simple language, it will be useful for reading both ordinary readers interested in psychology and experienced psychologists. What else can you read on this topic:

1. « Existential psychology of deep communication» S.L. Bratchenko. The book examines in detail the history of the emergence of the existential-humanistic approach in psychology, much attention is paid to counseling.
2. « Life options. Essays in existential psychology". V.N. Druzhinin. The problems of life and death, how to find meaning in all this for a tired person, and how an existential psychologist can help - all these issues are covered in the book.
3. « existential psychotherapy» I. Yalom. The books of this famous psychoanalyst can be read endlessly, the author is talented not only in his profession helping people, but also as a writer. This book fundamental work with set current technicians and tricks.
4. « Psychotechnics of existential choice". M. Papush. Learning to live efficiently and fruitfully, to enjoy and work is just as real as learning something, for example, playing the piano is difficult, but everything comes with practice.
5. « Modern Existential Analysis: History, Theory, Practice, Research". A. Langle, E. Ukolova, V. Shumsky. The book presents a holistic view of existential analysis and its valuable contribution to the development of existential psychology.

Existential psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic trend that puts at the forefront the task of pushing a person to comprehend his life path as a holistic totality and to find significant personal values. And in the future - the correction of the strategy of behavior in accordance with these distinguished values. And most importantly, take responsibility for it. This approach is applied, among other things, and.

That is why existential therapy is more like a dialogue that pushes the patient to self-knowledge. And an existential psychologist does not follow a strict plan of consultation and does not impose any point of view. He seeks only to enable the client to realize his characteristics and himself.

The existential-humanistic direction in psychotherapy is, first of all, a direction that involves deep changes, and not work with “circumcision” of manifestations and visible problems. If I can say briefly, then according to this direction, working with symptoms does not make sense. After all, the existential-humanistic approach under consideration is based on the fact that the main internal conflict- this is a conflict with the "givens" of the finiteness of the existence of any person in this world.

In general, the name existential psychotherapy includes two important concepts: "", as a recognition of the existence of a reasonable person who builds his personal life path. Thus, a person is considered in the "human", and not in the external world of manifestations. And the concept of "humanism", as a belief in the ability of a person to take responsibility and realize their potential through understanding.

As you can see even from the introductory part, the foundations of the existential approach take their origins from philosophy. Many researchers see the prerequisites for the development of this direction in the works of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre. By the way, Heidegger himself hoped that the day would come when his ideas would go beyond philosophy and come to the aid of "suffering people."

As for the first psychotherapists who directly applied such an approach as existential psychotherapy, we can single out K. Jaspers, L. Binswanger, M. Boss, R. May.

Separately, I would like to dwell on logotherapy, the author of which is Viktor Frankl. This is a special existential direction, which is based on the search for meaning in every occurring phenomenon, both positive and negative. That is, everything that happens is given to a person for a reason. It is important to understand - why and what needs to be taken out of it. The founder of the approach, Frankl, went through the horrors of the concentration camps. And by his example, he demonstrated the ability to find meaning even in the experience of unimaginable suffering.

Basic postulates of existential psychotherapy

The main postulates important for existential-humanistic psychotherapy are the understanding of all everyday problems of any person within the framework of:

• awareness of the “finiteness and meaninglessness” of existence as such. And in this regard, the need to search for its meaningful beginning;
• as a consequence, the awareness of obligatory death and the corresponding fear of this death;
• the presence of a constant fear of choice and responsibility for this choice, in connection with the given free will to a person;
• understanding and awareness of the coldness and indifference of the surrounding world, if necessary, interaction with it.

Thus, four main problems formulated by Irvin Yal were identified:

All other tensions are based on behavioral conflicts that are derived from the main ones. And only a meaningful approach to these four key problems mentioned makes it possible to find relief and fill existence with one's personal meaning.

Human existence is a series of such conflicts that push a person to reassess values ​​and find new concepts "in order to ..." Therefore, even extreme forms of affective experiences are seen not as psychological and psychiatric problems, but as natural crises, which are a kind of steps for further self-development .

