Basic ideas of existential psychology. existential psychology

Series "Psychology" and ZV E S T I A

2012. V. 1, No. 1. S. 62-68 Irkutsk

Online access to the journal: state

http://isu.ru/izvestia University

Existential approach in psychology

O. L. Podlinyaev

Irkutsk State University, Irkutsk e-mail: [email protected]

Annotation. The essence of the existential approach, its role and place in the space of modern psychological science is considered. The main groups of existential problems are analyzed, as well as the principles underlying existential psychology.

Keywords: existentialism; phenomenology; personal growth; self-actualization.

The emergence of the existential direction is associated with the name of the Danish philosopher S. Kierkegaard, who proclaimed the concept of "existence" (lat. existentia - existence) as the deep essence of the "human self". According to S. Kierkegaard, existence is the foundation of each specific human personality, which determines its uniqueness, uniqueness and difference from other people. Moreover, from the position of S. Kierkegaard, existence is not a definite and initially given essence to a person, but on the contrary, it is an “open possibility”; human existence precedes human essence - a person is not born a person, but becomes one.

The further development of existentialism was significantly influenced by the German philosopher E. Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, the subject of which is the inner world of individual subjects, considered as a unique and unique result of self-creation.

Existentialism as a philosophical direction reaches its greatest influence by the middle of the 20th century; by the same period, it is divided into religious (the most famous representatives of which are the Russian philosopher N. A. Berdyaev; German philosopher, psychiatrist K. Jaspers; French philosopher G. Marcel, etc.) and secular (French philosophers J.-P. Sartre ; S. De Beauvoir; Nobel Prize winner A. Camus; German philosophers M. Heidegger, P. Tillich and others).

One of the key categories of existential philosophy is freedom. Freedom is the main thing that distinguishes man from everything inhuman. Finding himself as an existence, a person also acquires freedom, which is the main source and driving force of his existence. A person can give up freedom, because, according to N. A. Berdyaye-

wah, being free is much more difficult than being a slave - “Freedom breeds suffering. One can lessen suffering by giving up freedom”; however, a person's refusal of freedom is also a special case of freedom.

According to existentialism, the meaning of freedom lies in the fact that a person is not an object formed under the influence of society, nor is he a “product” of a biological, animal principle, but “chooses” himself, creates himself by his actions and deeds at every moment of his life. life. Thus, a person is free in the creation of his own life, bears full responsibility for everything perfect in it and cannot justify himself by referring to external circumstances. "Freedom is not a right, but a duty."

Existentialism has had a strong influence on art, culture, philosophy; it acquired special significance in psychological and pedagogical science. The ideas of existentialism passed through the works of E. Fromm, K. Horney, F. Perls, S. L. Rubinstein (who was persecuted for "admiration for foreignness" and was fired from all his posts in 1947) and other prominent scientists.

The final result of the "existential expansion" in psycho-logo-pedagogical science was the emergence of separate areas: "existential psychology" and "existential pedagogy". Among the most famous representatives of the existential trend in psychology are D. Bugental, R. May, V. Frankl. Representatives of existential pedagogy include O. F. Bolnov, A. Nill, W. Glasser.

Psychology, based on the existential approach, proceeds from the position that each person has fundamental problems associated with his personal essence - existential problems. Moreover, there are four main groups of problems studied in this area:

1) problems of life and death;

2) problems of a person's search for the meaning of life and death; problems of the meaning and meaninglessness of existence, activity;

3) problems of freedom and responsibility, choice and determinism;

4) problems of communication and loneliness.

Existentialists believe that almost all human life difficulties are the result of unresolved or incorrectly solved essential, existential problems.

As for the first two groups of problems, the representatives of this approach (in particular, V. Frankl) proceed from the fact that the main incentive mechanism for personal development and human activity is the desire of a person to find and realize the meaning of his own life.

The absence of the meaning of life, the impossibility of finding it, the aimlessness and emptiness of existence lead a person to a state of existential vacuum (existential frustration, existential crisis), which is the cause of mental disorders, deviant

manifestations of delinquency, etc. According to V. Frankl: “Today, in fact, we are not dealing with the frustration of sexual needs, as in Freud's time, but with the frustration of existential needs. Today, the patient no longer suffers so much from a sense of inferiority as in Adler's time, 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.

V. Frankl, who believes that each time has its own neuroses and each time needs its own psychotherapy, developed his own concept of psychological assistance - logotherapy. The essence of logotherapy lies in the fact that a person is helped to find lost meanings; at the same time, they do not reveal any “ready-made” meaning to him, do not impose their ideas about it, but only assist in the search process itself, while the meaning is acquired and realized exclusively by the person himself. "Meaning cannot be given, it must be found."

With regard to the third group of problems, the position of the existentialists is as follows: a person is the subject of his own development and is free to choose his own life path. At the same time, the existential paradigm does not deny the significant impact on the formation of the personality of social circumstances and, of course, recognizes the influence of its biological nature, including irrational unconscious forces. However, social or biological determinants cannot be considered the dominant or, moreover, the only factors in human development. "Existential analysis considers man to be a free being, oriented towards meaning and striving for values, in contrast to the current psychoanalytic idea of ​​a person as a being determined mainly by drives and striving for pleasure" .

Man is free to determine the social and natural forces acting on him; at the same time, he is free to choose the path of renouncing this freedom and submitting to the influence of external or unconscious influences - such a path leads to a loss of individuality, to conformity, to destructive behavior. Thus, a person is not only free to make his life choice, but also fully responsible for it. Freedom is always the responsibility for this freedom. If the realization of freedom is not associated with responsibility, then it can lead to arbitrariness. V. Frankl considered it appropriate to supplement the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast of the United States with the Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

At the same time, it follows from this logic that there can be no responsibility without freedom. For example, among educators, there are quite common complaints that "modern students are absolutely irresponsible." However, at the same time, teachers, as a rule, lose sight of the fact that a modern student in the traditional education system has no freedom in almost any parameter of schooling.

noah life. It is quite natural that the complete absence of freedom leads to the complete absence of responsibility. A person cannot and should not be held responsible for the choices of others.

The next group of problems - the problems of communication and loneliness - is also key to the existential approach. Man is originally social; affiliation is its immanent quality. People strive for emotional contacts, for love, for friendship, and frustrating the need for communication, which gives rise to a feeling of “abandonment”, loneliness, as well as the loss of meaning, can cause an existential crisis.

At the same time, almost every person needs solitude from time to time, as in a special existential state. Moreover, loneliness is often a necessary condition for the realization of the creative potential of the individual. A significant (if not large) part of the great works that entered the history of world science and culture were created by their creators alone (it is hard to imagine that, for example, the novel "War and Peace" could be the result of collective work). Thus, the frustration of the need for solitude is no less a threat to the mental integrity of the individual than the frustration of the need for communication.

The main tasks of existentially oriented psychology should be considered as helping a person to choose their own unique and at the same time positive path of personal development; in the search and implementation of essential meanings; assistance in gaining freedom of life choices and responsibility for these choices; assistance in solving problems of relations both with the external world and with the internal world. According to V. Frankl: “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.”

The main groups of existential problems can be combined into five fundamental provisions:

1. The existential approach proceeds from the postulate stating that behind any particular psychological difficulties in a person's life lie deeper (and not always clearly realized by the subject) existential problems. Accordingly, the task of a psychologist (teacher) behind external personal, family, social and other complications is to see the underlying existential causes that gave rise to them.

2. The existential approach is based on the recognition of the human in every person, on the unconditional respect for his individuality and at the same time on the recognition of the unknowability of the deep essence of his personality. From the point of view of existentialism, no psychodiagnostic methods can create a complete and reliable psychological portrait of a person, since he is never static and is always in the process of becoming. In addition, he “... himself can act as a source of changes in his own being, destroying “objective” predictions and expected results” .

The idea of ​​the unknowability of the fundamental foundations of personality is characteristic not only of Western European existentialism; the same idea is also key in Russian philosophical thought of the 19th-20th centuries. (first of all, the works of P. D. Yurkevich, L. I. Shestov, S. N. Bulgakov, N. A. Berdyaev,

N. O. Lossky, M. M. Bakhtin and others). In particular, according to S. N. Bulgakov: “Personality is indefinable, because it is always determined by everything, remaining, however, above all its states or definitions. Personality is an inherent and unknown secret for everyone, an unexplored abyss, an immeasurable depth. M. M. Bakhtin expresses a similar thought: “It is impossible to turn a living person into a silent object of final final cognition. In a person there is always something that only he himself can discover in a free act of self-consciousness and words, which is not amenable to a definition in absentia. This is important to note, since today there is more and more criticism from the newly-minted Slavophiles (as a rule, former adherents of communist ideology) about the orientation of Russian psychology and pedagogy towards existential ideas “alien to the Russian mentality”.

3. The existential approach is based on the phenomenological principle, according to which the focus of attention of a psychologist (teacher) should be primarily on what exists within the inner, subjective world of an individual. From the point of view of the phenomenological approach, human behavior cannot be understood without referring to its subjectivity; thus, existentialism is opposed primarily to behaviorism, which claims that behavior is easily explained by a reaction to external "stimulus" situations.

4. The existential approach, without denying the significance of the past and future for the individual, gives priority to the present. Real changes towards personal growth are possible only in the present. According to the American psychologist E. Shostrom: “The only time where we have the opportunity to live is the present. We can and must remember the past; we can and must foresee the future. But we live only in the present. These provisions distinguish existentialism from deep concepts, where priority is given to past experience, which rigidly determines both the present and the future of a person.

5. The existential approach is focused more on specific life situations and phenomenological interpersonal interaction than on standardized psychotherapeutic or psycho-pedagogical technologies. “Existentialism sets a certain direction, a locus of understanding what is happening ... rather than a certain set of techniques and prescriptions.”

In general, the existential approach, based on the recognition of the uniqueness of the existence of an individual, proclaims a person to be the main creator of his personality. As Sartre said: “Man is nothing but what he makes himself.”

Undoubtedly recognizing the freedom of life choice for a person, existentialists, however, believe that his choice will not necessarily be directed towards the realization of the best principles. If humanistically oriented psychologists and educators see their task in helping to develop the entire personal potential, all the abilities and inclinations of the individual, relying on faith in the initially positive essence of man, then existentialists take a more cautious position on this issue. V. Frankl, for example, called the doctrine of the absolute realization of all the possibilities of the individual "potentialism" and believed that there is a risk, along with the positive part of human potentialities, to develop its negative inclinations.