For example, depression serves as a marker that the old values ​​have become insignificant for us, and the person is ready to search for new ones. Anxious experiences are associated with internal tension due to the need for the most important (or most important) choices and, correspondingly, the awareness of responsibility for this.

Thus, the task of an existential psychotherapist is reduced to inducing philosophical reflections on these things in case the patient himself postpones or is afraid to delve into these concepts and remains in affective reactions for a long time.

Irvin Yalom and opposition to "protocol therapy"

One of the leading masters of this approach, Irvin Yalom, was distinguished by a sharp critical approach to "strictly prescribed therapy". He began his journey from psychoanalysis, but did not agree with the driving forces identified in it.

In his opinion, the main conflict of any person is the understanding of his own death and its inevitability. As soon as a person is able to recognize and resist this constant fear, so he begins to rebuild his personal values ​​and priorities: he appreciates close and warm relationships, takes risks and responsibilities ...

In addition, the central point of his approach was the desire to tailor individual therapy for everyone who came to him. Don't follow a predetermined pattern. In his opinion, existential counseling only gives impetus to the patient's reassessment of values ​​and philosophical conclusions, and also helps, with his fear, to follow these reflections.

Each person has his own way of overcoming the fear of his inevitable finiteness of this life, and at the same time, only individual prerogatives and values ​​are revealed in each.

Existential psychoanalysis

Jean-Paul Sartre also criticized Freud's approach. And although he also called his approach "psychoanalysis", in fact he proposed a variant of the existential approach. Firstly, Sartre considered personality as a whole, as opposed to Freud's belief in constant conflict personal qualities and biological instincts. It follows that reservations, gestures, words, as well as symptoms, do not express the area of ​​the problem, but the fundamental choice that the person intends to make.

Sartre could not accept that personality is reduced to such simple moments as primary desires, and, as a rule, sexual ones. Where, in this case, does all the multi-layeredness and individuality of each particular individual of this very person disappear? In addition, he is critical of the concept of the unconscious. After all, if a person, through reflection, understands his symptoms and goes with them to a therapist, then how can one talk about the unconscious if it is conscious?

According to the author, a sign of a person's existence is his desires, but desires exist when life is scarce or limited. Thus, a person tries to make up for the lack of existence, which is reflected in two complexes:

Reflections on these bases lead to a reassessment of internal attitudes, desires and provide an opportunity to cope with all problems, transforming the deep levels of the individual.

James Bugental's view

One of the most productive practical therapists who has been in direct practice for more than thirty years is, perhaps, D. Budzhental. Its most important fundamental theses include the following points:

• any person is inherent in the motive of “search for the healthy”, which encourages moving towards the greatest efficiency and satisfaction;
• "life-changing therapy" is the joint work of the client and the therapist to rethink the first's answers to the questions of life in order to make this life itself more "authentic" and allow the person to fulfill himself more.

Thus, therapy can occur at two levels:

One of the most important problems in the development of personality, the author sees in rigid identifications and "ideal images", which result in a feeling of dissatisfaction and "problem". Comprehension does not always lead to real authenticity, and for this a therapist is needed who is able to notice “patterns”.

A joint quest, "awareness of our consciousness" (through reflective self-awareness), leads the patient to a genuine "existential emancipation". But, at the same time, in no case is it lost, but, on the contrary, responsibility for one's conclusions and one's choice increases.

Schools in Russia

Formation existential direction in Russian psychology was marked by the visits of Frankl and Rogers in the late 1980s. It was they who generated interest in this direction and contributed to the formation of their schools, such as Graduate School humanitarian psychotherapy and the Eastern European School of Existential Psychotherapy. There are currently very interesting and productive therapists working in this vein.