A person, therefore, is responsible not only for the freedom of external choices, but also for internal choices, concerning both the realization of one's capabilities and the purposeful refusal to realize them, in case they contradict the chosen life path.

However, despite some difference in the assessment of human nature, the humanistic and existential approaches often appear in the general space of psychological and pedagogical science as a single methodology. “Existentialism and humanism are certainly not the same thing; and the name “existential-humanistic” captures not only their non-identity, but also their fundamental commonality, which consists, first of all, in recognizing a person’s freedom to build his life and the ability to do so.

Personal growth, self-actualization, freedom of choice - all this is extremely serious work, a hard search that requires the maximum concentration of human resources, will, creativity, abilities, spiritual forces. Avoiding these problems is the easiest way to exist, but a person ultimately pays for it with depersonalization - the loss of one's own "I". In any case, giving up freedom means giving up the opportunity to live a happy, fulfilling, meaningful life.

The existential approach is an alternative to both behavioral and psychoanalytic concepts.

From the point of view of behaviorism, a person is a biological machine that is quite accessible for study and control, which can be successfully taught to function using such simple algorithms as stimulus-reaction, or reaction-reinforcement.

From the point of view of psychoanalysis, a person is an irrational being whose behavior is fatally conditioned by unconscious drives and past experiences, as well as by a permanent and unconscious conflict between biological and social factors.

The existential approach does not deny that these concepts have their own specific logic, at the same time, here a person is, first of all, considered as a free person who creates himself,

bears full responsibility for this process, is aware of his purpose in life.

In general, the existential approach brings psychological science to a new level of ideas about a person and his development. His influence extended to various sciences, the subject of which is the human personality; including the existential approach is the methodological basis for popular today (unfortunately, mostly abroad) indirective pedagogical systems.

Literature

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2. Berdyaev N. A. The kingdom of the Spirit and the kingdom of Caesar / comp. and after. P. V. Alekseeva; prepared text and notes. R. K. Medvedeva. - M. : Respublika, 1995. - 383 p.

3. Bratchenko S. L. Existential-humanistic approach in psychology and psychotherapy / S. L. Bratchenko // Psychol. gas. "Imaton". - 1997. - No. 1. - S. 7.

4. Bulgakov S. N. Non-evening light: Contemplation and speculation / S. N. Bulgakov. -M. : Republic, 1994. - 415 p.

5. Maslow A. Psychology of life: Per. from English. / A. Maslow. - M. : Refl-book, 1997. - 304 p.

6. Sartre J.-P. Existentialism is humanism // Twilight of the Gods: collection / F. Nietzsche [and others]; comp., total. ed. and foreword. A. A. Yakovleva. - M.: Politizdat,

1989. - S. 319-344.

7. Tillich P. Selected: theology of culture: per. from English. / P. Tillich. - M.: Lawyer, 1995. - 479 p.

8. Frankl V. Man in search of meaning: collection: trans. from English. and German. / total ed. L. Ya. Gozman and D. A. Leontiev; intro. Art. D. A. Leontiev. - M.: Progress,

9. Shostrom E. Anti-Carnegie, or Manipulator / E. Shostrom; per. from English. A. Malysheva. - Minsk: TPC "Polifact", 1992. - 128 p.

10. Kierkegaard S. The Sickness unto Death / S. Kierkegaard. - Princeton University Press, 1941. - P. 25-29.

Existential Approach in Psychology

O. L. Podlinyaev

Abstract. The article regards the main point of the existential approach; its role and place in the space of the psychological science, existential psychology is analyzed in this scientific paper.

Key words: existentialism, phenomenology, personality development, self actualization.

Podlinyaev Oleg Leonidovich Podlinyaev Oleg Leonidovich

Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor

Irkutsk State University Irkutsk State University

e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]

existential psychology

(from lat. existentia - existence) - one of the directions " humanistic psychology". E. p. studies:

1) problems of time, life and death;

2) freedom issues, responsibility and choice;

3) problems of communication , love and loneliness ;

4) search for the meaning of existence.

E. p. emphasizes the uniqueness of the personal experience of a particular person, which is not reducible to general schemes. One of the goals of E. p. is the problem of restoring the authenticity of the individual - the correspondence of her being in the world to her inner nature. Many achievements of psychoanalysis are used in the practice of modern E. p. The most prominent representatives of E. p. - L. Binswanger, M. Boss, E. Minkowski, R. May, V. Frankl, J. Bugenthal.

Brief psychological dictionary. - Rostov-on-Don: PHOENIX. L.A. Karpenko, A.V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. 1998 .

existential psychology Etymology.

Comes from lat. existentia - existence and Greek. psyche - soul, logos - teaching.

Category.

Psychological direction based on the principles of humanistic psychology.

Specificity.

It comes from the primacy of human being, with which basic existential problems, stress and anxiety are organically connected. Its representatives are L. Binswanger, M. Boss, E. Minkowski, R. May, W. Frankl, J. Bugenthal. The main one deals with the problem of a person who reflects and confirms himself in the process of gaining meanings. The focus is not on external forces that determine a person's behavior, but on his own individuality, which recognizes itself (Heidegger), tests itself (Sartre) or realizes itself (Frankl). This individuality is manifested in various forms of love, when experiencing shame, when changing moods. The traditional subject of existential psychology is a person in extreme situations (economic depression, war, destruction). A number of problems stand out: life and death; freedom and responsibility; communication and loneliness: the meaning and meaninglessness of existence. However, it is believed that a particular person has a unique personal experience that cannot be reduced to universal rules. On the basis of these theoretical premises, existential psychotherapy is being developed, aimed at restoring the authenticity of the personality, which is achieved through deep personal reflection.

Psychological Dictionary. THEM. Kondakov. 2000 .

EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

(English) existential psychology) - a direction in modern Western psychology, one of the branches humanistic psychology. E. p. proceeds from the primacy of human being in the world, a collision with which gives rise to basic existential problems in each person, And anxiety. A mature person manages to successfully cope with them; failure to do so leads to mental disorders. It is possible to distinguish 4 main knots of existential problems, the solutions of which are studied by E. p.: 1) the problems of time, life and death; 2) problems of freedom, responsibility and choice; 3) problems of communication, love and loneliness; and 4) problems of the meaning and meaninglessness of existence. E. p. emphasizes the uniqueness of the personal experience of a particular person, its irreducibility to general schemes.

existential sets as its goal the restoration of the authenticity of the individual (the correspondence of her being in the world to her own inner nature), while relying on a deep personal reflection client. In the practice of modern E. p., many achievements are also used. psychoanalysis. The most prominent representatives of E. p. are L. Binswanger, M. Boss, E. Minkowski, R. May, IN.Frankl, J. Bugenthal. see also . (D. A. Leontiev.)

Big psychological dictionary. - M.: Prime-EVROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 .

See what "existential psychology" is in other dictionaries:

Existential Psychology- a psychological direction based on the principles of humanistic psychology and proceeding from the primacy of human being, with which basic existential problems are organically connected ... Psychological Dictionary

existential psychology- Existential psychology is a direction in psychology that proceeds from the uniqueness of a specific human life, irreducible to general schemes, which arose in line with the philosophy of existentialism. Its applied section is existential ... ... Wikipedia

EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY- one of the directions of "humanistic psychology"; studies: problems of time, life and death; problems of freedom, responsibility and choice; problems of communication, love and loneliness; search for the meaning of existence. Existential psychology ... ... Professional education. Dictionary

existential psychology- - earlier this term denoted the structuralist direction in psychology (E. Titchener), now it usually denotes psychology based on existentialism ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY- This name was previously used to denote the point of view expressed by E. Titchner (see structuralism). However, when it occurs at the present time, it almost invariably refers to one of two versions of psychological positions, ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Psychology

Direction in modern Western psychology. E. p. proceeds from the primacy of human being in the world, a collision with which gives rise to basic existential problems, stress and anxiety for each person ... Psychological and pedagogical dictionary of the officer of the educator of the ship unit

EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY- one of the directions of humanistic psychology; studies: 1) problems of time, life and death; 2) problems of freedom, responsibility and choice; 3) problems of communication, love and loneliness; 4) problems of finding the meaning of existence ... Dictionary of Career Guidance and Psychological Support

Existential psychology- Despite the fact that E. p. is usually attributed to the humanistic tradition, it has pronounced distinctive features that allow it to declare its independence. Humanistic approaches select the qualities of functioning, which look like ... ... Psychological Encyclopedia

existential psychotherapy- (eng. 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 inextricable connection with the world and other people (here being, being in the world ... Wikipedia

existential therapy- Existential psychotherapy (English 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 ... Wikipedia

Books

• Existential psychology Textbook, NV Grishina. Grishina Natalia Vladimirovna - Russian psychologist, specialist in the field of social psychology. Doctor of Psychology, Professor of the Faculty of Psychology of the St. Petersburg…

“Existential psychotherapy, like a homeless tramp, belongs to nothing. She has no legal residence, no formal education, no organization of her own. Academic neighbors do not recognize her as their own. It produced neither an official community nor a stable journal (a few frail children died in infancy); has neither a stable family nor a definite head of the family. However, she has a genealogy, several cousins ​​​​scattered around the world, as well as family friends - some in Europe and some in America ”: These words belong to the American psychotherapist who, in his excellent book Existential Psychotherapy, presented existential therapy as a holistic approach - from theoretical structure to tactics. In my work, instead of the term "existential psychotherapy" I will use the term "existential psychology". This is not due to the fact that I want to separate these two concepts, this is primarily due to convenience for me as a psychologist.

Where are the origins of existential psychology? And why does Yalom liken existential psychotherapy to a "homeless tramp"? The whole point, apparently, is that existential psychology has many sources.

Existential psychology is a kind of outcome of the development of European thought of the last two centuries, which has absorbed the achievements of such areas as philosophical irrationalism (Schopenhauer), "philosophy of life" (Nietzsche), intuitionism (Bergson), existentialism (, ), philosophical ontology (Scheler ), psychoanalysis (Freud, Jung, Adler, Horney,), humanistic psychology (, Kelly, etc.).