Existential Psychotherapy: A Critique of the Approach

It is worth noting that each author introduced his own elements of work into the approach. Since the existential direction fundamentally did not prescribe a clear strategy for building a consultation. Therefore, it is difficult to single out generalized criticisms. But, in general, the main issue is the aspect of readiness - the unwillingness of a person to touch on quite fundamental topics of being and be able to draw certain basic conclusions, draw analogies. Moreover, to accept difficult experiences as moments of rethinking.

However, therapists talk about the ability to work with any client precisely because of the flexibility of the approach and the ability of a person to transform his own values. So, for example, the mentioned Budzhental wrote that he successfully worked with clients, among whom were: engineers, prostitutes, policemen, officials, clergymen and nuns, housewives, doctors, students of various specialties, lawyers, secretaries, soldiers, nurses and nannies, professors , actors, laborers and politicians.

Thus, once again arguing that the existential-humanistic approach can be widely applied to help a wide variety of clients.

In the middle of the XX century. considered the most influential trend in modern Western philosophy Existentialism , or the philosophy of human existence. famous representative existentialism, laureate Nobel Prize(1957) was a French writer and philosopher Albert Camus(1913–1960). He reveals the role and place of man in the world from the point of view of existential philosophy in the work " The myth of Sisyphus"- an integral part "An essay on the absurd".

The gods sentenced Sisyphus to lift a huge stone to the top of the mountain, from where this block invariably rolled down. They had reason to believe that there is no punishment worse than useless and hopeless work.<…>.

There are different opinions about how he became the eternal worker of hell. He was reproached primarily for his frivolous attitude towards the gods. He divulged their secrets... Homer also says that Sisyphus shackled Death. Pluto could not bear the sight of his deserted and silent kingdom. He sent the god of war, who rescued Death from the hands of its conqueror.

It is also said that, dying, he decided to test his wife's love and ordered her to throw his body in the square without burial. So Sisyphus ended up in hell. Outraged by obedience so alien to humanity, he received permission from Pluto to return to earth in order to punish his wife. But as soon as he saw the appearance of the earthly world again, felt the water, the sun, the warmth of the stones and the sea, he lost the desire to return to the world of shadows. Reminders, warnings and the wrath of the gods were in vain. For many years he continued to live on the shore of the bay, where the sea roared and the earth smiled. It took the intervention of the gods, Mercury appeared, grabbed Sisyphus by the collar and forcibly dragged him to hell, where a stone was already waiting for him.<…>.

This myth is tragic because its hero is endowed with consciousness. What kind of punishment could be discussed if at every step he was supported by the hope of success? Sisyphus ... knows about the infinity of his sad destiny; he thinks about him during the descent. Clarity of vision, which should be his torment, turns into his victory... ...truths that crush us recede as soon as we recognize them... They turn fate into the work of man, a matter that must be decided among people...

In the elusive moment when a person turns around and casts a glance at his life, Sisyphus, returning to the stone, contemplates the incoherent sequence of actions that has become his fate. It was created by him, united into one whole by his memory and sealed by death. Convinced of the human origin of everything human, wanting to see and knowing that there will be no end to the night, the blind man continues on his way. And the stone rolls down again.

I leave Sisyphus at the foot of his mountain! The burden will always be there. But Sisyphus teaches the highest fidelity, which rejects the Gods and moves the stones. He thinks everything is fine. This universe, now devoid of a ruler, does not seem to him either barren or insignificant. Every grain of stone, every gleam of ore on a mountain at midnight is a whole world for him. One struggle for the top is enough to fill a man's heart. Sisyphus should be imagined happy.

Camus A. Essay on the absurd. The myth of Sisyphus // Camus A. A rebellious man. - M., 1990. - S. 90–92.

An original attempt to combine existentialist ideas with no less common and popular psychoanalysis in understanding the essence of man and his place in the world was theory and practice. logotherapy And Existential Analysis Victor Frankl- a world-famous specialist in personality psychology and psychotherapy, the author of a large number of philosophical, psychological, medical books. Logotherapy and existential analysis suggest that in the course of a psychotherapeutic conversation with a doctor, the patient will be able to discover significant meaning in his life and, thanks to this, get rid of most of his psychological problems. The philosophical foundations of existential analysis are revealed by him in a collection of works called "Man's Search for Meaning".