And above all, it is, of course, existential philosophy. It is probably difficult to find at least one philosopher who would not think about life and death. “However, the formal school of existential philosophy,” writes Yalom, “has a very clear beginning. Some consider the starting point to be Sunday afternoon 1834, when a young Dane was sitting in a café smoking a cigar and contemplating the danger of growing old without leaving a trace in this world: "The young Dane was . His thoughts, according to Yalom, led to the fact that he decided: since everyone else is trying to make life easier for a person, it remains for him to do something to make this life difficult. published several existential monographs, the main subject of which was the study of his existential situation. During the First World War, these works found fertile ground and were picked up by and.

Existentialism arose as a reflection of the social and spiritual crisis of civilization. The social world in this case is "unauthentic". Man truly exists only in solitude, face to face with God, his own death, the absurdity of existence. The fundamental characteristic of a person is considered to be facing the future, freedom. Man chooses himself. This idea is expressed in the allocation of two modes of existence - genuine and inauthentic. A "genuine" person lives in accordance with himself, does not think in patterns, avoids collective stereotypes.

The provisions of existential philosophy are woven into existential psychology. Existential psychology rejects the fragmentary study of personality as a set of psychomotor reactions, factors, or social roles. Personality in existential psychology is determined not by a system of mechanisms, but by how it creates its existence in the world.

Existential psychology proceeds from the primacy of human existence in the world, a collision with which gives rise to basic existential problems, stress and anxiety in each person. A mature person manages to successfully cope with them, the inability to do this leads to mental disorders. Unconscious and defense mechanisms discovered by psychoanalysis are interpreted by existential psychology on an ontological basis. The unconscious is understood as a set of potentials that remain unrealized. The fullness of being depends on the degree of realizability of its capabilities. The boundary separating the conscious and the unconscious is the boundary of personal freedom. The experience of an existential interpretation of Freud's conception was undertaken as early as the 1930s.

Existential psychology has two directions: phenomenological and proper existential. Phenomenological originated in the 18th century. Johann Heinrich Lambert defined phenomenology as the science of objects of experience that analyzes phenomena and reveals the illusions of sensory knowledge. The very idea of ​​I. Kant's "criticism of pure reason" can be understood as a certain kind of phenomenology, since it explores the limits of sensory knowledge, delimiting the phenomenon and noumenon, the transcendental and empirical postulates of consciousness. Starting with the work “Facts of Consciousness” by I.G. Fichte understands phenomenology as the doctrine of the formation of knowledge. In Hegel's Philosophy of Spirit, phenomenology occupies a place between anthropology and psychology. As part of psychology, phenomenology is understood by W. Hamilton, M. Lazarus, F. Brentano. For Franz Brentano, phenomenology must describe and classify mental phenomena: representation, judgment, and mental movements.

The line of psychological interpretation of phenomenology was continued by Karl Stumpf.

The third source is humanistic psychology. In America, by the 1950s, two schools dominated: behaviorism and Freudian psychoanalysis. Some therapists, such as Henry Murray, George Kelly, Rollo May, believed that existing schools exclude from their consideration such truly human values ​​as choice, love, human potential, creativity. They established a new ideological school, which they called "humanistic psychology".

After the crisis of behaviorism in psychology, there is a direction - "humanistic psychology". In the classification of psychological schools, existential psychology is considered one of the areas of humanistic psychology.

Humanistic psychology is a trend in Western psychology that recognizes a person as an integral, unique system, an "open opportunity" for self-actualization. One of the goals of existential psychology is to restore the authenticity of the personality, that is, the correspondence of its being-in-the-world to its inner nature. The means of such restoration is self-actualization - a person's desire for the fullest possible identification of his personal capabilities. Humanistic psychology was formed as a trend in the 60s of the 20th century. Humanistic psychology opposes itself as a "third force" to behaviorism and Freudianism.

A number of leading psychologists and psychotherapists of that time were involved in the current that emerged: G. Murray, G. Murphy.

The main provisions of humanistic psychology:

• a person is open to the world, a person's experiences of the world and himself in the world are the main psychological reality; human life should be considered as a single process of becoming and being of a person;
• a person is endowed with potentialities for continuous development and self-realization, which are part of his nature;
• a person has a certain degree of freedom from external determination due to the meanings and values ​​that guide him in his choice;
• Man is an active, intentional, creative being.

This work does not aim to analyze the achievements and "weaknesses" of humanistic psychology, therefore, returning to existential psychology, we can summarize that humanistic thought had a significant impact on the development of psychotherapy and personality theory, influenced the organization of management and education, the counseling system. Humanistic psychologists have expanded the subject area of ​​psychology to include the relationship of the individual and the understanding of the context of her act.

Much in humanistic psychology is very important for existential psychology: freedom, choice, goals, responsibility, attention to the unique world of any person. However, humanistic psychology is not identical with the European existential tradition: existentialism in Europe has always emphasized human limitations and the tragic side of human existence. Humanism is characterized by a certain optimism, potential development, self-realization.

However, many humanistic psychologists adhere to existential views, primarily Perls, Bugental, Rollo May.

Another source of existential psychology is the psychoanalysts themselves, who have departed from Freud.. Yalom calls them "humanistic psychoanalysts". This is Otto Rank talking about the meaning of the anxiety associated with death; Karen Horney, who has written about the impact of the future on behavior; who analyzed the role and fear of freedom; Helmut Kaiser, who wrote about responsibility and isolation.

And finally, as a source existential psychology, we can talk about the great writers - Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Camus, Sartre, Kafka:

Main part. "For" and "Against" existential psychology.

The main representatives of European existential psychology are Binswagner and Boss (Switzerland), V. Frankl (Austria), Lang and Cooper (Great Britain). In America and Canada, the propagandists of the ideas of existential psychology are R. May, James Bugenthal and others. The ideas of existential psychoanalysis enjoy a noticeable influence in the United States. All of these authors are psychotherapists, they largely substantiate their conclusions by clinical observations. The monograph Existence serves as an encyclopedia of European existential psychology for American psychologists. In this paper, I will consider the criticism of existential psychology already available in the literature, as well as express my own considerations. and Boss are close to the origins of European existential thought and are strongly associated with existentialism. Their translation of Heidegger's ontology of abstract being into the problems of studying the being of the individual is carefully elaborated. Practicing psychiatrists, they have collected the richest empirical material in the analysis of patients. Existential psychology was formed largely in the study of personality pathology: the category of personality in general is in the center of its attention. Existential psychology is directly connected with the provisions of existential philosophy, with its "finds" and "failures". Representatives of existential psychology are united by an ontological interpretation of consciousness. Following the methodology, they make an attempt to find the characteristics of "pure" consciousness, which are understood as innate properties of human existence - there is a rejection of the analysis of consciousness in the genetic and socio-historical aspects. Consciousness is not seen as the highest form of reflection objective world, but actually objectifies itself.

Considering emotions, existentialists single out feelings of anxiety and guilt not as affects, but as characteristics rooted in the ontological nature of man. Anxiety is a state of a person when she is faced with the problem of realizing life potentials. A person always feels guilty insofar as he does not realize all the possibilities, chooses one, and not another solution. Ontological guilt has three modes: the first mode is associated with the impossibility of full self-disclosure and refers to the inner world; the second mode is associated with the doom to insensitivity and refers to the social world (the impossibility to fully understand the other); the third mode of guilt is guilt in the loss of unity with nature, which refers to the objective world.

The elevation of states of anxiety, guilt to the rank of ontological is not accidental: it was caused by wars and disunity of people in countries where existential psychology was born.

Existential psychology is often accused of pessimism. I would call it realism rather than pessimism. Existential psychology is as concerned with the problem of death as it is with the problem of life. "Nothing" is always in the way of a person. Fear is as important as love. Existential psychology is not comforting. The freedom of man is equated with his responsibility. Becoming a man is a complex project, and few manage to complete it. The goal is to become fully human, to fulfill all the possibilities of Dasein. Everyone is responsible for realizing as many possibilities of being-in-the-world as possible. Refusal of such formation leads to phobias, obsessions, neuroses. Becoming presupposes direction and continuity, but direction can change and continuity be destroyed.

The methods used by existentialists are built essentially on self-report. "Scientific" psychology believes that such methods bring psychology back into the realm of "subjectivism" and "romanticism." Existential psychology rejects the experimental methods adopted in psychology, considering them a consequence of dehumanization.

Why is existential psychology not accepted by academic psychology and psychotherapy? The answer lies in the difference in the sources of knowledge. Academic psychology recognizes in this regard only empirical research.

However, it is simply impossible to study existential questions empirically. A person in the existential sense cannot be decomposed into the sum of any parts (such as separately emotions, will, thinking). Man is greater than all his constituent parts. I'll give you a personal example. For about three years, I conducted a series of tests when applying for a job. The tests included verbal test, projective test, color test. In order to find out character traits, I used the MMPI medical test. I repeated some tests for the same people in a month. The test results were different! Even the MMPI personality profile, with reliable results, turned out to be different! That is, the most common test results were not saved even for a month! Besides, what did these tests serve? It was important for the employer as a whole to find out whether or not the candidate for work has pathologies, and such important indicators as the features of working in a team, partnerships of a person with others remained outside of attention. After all, even professional skills cannot be tested with tests. As a result, the usual conversation with a job candidate, consisting of questions such as “What didn’t suit you at your last job?”, “What do you want to get here?”, began to give me much more than a battery of 5-6 tests.

An alternative to empirical methods of study in psychology is the "phenomenological method", which leads directly to understanding the inner world of another person. Immersion in the experience of another person, empathy, non-judgmental acceptance - these components of the phenomenological approach - they are important for an existential psychologist.

The truth, in my opinion, as always, lies in the middle. For psychological counseling, existential methods are the best fit. After all, a clear schematization, bringing people and their problems into a narrow framework, into a structure, does not work in the context of counseling. Existential research is subordinated to the goal of finding the fundamental relations to which behavioral manifestations are reduced. The structure of the individual's world is revealed here through his life history, character, language content, dreams, emotional experiences.

In accordance with the statement about the need to “listen to the language as the abode of being”, ordinary language becomes the subject of special analysis. Both dreams and life stories create only a wider context in understanding the personality's world project.

For a deep understanding of the essence of human problems, existential analysis, existential psychology is needed.

However, the use of various experimental psychological methods is also necessary, for example, in social psychology. Analysis of the personnel structure of an enterprise, analysis of group relations, sociological research - these are the areas in which tests, questionnaires, interviews, etc. are used.

Existential psychology, like psychoanalysis, was nurtured in Europe by medical practitioners and exported to the United States. At the beginning of the 20th century, psychology was "made" almost entirely by university psychologists, whose activities were purely scientific and theoretical. By the middle of the century, a significant number of psychologists had entered applied psychology and, to their dismay, they found that much of what they had been taught was not very applicable to their practical work. Existential psychology and psychoanalysis brought "scientific" psychology closer to practice.

Another line of criticism of existential psychology comes from the fact that psychology has fought hard to free itself from the dominance of philosophy. Testing hypotheses based on experiments, statistical processing data - all this was introduced into the heads of students. Psychoanalysis was considered unscientific for many years, and its acceptance by "scientific" psychology took place only when its hypotheses began to be tested under controlled experimental conditions. Many psychologists believe that existential psychology represents a break with the scientific establishment, thereby endangering psychology's hard-won status. To this kind of criticism, existential psychology would respond that there are many different scientific and philosophical points of view. Any science, including psychology, is always indebted to some philosophy, whether it is understood or not. Objective, positivist psychology is based on Cartesian philosophy; existential psychology - on ontology. They are equally philosophical and equally scientific. The greatest protest of "scientific" psychology is caused by the idea of ​​existentialists about the freedom of a person to be what he wants, because if people are really free to choose existence, then total predictions and control are impossible, and the value of the experiment is limited.

Existential psychology believes that humans are unique beings among everyone on earth; they cannot find a place in the phylogeny of the animal world without destroying the human essence. Man is not an animal like others, and it is impossible to transfer discoveries made during experiments with animals to him. Existential psychology recognizes that human existence has a basis - heredity or fate - but people are free to create on this basis much, according to their choice, that is not available to other species.

Existential psychology is often accused of subjectivism. Boss insists that Dasein is neither idealism nor subjectivism. Things are not created by the human mind. People and the things they reveal or "light up" are interdependent in their existence. There is a strong tinge of ethical attitude in the writings of the existentialists - this irritates many psychologists. The concept of "transcendence" suggests that people can be "higher" and "lower", in order to become fully human, they need to overcome their lowness. This opens the door to moralization, and the use of the words "God" and "divine" gives grounds for suspicion of admitting religion into psychology. But perhaps this is just what is needed if psychology wants to have real meaning for people. A. Kempinski, a Polish psychiatrist and philosopher, says that there are two ways to criticize existential psychology. The first could be called "too big words." Here we are not talking about the difficult and often incomprehensible language of the existentialists, because every new scientific language is difficult to understand (psychoanalytic language, cybernetic language). Speaking of the incomprehensibility and difficulty of the language of existential psychology, Kempinski means that existentialists talk about a person using too “big words”. Thus, we enter the area of ​​basic philosophical questions: we are talking about the place of man in the world. Is the search for answers to these questions within the scope of the tasks of a psychologist or psychotherapist? Of course, assigning a person such a high position in the hierarchy of the surrounding world was a natural reaction to the horrors of the last world war, as well as a reaction to the biologization of psychology. Anton Kempinski in his book Existential Psychotherapy (1973) writes:

“From the point of view of psychiatry, placing a person on such a high pedestal can often be traumatic for the patient, and when compared with what is expected or required of him in the name of this high human ideal, he may have an increased sense of guilt and that he " bad" and "bad". Such an effect, therefore, would be contrary to the main goal of psychotherapy: to strengthen the patient's reduced sense of self-worth as a result of the disease by helping to "recreate" his "self-portrait" in lighter colors. An existentialist psychiatrist involuntarily becomes a moralist, pointing out the value of human existence. And what happens when the patient cannot approve of these values, because they are too high for him, too far-reaching? In this case, the psychotherapeutic contact is destroyed, and the patient can leave the meeting with the psychiatrist mentally broken: "

In this regard, I would like to say the following: as a criticism, I would speak about the "incomprehensible language of the existentialists" rather than about the "big words". In fact, "existential givens" () are not complex. Death, freedom, loneliness, meaninglessness, choice, responsibility - all this needs little clarification. As Yalom says, a person knows all this about himself, therefore existential givens need to be disclosed, not deciphered and analyzed. As for the difficult, incomprehensible language of existential philosophers, there really is a moot point. If the givens of human existence are not complex in themselves, then why complicate them in incomprehensible terms? The most important treatise for existential psychology, Being and Time, is extremely difficult to understand.

Regarding Kempinski's question about whether the search for answers to the most important questions of human existence is within the scope of the psychotherapist's tasks, whether the therapist takes on too much, this is a really important question. I think that psychotherapy, like life, is very individual and cannot give an unambiguous answer to this question. Everything depends on the state of the patient, on his readiness to meet with existential givens. However, this meeting must happen sooner or later. Through confronting, for example, their own mortality, some people go through tremendous personal growth.

As for the main goal of psychotherapy, as Kempinski sees it (“strengthening the patient’s reduced sense of self-worth as a result of the disease by helping to “recreate” his “self-portrait” in lighter colors”), this goal is highly questionable. First of all, I think that "reinforcing: self-worth" is the narrow goal of psychotherapy. There is a broader goal that includes "reinforcing one's own worth." This is personal growth, activation internal forces for change, authentic being in the world, after all, a person's solution to the immediate problems with which he came into therapy. wrote: "the goal of psychotherapy is to bring the patient to the point where he can make a free choice." , and emphasized that true concern for the other is concern for the growth of the other, for bringing "something" to life in the other.

And already the biggest doubts are that the goal of psychotherapy, whatever it may be, should be achieved by "recreating a self-portrait (of a patient) in lighter colors." Does this mean that the patient should leave the therapist each time with an improved mood, with a universe of hope and his own "I" in "bright colors"? Maybe this is what the patient expects from the therapist, but does it contribute to his growth? Responsibility? Free elections? I don't think that painting a "self-portrait in light colors" is necessary for personal growth. Sometimes it is important to take away all hope so that a person finally begins to rely on his own strength.

One can argue with Kempinski about the "moralization" of existential psychology. I think that, in general, existentialists are far from moralizing, but "look" moralists from the point of view of other people. After all, a person is responsible for his choice and the meaning of his life. But, speaking of responsibility, it is assumed that there is another, more correct choice for a person, and perhaps a more socially acceptable choice.

The second direction in which Kempinski criticizes existential psychology is directly addressed to the philosophy of existentialism. Here again we are talking about the place of man in the world. The image of a lonely person in an incomprehensible, often hostile world, a person whose final outcome is death, this philosophical image, which is useful and important in the conditions of Western civilization. But can a psychotherapist use a person in this way in his daily practice? After all, he needs to get the patient out of the impasse in which he found himself.

A. Kempinski believes that existentialists talk about the loneliness and incomprehensibility of a person as some kind of egocentric attitude. Such an attitude, he continues, is often found in people who come to a psychologist or psychiatrist. They feel lonely, misunderstood, unhappy, and the world around them is experienced as alien and hostile to them.

Isn't it more important for a person who comes to a psychiatrist to overcome the egocentric attitude?

If the patient begins to notice other people, their suffering, if his feeling of loneliness decreases - then it is possible to evaluate the prospects of his treatment optimistically, A. Kempinski believes.

Here, in my opinion, there is a substitution of concepts. The "egocentric attitude" of the patient is not at all identical to the existential understanding of loneliness. The setting of egocentric patients is such that they can only think about themselves, about their “misunderstanding” by other people in accusatory terms (“ they They don't understand, they don't like me." Such a patient cannot go beyond his "I", cannot think that others are also alone. The existential understanding of loneliness has a completely different connotation: you just need to recognize that a person is actually lonely. He comes into this world alone and leaves alone. A person cannot be fully understood by others (does he understand himself?). But only by recognizing and accepting his loneliness, reconciled with it, a person is truly able to come closer to understanding another, the same lonely being. Only knowing about each other's global loneliness can we become truly close, as far as we can. Acceptance of our loneliness helps us somewhat soften its severity, bear this burden.

Kempinski probably means interpersonal loneliness (isolation) when talking about the loneliness of his patients. Many factors contribute to such loneliness: conflict, inability to establish interpersonal contacts, etc. also highlights intrapersonal isolation, when a person separates parts of himself from each other.

Existential isolation, unlike interpersonal and intrapersonal isolation, can be maintained with normal communication with other people and internal integrity. Man's confrontation with his own death necessarily leads to existential isolation. Existential loneliness also stems from the acceptance of responsibility. “To the extent that a person is responsible for his own life, he is alone” (Yalom). If we ourselves create our own being in the world, we alone are responsible for our creation, therefore we are alone.

No matter how close a person's relationship with others is, he still remains alone in his existential situation. However, if we acknowledge our loneliness, we will see other equally lonely beings. This will help us to treat others as people and not as means to avoid our loneliness. And then love will ease the pain of isolation.

He wrote: “We are all lonely ships in the dark sea. We see the lights of other ships - we cannot reach them, but their presence and similar position to ours give us great comfort. We are aware of our absolute loneliness and helplessness. But if we manage to break out of our windowless cage, we become aware of others facing the same horror of loneliness. Our feeling of isolation opens the way for us to empathize with others, and we are no longer so afraid: "

But in order to overcome isolation, it must be experienced.

The existential direction in psychology and psychotherapy is a fresh stream. This direction showed the possibility of a completely different look at many problems, as well as a deeper insight into the experiences of a sick person. The merit of existential psychology lies primarily in the fact that it undertook a struggle against the Cartesian division of man into the psyche and somas. Existentialist psychiatrists interpret man as an indivisible whole; there are no separate mental and physical phenomena, but only human phenomena. The existentialists also attacked the primitively understood principle of causality, expressed in the formula f = y (a). Existential psychology attacked this approach on two fronts: hitting the so-called organic trend, according to which a certain organic change in the brain causes certain mental disorders, and also the psychoanalytic direction, in which the same formula was expressed in fitting mental life to narrow schemes of causal relationships. Existential psychology has analyzed a number of mental phenomena: the subjective sense of time, movement, the penetration of the surrounding world into the inner world of the patient, the understanding of the existence of a person in a closed "space-time", in his own world of causal relationships, concepts, values. The temporal space for existential psychology is not limited to the past, as it was considered in the previous psychological directions, but continues into the future. The aspect of the future is no less important in understanding a person, and meanwhile, psychiatrists are accustomed to limiting themselves to studying the history of the disease, past life patient.