Each time has its own neuroses - and each time needs its own psychotherapy ... Today's patient no longer suffers so much from a feeling of inferiority, but from a deep sense of loss of meaning, which is connected with a feeling of emptiness - that's why I'm talking about an existential vacuum<…>.

Can we make sense? Is it possible to revive lost traditions or even lost instincts? Or was Novalis right when he once remarked that there was no return to naivety, and the stairs we were climbing fell down?<…>.

Meaning must be found but cannot be created. You can only create a subjective meaning, a simple sense of meaning, or nonsense. Thus, it is also understandable that a person who is no longer able to find meaning in his life, as well as to invent it, running away from a sense of loss of meaning, creates either nonsense or subjective meaning. While the former takes place on the stage (a theater of the absurd!), the latter takes place in drunken daydreams, especially those evoked with the help of LSD. In this case, however, it is fraught with the risk of passing by in life the true meaning, the true deed in the external world (as opposed to the purely subjective sense of meaning in oneself)<…>.

Meaning not only must, but can be found and in search of the meaning of man directs his conscience. In a word, conscience is the organ of meaning. It can be defined as the ability to discover the only meaning that lies in any situation.<…>.

We live in an age of ever-widening sense of loss of meaning. In such an age, education should be directed not only to transmit knowledge, but also to sharpen the conscience so that a person has enough sensitivity to hear the demand contained in each individual situation. In an age when the 10 commandments seem to have lost their power for many, a person must be prepared to accept 10,000 commandments contained in 10,000 situations with which life confronts him.<…>.

From all this it follows that the meaning in question must change both from situation to situation and from person to person. However, the meaning is omnipresent. There is no such situation in which life would not give us the opportunity to find meaning, and there is no such person for whom life would not have some business ready.<…>.

… a person not only seeks meaning by virtue of his desire for meaning, but also finds it, namely in three ways. First, he can see meaning in action, in creating something. In addition, he sees the meaning in experiencing something, he sees the meaning in loving someone. But even in a hopeless situation, in front of which he is helpless, under certain conditions he is able to see the meaning. The point is in the position, in the installation with which he meets his fate, which he is not able to avoid or change. Only position and attitude give him the opportunity to demonstrate what only a person is capable of: transformation, transformation of suffering into achievement on a human level.<…>.

The first [path] is what he gives to the world in his creations; the second is what he takes from the world in his encounters and experiences; the third is the position that he takes in relation to his plight in the event that he cannot change his plight<…>.

Values ​​that are realized in productive creative actions, we will call "creative". In addition to creative ones, there are values ​​that are realized in experiences - these are “experience values”. They manifest themselves in our sensitivity to the phenomena of the surrounding world, for example, in reverence for the beauty of nature or works of art ...

One can also define a third possible category of values, since life remains meaningful even when it is fruitless in a creative sense and not rich in experiences. This third group of values ​​consists in a person's attitude to the factors that limit his life. It is the reaction of a person to the limitations of his capabilities that opens up for him fundamentally new type values ​​that belong to the category of higher values. Thus, even an apparently meager existence - an existence poor in terms of both creative values ​​and values ​​of experience - still leaves a person with the last and in fact the highest opportunity for the realization of values. We will call values ​​of this kind "relationship values". For what is really significant is the attitude of a person to the fate that has fallen to his lot ...

As soon as the list of categories of values ​​is replenished with relational values, it becomes obvious that human existence, in its essence, can never be meaningless. A person's life is full of meaning until the very end - until his very last breath. And until consciousness has left a person, he is constantly obliged to realize values ​​​​and bear responsibility.<…>.