Now I would like to turn to the personalities of existential psychology, such names as Jean-Paul Sartre, Victor Frankl, Medard Boss, Ronald Lang.

I would like to follow the path of the existentialists' attitude to certain concepts, such as the unconscious, symbols and dreams, illness and health: It is not my task to fully describe their ideas (and this is not possible within the framework of the abstract), I would like to touch only some views of these authors in terms of vulnerability, possible weakness

relation to the unconscious

It is noteworthy that the first to introduce the term "existential psychoanalysis" was not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but a philosopher.

Jean-Paul Sartre, on the basis of a critique of orthodox psychoanalysis, formulates what he understands by "existential psychoanalysis": "it is a method designed to reveal in a strictly objective form the subjective choice by which each person makes himself a person, that is, makes himself aware of that she is. So he seeks the choice to be and at the same time being, he must reduce individual forms of behavior to fundamental relations, not to sexuality or "will to power", but to being, expressed in these forms of behavior. Therefore, it goes from the very beginning to the understanding of being and cannot have any other goal than the discovery of being and the way of being in the face of this being.

Freud is talking about the unconscious mental, which determines the behavior and thinking of the individual. Sartre sees no reason to postulate an instance that determines what is happening in the mind of the individual. It turns out, Sartre notes, that consciousness does not understand what comes to it from the depths of the unconscious, but at the same time it must understand this perfectly - otherwise the concept of repression and resistance becomes completely incredible.

Although psychoanalysis, according to Sartre, precedes existential analysis, the main thing that is unacceptable for Sartre is the recognition of the unconscious as the main source of motives for human behavior, which deprives a person of freedom and responsibility for his own actions. A person, in one way or another, Sartre believes, is always aware of his actions and at every moment chooses himself. In place of the Freudian unconscious, Sartre finds spontaneous pre-reflective consciousness. At the heart of all human action is not unconscious motivation, but "the original project." By this concept, Sartre understands the last, further non-reducible basis, the initial conscious choice of oneself in relation to being. This choice is the personality itself, this is its being, this is the decision of the subject about how he will write his own history of life. This is the first conscious decision made by a person in relation to the world, “crystallization” takes place around it, this is human freedom. However, the result is paradoxical: the initial choice turns out to be identical to the human being and is carried out together with the first manifestation of consciousness. It is carried out at a time when there is no clear understanding and setting goals. What was chosen initially turns out to be not even a necessity for Sartre, but fate, freedom disappears. Sartre himself said: "The free choice that a person makes, out of himself, is absolutely identical to what is called fate."

The doctrine of original choice is proposed by Sartre as a substitute for Freud's libido.

The Swiss psychiatrist, who actually developed existential analysis (Daseinsanalyse), does not abandon (like Sartre) the idea of ​​​​the unconscious mental, but changes its interpretation: one of the phenomena is in the focus of consciousness, while the rest forms a "horizon" and is potentially conscious. denies the dynamic power of the unconscious, its connection with biological drives. He also denies that the unconscious is a reservoir of childhood repressed drives.

The concept denies the causal relationship between the motivating meaning, which lies beyond the threshold of consciousness, and the meaningful action of the individual, as well as the fact that the pleasure principle is the only motivating factor in human behavior (even Kant said that the issue of conscience cannot be solved simply by pointing to the introjection of the father's image) .

He believes that Freudianism here in the most primitive way reduces the highest manifestations of human consciousness to what consciousness is not.

Medard Boss is not talking about unconscious drives, but about "hidden" for the individual, lying beyond the horizon of his narrowed way of seeing. The reform of psychoanalysis conceived by Boss involves the rejection of the concept of the unconscious, since, in his words, "from the point of view of the phenomena of human existence, there is absolutely no need to postulate an unconscious psyche." The boss denies the existence of unconscious motives, meanings, desires. Potentially, they are all available, but they are not realized due to the narrowness of the “horizon of understanding”. In such cases, there is an obsessive connection with objects. It is not realized, but determines the actions of the individual. Here the difficulty arises: how can one speak of the existence and influence of that which is not perceived, if the Boss postulated from the very beginning that only the perceived by man exists? As a practicing psychiatrist, Boss actually speaks of the unconscious psyche; returning to phenomenological psychology, he rejects the existence of the unconscious.

Boss's arguments against the Freudian concept of the unconscious are not much different from what he wrote about this. The main difference is that Boss explains the "narrow vision" of the neurotic by the presence of a set of norms and rules that prevent him from seeing the meaning of what is happening. The norms imposed in childhood become forms of generalization of experience, control and self-control. Any attempt to go beyond these norms in adulthood leads to the emergence of neurotic guilt.

On the contrary, it does not reject the existence of the unconscious. In his novel Fat Woman, he describes how his patient, Betty, a very obese woman, "re-experienced the major traumatic or crisis events of her life that occurred while she was underweight" as she lost weight. For example, her decision to drop out of medical school and abandon her dream of finding a cure for the cancer that killed her father was worth 180 pounds. “What a wonderful proof,” writes Yalom, “of the existence of an area of ​​the unconscious! Betty's body retained the memory of what her mind had long forgotten.

So, although basically in existentialism there is no denial of the unconscious, the views of representatives of this approach differ greatly in relation to the unconscious. What is common is that the spatial localization of the subconscious in the psyche is rejected. Our consciousness is intentional - always directed towards something - but something is on the periphery (avoided). In psychotherapy, we pay attention to what is avoided, not repressed.

Relationship to dreams and symbols

Criticizing the interpretation of the symbolism of Freud's dreams (reduction to the expression of unconscious sexual desires), Sartre comes to the conclusion that there can be no universal method for interpreting symbols in existential psychoanalysis. It must change depending on the person being analyzed. But Sartre nevertheless offered his universal method of interpreting symbols. Sartre found the "universal key" to the interpretation of symbols in the "psychoanalysis of things" developed by his contemporary Gaston Bachelard. If a person has what he wants. It is necessary to understand the nature of this preferred being. If an artist often refers to images of animals, then in order to understand the artist, it is necessary to understand the objective meaning of the animal. As a result of the clarification of the objective symbolism of each thing, a certain realm of meanings is formed, which stands on the other side of the division into physical and mental. Sartre also criticizes Freud's interpretation of the symbolism of dreams, saying that there can be no universal method for interpreting symbols in existential analysis. It should change depending on the personality that is being analyzed at the moment. Symbols are taken out by Sartre outside the inner world of a person, as well as qualities like “stickiness”, “pleasantness” or “disgustingness” become objective properties of being. Great difficulties arise when the concept of fundamental choice is transferred to a mentally ill person. According to Sartre, it turns out that even in early childhood he himself chose the disease, that the disease was the result of his conscious decision. In general, it is impossible to determine who is normal and who is sick: the project of each person is unique, and such definitions as norm or pathology are purely external. Later, these Sartrean positions were adopted by representatives of antipsychiatry.

He also rejects the Freudian interpretation of dreams: it is precisely the “explicit” content of the dream that should be interpreted - it does not hide some kind of hidden content repressed into the unconscious. Dreams are not necessarily wish-fulfillments, as Freud believed, they have as many types of activity as in wakefulness. In his work "Dream and Existence" he writes: "dream: is nothing but one of the forms of human existence as a whole."

“For the interpretation of a dream, it does not matter whether in this drama, unfolding in the absolute silence of the soul, the dreamer acts on his own or with these or other derivative characters. The theme narrated from Dasein's point of view, that is, the "content" of the drama, is what constitutes the decisive factor."

Psychoanalysts believe that there is a clear symbolic method, according to which images have a base symbolic meaning (for any person), and the whole direction of meaning comes from a biological need. Dasein analysis cannot accept such a one-way relationship. “What psychoanalysis calls a symbol is for Dasein analysis the same primary reality as the “repressed” or symbolized. The true meaning of the symbol: in the world of the individual determines the meaning of the symbolized not only for the analyst in his attempts to interpret the symbol, but also for the individual himself, ”writes J. Needleman in his article“ Introduction to Existential Psychoanalysis. In Dasein analysis, the symbol and the symbolized modify each other.

Medard Boss, suggesting a rejection of the Freudian concept of the "unconscious", proposed instead a theory according to which there is no symbolism in dreams, because they directly express a holistic being-in-the-world, even if the person himself does not know about it. Sleep is another mode of being-in-the-world. The constituents of the dream must be taken in their own sense and content, as they are felt in the dreamer's experience. Sleep and wakefulness are not absolute various areas existence. In fact, a person's mode of being expressed in a dream often duplicates the waking mode of being. Boss illustrated this with a series of 823 patient reports of his dreams over 3 years of therapy. The 40-year-old engineer sought help for depression and sexual impotence. During therapy, the content of his dreams changed: from impersonal machines to plants, animals and humans. The appearance of animal images in dreams indicates the presence of "animal" impulses, and the image of a snake, for example, indicates an expression of fear towards snakes. Meanwhile, such an interpretation does not take into account the rich symbolic load of the image of a snake (and not only a snake) in a number of cultures.

If dreams and waking life are so homologous, then why take dreams into account? Answer: dreams highlight those realities of the human world that the dreamer does not know about in wakefulness.

Boss rejects the Freudian doctrine of the unconscious, dreams and their symbolism. In dreams, according to Boss, a holistic being-in-the-world is expressed, this is another mode of being in the world. Sleep and wakefulness are not absolutely different spheres of existence, they are one and the same being-in-the-world. Dreams do not hide existence, they are its revelation. However, the question arises: why is the content of a dream sometimes completely obscure, incomprehensible, different from the real life of a person. And one more thing: is it possible to reject the richest symbolic loading of some images (for example, animals) in a whole number of cultures.

Understanding mental illness and health.

Most deeply, in my opinion, I considered illness and health in the light of existential psychology. The proposed existential analysis is a method of analyzing the personality in its entirety and uniqueness of its existence (existence). defines existential analysis as a phenomenological analysis of actual human existence. The true being of a person is revealed by deepening it into oneself in order to choose a “life plan” independent of external circumstances. In cases where a person's openness to the future is characteristic of true existence. Disappears, he begins to feel abandoned, his inner world shrinks, development opportunities remain beyond the horizon of vision, and neurosis arises. A person begins to explain what is happening to him as a result of determination by past events, and not by his own acts of choice: the mode of “abandonment” (the past) dominates. The meaning of existential analysis is to help a person realize himself as a free being, able to choose. Mental illness is an extreme degree of inauthenticity, remoteness from free transcending: neurotics do not see the probabilistic nature of being (“being-possibility”) and constitute statically complete “worlds”. The narrowing of the being-in-the-world of the individual leads, however, to the fact that some of the phenomena remain outside the horizon of vision and cannot be thematized; neurotic symptoms are an expression of this. The task of the psychotherapist is to expand the horizon of vision and help the patient make an authentic choice.

The goal was to find a new basis for psychological science and psychiatric practice, to overcome the crisis of psychology. "Disease" and "health", "normality" and "abnormality" - the meaning of these concepts depends a lot on the understanding of the person as a whole, and not just on the medical view. Rejecting the biological criterion of mental "health" or "illness", he understands them in the spirit of the doctrine of "genuine" and "inauthentic" existence. The individual himself chooses his existence as sick, and all the events of his inner world are connected with this choice. The disease is interpreted as a condition of a person who has refused to freely design his own future. So, in the case of "Ellen West" only briefly indicates that a number of her relatives committed suicide, went crazy. tries to explain this or that choice of the patient and practically says nothing even about the impact of the family environment on him: it all comes down to the initial insufficiency, the narrowness of the existential structure that defines the “horizon of experience” of a person.

The main theme of the case histories is the fanatical, desperate desire of a person for an unattainable ideal to be different from what he is. Describing the situations of his patients, he ignores socio-psychological factors (for example, family). All reality merges with him into the world of "abandonment" and a person must accept his facticity and "abandonment", otherwise illness sets in. throughout his career, he tried to refute the causal explanations of mental phenomena and at the same time wanted to substantiate psychology and psychiatry as sciences of man. As a result, empirical observations and clinical material constantly opposed the theoretical constructions put forward by him.

Mental illness is the highest degree of inauthenticity, when the integrity of existence is violated, the mode of "abandonment" dominates over all the others. The main characteristic of mental health considers transcending, going beyond one's own limits.

That people can become neurotic at all, he writes, “is a sign of the abandonment of existence and its possible fall, in short, a sign of its finitude, its transcendental limitation and unfreedom.” Aware of himself as "abandoned", a person must, nevertheless, choose himself. Refusal to choose leads to inauthentic existence, in extreme cases - to neurosis. Thus, it is concluded that it is not past events, children's fixations and identifications that cause neurosis. The fixations and identifications themselves are due to the fact that the being-in-the-world of a given patient has a special “configuration” that is formed in childhood. Since existence is limited, one mode of existence becomes dominant and narrows the horizon of world perception. As a result, either all modes are reduced to a single one, or a sharp contradiction arises between various aspects of human existence. gives a number of forms of such destruction of the integrity of the personality (case histories of "Lola Voss", "Ellen West", "Ilse", "Jürg Zünde"). He sees the cause of the disease in the initial narrowness of the possible horizon of the experience of this existence, which subsequently leads to the inability to comprehend many of the phenomena that make up the world of human existence. They remain over the horizon, but act, causing anxiety, fear, obsessive behavior. At the same time, there is a separation of the spiritual dimension from the bodily; the ideal existence, the idealized world, is opposed to the base world, into which the individual is “thrown”. Most of the symptoms are interpreted as the result of the rotation of patients in a vicious circle: the desire to achieve the absolute ideal created by one's own imagination and the realization of one's complete inconsistency with this ideal, identifying oneself with the complete opposite of this ideal. As a result of the failure of all these attempts, patients generally refuse to determine their lives and place themselves completely at the mercy of others, lose their own "I" and flee into psychosis. This is the loss of oneself in the world, "secularization." The world of psychosis is a complete inauthenticity, but psychosis is the result of the choice of the person himself.

Using the example of Ellen West, Binsanger shows how a complete denial of the social world and even her own physical constitution, which the patient does not want to consider her own, is carried out. They are opposed to a completely unattainable ideal, and each unsuccessful attempt to achieve this ideal only strengthens the denial. Refusal to accept one's existence "abandoned" into a certain bodily and social world, setting unrealizable goals lead "Ellen West" to neurosis, turning into psychosis.

The article "Schizophrenia: An Introduction" highlights some concepts for understanding "schizophrenic existential demeanor":

• Violation of the sequence of natural experience, its inconsistency: "the inability to allow things to be" in direct contact with him, in other words, "the inability to be serene among things." An example is the case of Ellen West, how she disposes of things, dictating to them: the body should not gain weight, she herself should change completely:
• “The split of the empirical sequence into alternatives”, that is, a hard either-or.

“Thus we have returned to what we have decided to define in all our patients as the formation of extravagant ideals. Now Dasein is betting on "maintaining" this position, in other words, following this ideal "by all means".

• The "concept of concealment" is "a Sisyphean effort to hide that side of the contradiction that is intolerable to Dasein, and thereby maintain an extravagant ideal", such as Lola Voss's concealment of anxiety through a linguistic oracle and its solutions, or Ellen West's desperate efforts to lose weight.
• "Erasure of existence (as if by friction), the culmination of antinomic tensions arising from the inability to find any way out, which is a renunciation or renunciation of the whole antinomic problem as such and takes the form of an existential retreat. "For example, the departure, renunciation of the life of Ellen West and her subsequent suicide.

Medard Boss believed that the fundamental principle underlying psychotherapy should be the complete openness of the patient. The boss prescribes to patients such an attitude to the world that “allows everything that manifests to be as it is”. Neurotics and psychotics suffer from cruel predestination, lack of spontaneity, limited vision of the world. "Allowing to be as it is" everything that manifests itself in life is the main condition for successful treatment. Boss emphasizes what he calls "allowing the patient to become a child again." Boss counts. That by allowing the patient to return to early childhood, he gives the opportunity to release those potencies that were once suppressed by severe family and social restrictions.

The boss believes that the disease has no causes, there are only motives. The past does not determine, but motivates the present. Moreover, “everything that happens in the world of human beings begins from the point of view of the future, so that the future can claim primacy in relation to the other two time spans of human existence. This fact is of the greatest importance for medicine, both for pathogenesis and for therapy. Boss interprets all psychoses without exception as changes in the openness of existence. Mental illnesses of modern people are associated with the narrowing of the perception of being, the lack of the meaning of existence. Boss's treatment of schizophrenia is in many ways similar to the doctrines of antipsychiatry. According to Boss, the schizophrenic opens up some dimension of being that is inaccessible to the majority, that is, he is extremely sensitive to the “hidden”. But, not being able to express this experience of the "hidden" in poetry, philosophy, religion, such a person becomes sick.

Criticism of Freudianism does not prevent Boss from reproducing many of the Freudian theories: for example, Boss often describes neuroses simply as a consequence of the adverse influences of the family environment in early childhood. The patient does not just need to remember his past, but to transform his attitudes, beliefs, choose the way of existence that suits him. Why, then, does Boss speak so often of free choice, when he was so emphatically critical of the subjectivism of the existentialists?

The boss writes that all the sciences of man are completely false. He sets himself the task of eliminating Cartesianism in psychology and medicine. In place of the exiled sciences of man, it is necessary to put Heidegger's doctrine of the integral Dasein as a set of existentials. All existing theories of perception, memory, emotions, thinking are rejected and existential analytics takes their place. In place of the traditional concepts of biology and physiology Boss puts existentials. The most important existentials for the Boss are corporality, spatiality, temporality, existence in a divided world, and mood (mood).

Regarding mental illness, the Boss says that diseases have no causes, only motives. Mental illness and any other is a violation of being-in-the-world, which are cured due to the expansion of the field of vision of being.

Boss interprets all mental illnesses without exception as a change in the openness of existence. Mental illnesses of modern people are associated with the narrowing of the perception of being, the lack of the meaning of existence.

Boss's interpretation of schizophrenia is in many ways similar to the doctrines of antipsychiatry: the schizophrenic discovers some dimension of being that is inaccessible to the majority, he is extremely sensitive to the "hidden". But, not being able to express this experience of the “intimate” in poetry, philosophy, religion, such a person becomes sick.

The boss believes that the scientific and technological civilization cripples people mentally. Psychologists and doctors in this world, endowed with an arsenal of tools and "techniques", "repair" the patient, like a broken watch. Medicine has become part of the business: expensive operations are performed, remedies “for all diseases” are advertised, etc. The boss hopes to spread the existential-phenomenological approach to all sciences, and also believes in the East, where traditionally more importance is attached to the inner, spirit.

The most radical view of the field of mental health and illness was expressed by representatives of antipsychiatry (Ronald Lang).

Antipsychiatry expresses a typical counterculture idea of ​​a person and brings to absurdity a number of provisions of phenomenological psychiatry and existentialism. This ideological movement arose in the early 60s in Great Britain, and it was in the works of Lang that it was most fully developed. Supporters of antipsychiatry see their task in exposing human violence against a person in all its forms (for example, clinical psychiatry is a tool of political violence). Lang's most famous work is "The Split Self", where Lang comprehends the nature of the self-contradictory "unhappy consciousness", the related issues of loneliness, the loss of the meaning of life, moral conformity. Lang allows the reader to feel the inner world of a schizophrenic, paradoxical and logical at the same time. Lang also draws on Hegel. For the latter, the problem of self-contradictory, "unfortunate" consciousness appears as the problem of the development of a historically defined form of consciousness.

Lang's focus is on a schizoid personality, a person who has broken connections with the outside world, other people, and himself. His perception of his own "I" is split, contradictory and confusing. And the emergence of schizoid consciousness is due to the collision of the initially moral and humane (in the understanding of existential philosophy) subject with society, the conflict between the authenticity of existential being and the inauthenticity of social reality. This situation is in conflict with the natural striving of a person for unity, the integrity of being-in-the-world, and a person tries to connect the content brought into consciousness by society with the context of his existential being. This leads to the creation of chimeric mental structures perceived as madness. The main content of his life and "unhappy consciousness" translates into the plane of struggle with himself, he realizes the contradiction between the "true" inner self and the external personality, social role, "mask". This understanding of the "essence" of "unhappy consciousness" is traditional for existential psychology and philosophy. Even in the last century, he pointed out that “the unfortunate, therefore, is the one whose ideal, whose content of life, whose fullness of consciousness, whose real essence, one way or another, lies outside him. The unfortunate is always torn away from himself, never merged with himself.