One dying man, whose last events of life we ​​will describe below, consistently and dramatically realized all three categories of values. This young man was in the hospital with a diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumor. He had to leave his profession long ago, he was paralyzed and could not work. Thus, he had no opportunity at all to realize creative values. But even in such a difficult state, the world of values ​​of experience was available to him. He spent his time in lively conversations with other patients - entertaining, encouraging, comforting them. He read good books and especially liked listening to good music on the radio. However, the day came when he could no longer endure the onslaught of sound in the headphones, completely paralyzed hands no longer held books at all. Has come new stage his life; and if earlier he was forced to move from creative values ​​to the realization of the values ​​of experience, now he had to retreat even further - only the values ​​of relation remained accessible to him. Otherwise, you cannot characterize his behavior - after all, now he has taken on the role of an adviser, a mentor to the patients who are nearby, he tried his best to be an example for them with his behavior. He bravely endured his suffering. A day before his death - and he foresaw the day of his death - he learned that the doctor on duty had been assigned to give him an injection of morphine at night. And what did this patient do? When the doctor was making rounds in the afternoon, the young man asked him to give this injection in the evening - so that the doctor would not interrupt his nightly rest because of him.<…>.

Existential analysis recognizes a person as free, but this “verdict” is marked by two features…:

1. Existential analysis only conditionally recognizes a person as free, since a person cannot do whatever he wants; human freedom is by no means identical with omnipotence.

2. Existential analysis does not recognize a person as free without recognizing him at the same time Responsible. This means that human freedom is not identical not only to omnipotence, but also to arbitrariness.<…>.

… the responsibility that existential analysis places right at the center of its field of vision cannot be reduced to mere freedom, in so far as responsibility always includes that for which one is always responsible. As it turns out, responsibility implies (also in contrast to mere freedom) something more than that, namely that to which a person is responsible.<…>. The authority to which we are responsible is conscience.

Frankl V. Man in search of meaning. - M., 1991. - S. 24-43, 114-115, 173-175. 300.

Existential psychotherapy (existential therapy) grew out of the ideas of existential philosophy and psychology, which are focused not on studying the manifestations of the human psyche, but on his very life in inseparable connection with the world and other people (here-being, being-in-the-world, being-together ).

The origins of existentialism are associated with the name of Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). It was he who introduced and approved the concept of existence (unique and inimitable human life) in philosophical and cultural everyday life. He also drew attention to the turning points in human life, opening up the possibility of living further in a completely different way than it has been living until now.

Currently, a number of very different psychotherapeutic approaches are referred to by the same term. existential therapy(existential analysis). Among the main ones we can mention:

• Existential analysis of Ludwig Binswanger.
• Dasein analysis by Medard Boss.
• Existential Analysis () by Viktor Frankl.
• Existential Analysis by Alfried Lenglet.

Most of them pay attention to the same basic elements of existence: love, death, loneliness, freedom, responsibility, faith, etc. For existentialists, it is fundamentally unacceptable to use any typologies, universal interpretations: to comprehend anything about each specific person is possible only in the context of his specific life.

Existential therapy helps to cope with many seemingly impasses in life:

• depressions;
• fears;
• loneliness;
• addictions, workaholism;
• obsessive thoughts and actions;
• emptiness and suicidal behavior;
• grief, the experience of loss and the finiteness of existence;
• crises and failures;
• indecision and loss of life orientation;
• loss of a sense of fullness of life, etc.

Therapeutic factors in existential approaches are: the client's understanding of the unique essence of life situation, choice of attitude to one's present, past and future, development of the ability to act, taking responsibility for the consequences of one's actions. The existential therapist makes sure that his patient is as open as possible to the possibilities that arise during his life, is able to make a choice and actualize them. The goal of therapy is the most complete, rich, meaningful existence.

A person can be who he chooses to be. His existence is always given as an opportunity to go beyond himself in the form of a decisive leap forward, through his dreams, through his aspirations, through his desires and goals, through his decisions and actions. Throw, always associated with risk and uncertainty. Existence is always immediate and unique, as opposed to the universal world of empty, frozen abstractions.