Lang describes 3 main forms of anxiety that permeate the daily life of "unhappy consciousness": "absorption", "breakthrough", "petrification".

Uncertainty about one's own identity causes fear of being absorbed by others in communication. As a result, the individual tends to isolation. Since the “ontologically insecure person” feels completely empty, she is afraid of filling this vacuum: each contact with reality is experienced as a threat of a “breakthrough” of unknown terrible forces: “if one experiences the other as a free agent, then he is open to the possibility of being experienced as an object of experience another, and thereby the loss of one's own subjectivity. He is threatened by the possibility of becoming nothing more than a thing in the world of another, without any life of his own: "Unhappy consciousness" Lang refers to as "non-embodied self."

“Incarnated Self” is being your body, its desires, needs. It has natural inclinations and features, temperament. But he, as it were, lacks an inner world, this is not a “face” in the traditional sense.

"Non-embodied I". In this case, the individual identifies himself with his consciousness, and the body perceives as one of the objects of the external world, a shell that is false for the "inner, true" "I". The body is perceived as one of the objects in the world, and not as a concentration of individuality.

The schizoid creates a whole system of "false selves", replacing him with his "inner, non-embodied self" when interacting with other people. The inevitable consequence of such isolation is, in addition to the feeling of omnipotence, a feeling of emptiness.

Just as Lang, who sought the cause of psychotic disorders in the predetermined narrowness of the "configuration of existence", Lang in "The Split Self" says nothing about how and why the "ontological certainty" is lost. Unreliable structuring of the psyche occurs in early childhood, the reasons are unclear. Then the individual tries to defend himself, but in vain. Since every encounter with the world threatens to engulf the "inner self", the schizoid is afraid to go beyond the shell he has created. Imaginary worlds and fantasy replace reality. This protected freedom becomes a curse. Lang uses Sartre's image of "condemnation to freedom": the heroes of existentialist novels turn out to be potential psychotics.

There is a tendency to explain schizophrenia and other mental illnesses by social factors, which, in my opinion, is still not enough.

Lang believes that it is existential phenomenology that can shed light on the understanding of insanity. The concepts of clinical psychiatry for Lang are unacceptable here, because they break the integrity of human existence into the psyche and the soma.

Lang calls for "learning from the schizophrenic" to penetrate into other states of consciousness and organizes one of the world's first alternative clinics for psychotic patients, where he achieves serious success in the cure.

Divided Self differs from Lang's subsequent works: it lacks mysticism. Then Lang's psychotics become like mystics and prophets. Although sharp criticism of clinical psychiatry has been preserved in all of Lang's work.

In his subsequent work, Lang moves from the inner world of the psychotic to the analysis of the family and social context. Lang's analysis " social systems fantasy" is of interest in terms of applying the phenomenological method to social problems: all groups act on their members through "fantasy systems", and the type of experience of the group is the main reason for being in it. If an individual begins to go beyond the "fantasy system", then other members groups qualify him as "crazy".

In the late 60s, Lang interprets schizophrenia as a stage of natural healing, an entrance into the realm of "superhealth", which is thwarted by psychiatrists with their lobotomy, electric shock and drugs. The language of Lang's work becomes more and more mystical, the line between health and insanity becomes false.

Thus, at first, the world of psychotics was interpreted as no less meaningful than the world of a healthy person. The next step was the discovery that some social factors (family) can contribute to the disease. But since many of Lang's patients grew up in well-to-do families, Lang came to the conclusion that social reality as a whole is insane, that the sick are much healthier than the so-called "normal". This is the result of the evolution of Lang's views from "The Split Self" to "The Politics of Experience", a classic work for all antipsychiatry. In The Politics of Experience, Lang speaks of the total alienation of man in the modern world. Truth and social reality are infinitely far from each other. "Normal" are so sick that they do not even know about their illness, "sick" are those who have begun to recover. Lang "links" psychiatric treatment with mystical insights, which causes criticism of Lang's colleagues, who assessed antipsychiatry as an extremely dangerous practice for patients. One of the most terrible diseases turned out to be an ideal: to get rid of a repressive and illusory world, you need to go crazy.

Lang described the real negative aspects of modern psychiatric practice. He prepared the question of the connection between mental disorders and inhuman social relations. In addition, Lang is an interesting researcher of "family ghettoes".

So, when we talk about life, it is difficult to talk about the norm and pathology. Existential psychology refuses to resolve issues of norm and pathology, it deals with human capabilities. Physical health in existential psychology is associated with authentic existence, with authorship in life.

Relation to causality

Scientific psychology criticizes existential psychology because existential psychology rejects causation. However, "brute" causation is rejected: "it" is caused by "it". Interconnection is not rejected, a simplistic view of causes is rejected. Existential psychology objects to the transfer of the principle of causality from the natural sciences to psychology. There is interconnectedness, there is a sequence of behavioral events. The boss, for example, talks about motives, not reasons. Motivation always involves understanding the relationship between cause and effect. The boss gives an example: a window slammed shut by the wind and a window closed by a man. The wind is the reason the window closed; the person is motivated to close the window. Motivation and understanding are valid principles in existential analysis. Existential psychology denies that there is anything behind phenomena that explains them or causes them to exist. Phenomena are what they are in all their immediacy, they are not facades or derivatives of something else. understands causality (conditionality of the present by the past) as a result of the self-alienation of free existence, which turns itself from a possibility into a necessity, into an object. Subjective meaning and causality, in his opinion, exclude each other. In psychoanalysis, a person turns out to be not the creator of his future, but connected with the past, and he himself is not aware of this.

Attitude to the division into "subject" and "object", psyche and soma. The concept of integrity and man in the world.

There is no theory of personality behind existential psychology. This is the strength and weakness of existential psychology. The very concept of “personality” is avoided, the concept of “person” is used mainly. There is also the concept of "self", which in existential psychology is understood as a person's openness to the world. The human world is characterized in existential psychology by four dimensions, between which there is no hierarchy: physical, social, psychological and spiritual.

He tried to solve the problem of describing human existence in its entirety, contrary to Freud's biologism. Psychoanalysis did not suit me as any "explaining" approaches to human consciousness. In scientific theories, he writes, "the reality of the phenomenal, its uniqueness and independence, are absorbed by hypothetical forces, drives, and the laws that govern them."

The science of man must describe human existence in its entirety. Freud reduces human existence to hypothetical universal laws. As conceived by existentialists, the concept of "being-in-the-world" is intended to emphasize the inseparable integrity of the subjective and the objective. The dichotomy "object-subject" is recognized as a mistake of Descartes, and the Cartesian picture of the world - as a consequence of an alienated perception of reality. Neither the subjective nor the objective is primordially. The world is a structure of meaningful relationships that the subject himself creates.

Being-in-the-world, according to, has 3 modes:

• Umwelt - the physical world that all living organisms share with us;
• Mitwelt - the social world, the sphere of communication with other people;
• Eigenwelt - the world of self (including the physical), inherent only to man.

The separation of the corporeal and the spiritual, in the opinion, is removed in the ontology. Within the framework of Dasein-analysis, the corporality of human existence is not denied, it is regarded as “abandonment”. A person is situationally determined and exposed to external influences. But this influence does not determine human behavior, it is accepted as a choice. Man is doomed to be free, because he is faced with a single necessity: to choose all the time.

He believed that psychiatry should consider a person in a new way, in his integrity, and to denote the unity of all modes, he proposed the term koinonia - complicity. Neurotic symptoms testify to the violation of such unity. Therefore, when critics of existential psychology say that Eigenwelt is the main mode of y, and the other two worlds do not correlate with each other, then this is not true. It's just that the world of the self is the basis on which the relationship to other modes is built, and koinonia unites these modes. It is precisely the violation of the unity of the three modes that neuroses testify to.

Boss also believed that the dualism of the subjective and the objective was being overcome, although he emphasized that Dasein is not a person, but here-being, openness, “clearance”, in which the meaning of being is revealed. Being-in-the-world heals the gap between subject and object and restores the unity of man in the world. This does not mean that people are connected to or interact with the world. This would mean that people and environment are two separate entities. Man and the world are exactly one. In recent writings, Boss even began to introduce a hyphen in the expression "Dasein", perhaps to emphasize that "Da" means not just "there", but "right there".

In the openness of man, being gets the opportunity to manifest itself, but this openness itself is possible only due to the fact that being is revealed to man. Man serves as the recipient of the message of being, and he himself is "sent" into the world so that being can "discover" itself. A person just needs to listen to the "language of being", thereby allowing the very being to speak.

M. Boss was personally acquainted and friendly with. Boss followed the path blazed by phenomenological psychology. But Boss gradually comes to the conclusion that his views on a number of points differ from the concept and other existentialists, who, as he believed, misinterpreted "Being and Time". Teaching is not existentialism, not anthropology, but ontology, the doctrine of being, Boss believed. Unlike Boss, he does not talk about different world projects, but discusses existence in terms of openness and closeness, open or closed, light and dark, wide and narrow. It makes no sense to talk about the existence of something if there is no one who "highlights" this existence. Man and the world do not exist without each other, they are one and constitute each other. People do not have an existence separate from the world, just like the world from people. Man "opens the world." People are "a clearing in which everything that should be is really highlighted, arises, appears as a phenomenon." There is nothing behind the phenomena. They are the essence of reality. In existential analysis, a person tries to see what living is and describe it as accurately as language means allow. You should not look for hidden reasons or meanings. Man does not give meaning to objects: they reveal their meanings to man when he is open to accepting them. In the openness of man, being gets the opportunity to manifest itself, but this openness itself is possible because being opens up to man. Man serves as the "recipient" of the message of being, and he himself is "sent" into the world so that being can "discover" itself. Boss sees the main task of existential analysis in the cure of neuroses and psychoses by overcoming all preconceived notions and "subjectivist" interpretations that have obscured being from man. It is necessary to phenomenologically describe the initial level of correlation of a person with the world, discarding all explanatory constructions, in particular, the psychoanalytic conceptual apparatus: for example, not “unconscious drives”, but “hidden” for the individual.

Since being in the world is a holistic phenomenon, then a person does not have his own potentialities and inclinations - everything is in being and from being. Therefore, according to Boss, it is not necessary to teach the patient to come into contact with other people (he is initially in "openness" with others), it is only necessary to remove the barriers that block the initial openness ("allow to be as it is"). However, it is not entirely clear how it is possible to induce an uncommunicative patient to accept this position.

Willpower, communication training, group therapy, and "other-oriented" therapy can only worsen the situation of the patient, according to Boss. Boss notes that the knowledge of death leaves people no choice but to live in some permanent relationship to death, "being to death", which makes us responsible for literally every moment of our existence. I agree that the knowledge of death imposes responsibility on us, but in my opinion, it is simply impossible to live every day, remembering "death over the left shoulder." Such knowledge should come to the fore periodically, allowing you to make the right choice or change what already exists in life.

Existential psychology opposes views of man as a thing. Man is free and alone responsible for his existence.

As a professional psychiatrist, he turns to phenomenology as a science. Phenomenology is generally the main method of work of the existentialists. However, here it encounters the following difficulty: if the other person is nothing more than a projection of my subjective experience (phenomenology), then any possibility of adequate knowledge of the inner world of another person becomes problematic. He tries to overcome this limitation with the help of Scheler's doctrine of "sympathy". According to Scheler, the spiritual life of other people is comprehended by us directly and even earlier than our own. However, even now he found himself in a strange position for a psychiatrist: if the goals, intentions, emotions of another person are given to everyone in direct vision, then it is impossible to make a mistake when assessing the intentions and emotions of another person (for example, in making a diagnosis). The teaching of Scheler also had to be abandoned, although the later teaching of "love-being-with-each-other" is undoubtedly connected with Scheler's philosophical anthropology.

Interesting in terms of genuine, true communication "I" and "You" in the spirit of existentialism was the doctrine of "existential communication". Almost all existentialist philosophers spoke of the uniqueness and incomprehensibility of existence. This thesis was put forward by them against the "objectifying" sciences, which turn the individual into a thing among things. But even in everyday communication with loved ones, we do not stop thinking with the help of concepts, we separate ourselves from others with the help of reflection, we rationally comprehend what they said, we try to understand the motives of their actions, etc. In other words, we almost always look at others from the outside. And this means that with one glance we turn other people into objects, into objects.

The world of human life is identified with the world of "care". He sees the overcoming of his "inauthenticity" (a person - a thing, an object) in a radical separation of existence from the outside world. But does this overcome inauthenticity? answers with an unequivocal “no”: after all, the choice is made in the same world of “care”. A person is free to change only social roles, he is doomed to "play" all his life. believes that social life inhuman, but it is necessary and is, though inauthentic, but the universal side of human existence. In the words of Goethe, "no matter how terrible society may be, but man is inconceivable without people."

Understands the failure of existentialist individualism in the first stage of his philosophizing, and later in Sartre. poses the problem of interpersonal communication and shows the impossibility of interpreting a person in isolation from other people. Individualistic self-affirmation leads to the loss of all internal content by a person, to emptiness, "nothing", and ultimately, even to mental illness. "Rebellion" he contrasts with love, the true relationship of "I" and "you". Therefore, when existential psychology is accused of preaching disunity, isolation, separation of people, this only speaks of a poor understanding of existential psychology.

In general, it attracts precisely with its thoughtfulness, sometimes with criticism of existential psychology, with its own views, even if they run counter to philosophy. Love opposes the world of "care", being-towards-death, running into "nothing". If Sartre defines freedom as the ability to negate, and considers any identity with oneself to be a “bad faith,” then this is a psychological necessity, because the loss of agreement with oneself is considered by him as evidence of a neurotic disorder. Some of the clinical cases cited are reminiscent of Sartre's hero "Nausea" in their features: this is how people with severe neurosis, turning into psychosis, should experience the world.

Following other existentialists, Rollo May denies the possibility of rational and objective knowledge of human existence and the division into subject and object. Man and the world are inextricably linked with each other. The world of personality cannot be understood through a description of all possible factors of the external environment, which is only one of the modes of this being-in-the-world. According to May, there are many surrounding worlds, as many as there are individuals. The world includes past events, but they do not exist by themselves, objectively, but depending on the attitude of a person towards them, on the meaning that they have for him.

He writes: "The existential view looks "through" the subject-object split and deeper than it: it sees a person not as a subject who, under certain conditions, can perceive external reality, but as a consciousness participating in the construction of reality." That is why he speaks of man as Dasein. "Da" indicates that the person is present, but at the same time organizes the world.

Attitude to existential characteristics.

He calls them the "ultimate givens" of existence and identifies four givens: death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. You can also highlight such existential characteristics as anxiety, guilt, time, a sense of being. I will only talk about two characteristics - meaning / meaninglessness and time.

A. Meaning/meaninglessness

“So I lived, but five years ago something very strange began to happen to me: at first they began to find minutes of bewilderment, stopping my life, as if I didn’t know how to live: These stops of life were always expressed by the same questions: Why? Well, and then?: The questions seemed so stupid, simple, childish questions. But as soon as I touched them and tried to resolve them, I was immediately convinced, firstly, that these were not childish and stupid questions, but the most important and profound questions in life, and, secondly, that I I cannot and cannot, no matter how much I think, resolve them.

These words belong to Leo Tolstoy, whose search for the meaning of life, like no other writer, was reflected in his work.

The desire to find meaning in one's life is inherent in man from the very beginning. It cannot be said that the billions of people who lived before us did not strive to find this meaning. These people who lived before us suffered, loved, died just like we did. For life and for death, they also needed meaning, just like us, living in the 20th century. And each century has created its own reasons for doubt in this sense. But, apparently, never before has the meaning of life been subjected to such a serious test as in the twentieth century. Having survived world wars and revolutions, a person was left alone with his "damned" questions. For Russia, the 20th century is the century of the deepest force of upheavals. The faith of the common man is crushed. The new ideals that replaced faith have not stood the test of time. The man was left in the middle of the river, with the oars lost and the banks hidden from view. "No instinct, no tradition tells him what to do, and soon he won't know what he wants to do." The lack of faith and ideals gives rise to what is now called “the ability to live”: this is an artificial filling of the day with business, a lack of free time, and, consequently, the inability to stop and take a meaningful look at my life: why am I still living? A person's life flows according to a predetermined schedule: breakfast, arrival at work, eight hours with a break for lunch, departure home, dinner, TV, newspaper, sleep. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Summer, autumn, winter: A sort of surrogate for meaningfulness. Like Block:

If you die, you start over again
And everything will repeat, as of old:
Night, icy ripples of the channel,
Pharmacy, street, lamp.

Sartre wrote about the absurdity and meaninglessness of existence. I am not close to thoughts of absurdity and meaninglessness my existence. As a human being, I want to believe that my life has meaning. No evidence. The finale of Nausea, where Antoine Roquentin nevertheless finds a justification for his existence in a book that has not yet been written, does not inspire confidence: the hero of the story, in my opinion, will never cope with the absurdity, will not be justified. And the book is unlikely to be written.

The greatest contribution to the problem of meaning and meaninglessness was made by Viktor Frankl. Frankl claimed that 20% of the neuroses he encounters in clinical practice are of "noogenic" origin, that is, arising from the lack of meaning in life. Frankl considers the absence of meaning to be a paramount existential stress. Existential neurosis is Frankl's synonym for the crisis of meaninglessness.

The problem of meaning is undoubtedly important in therapy. speaks of the following dilemma of existential psychology: man needs meaning. But the existential concept of freedom indicates that "the only truly absolute fact lies in the absence of absolutes." Human beings build their own world, this world can be completely different. There is no meaning to the universe, Yalom believes, no cosmic design exists. “How does a being in need of meaning find meaning in a universe that has no meaning?” Yalom asks.

What gives a sense of meaning? For Yalom, these are altruism, dedication, creativity, hedonism (enjoyment of life), self-actualization. Moreover, the last two types of meaning differ from the previous ones in that they express concern for one's own "I", while others are associated with the desire to surpass oneself, aspire to something higher than oneself. Self-transcendence is one of the fundamental features of Viktor Frankl's approach to the problem of meaning.

“Many scientists consider the Frankl method to be too offensive. His arguments often appeal to emotion, he convinces, makes ex cathedra statements, is often repeated and can be harsh. Then, although he claims to have a secular approach to the problem of meaning (arguing that, as a Hippocratic physician, he is obligated to develop treatments that apply to all patients, atheists and believers alike), there is no doubt that Frankl's approach to life meaning is fundamentally religious,” writes Yalom.

In addition, Yalom believes that there are many distractions in Frankl's work: self-aggrandizement, self-citation, mention of the many universities where he has lectured and the professionals who support him. But, and Yalom agrees, Viktor Frankl's contribution to the problem of meaning is enormous.

Asking the question, what is the meaning of life, we forget about an important addition, the word "mine". Asking about meaning of life in general - an empty and thankless occupation, leading to nothing (perhaps only to despair). Asking about the meaning of “one’s own” life requires great courage from a person: one can see all the meaninglessness and even harm of one’s own life. “I realized that my question about what my life is, and the answer: evil, was absolutely correct. The only thing wrong was that I applied the answer, which applied only to me, to life in general: The answer “life is evil and meaningless” applied only to my life, and not to human life in general,” Tolstoy wrote in his Confession.

Frankl believes that meaning exists both for each individual and for each individual situation. Each situation offers a person a choice: to take a step towards the realization of meaning, to remain human, or vice versa, to retreat from meaning. The meaning of life of every person exists always, under any circumstances. It can change, but never disappears, "man has the freedom to undertake the realization of this meaning."

According to Frankl, the meaning of life can be realized in three ways: through activity, through the experience of values ​​(nature, culture, love), and through suffering. I will not describe these methods in detail, as this has already been done by me in My Understanding Logotherapy.

V. Frankl believed that meanings are not invented or created: they must be sought and found. We can choose not the meaning itself, but the vocation in which we find meaning. No one, including a logotherapist, can give us the only meaning that we can find in our lives. There are specific and non-specific areas of application of logotherapeutic methods. A specific area is noogenic neurosis, generated by the loss of the meaning of life. The non-specific sphere is the psychotherapy of phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorders, sexual neuroses using the methods of paradoxical intention and dereflexia. Logotherapy can be effectively used in crisis situations (loss of loved ones, incurable disease, suicidal intentions). In other therapeutic situations, the question of the personal meaning of the life of the person seeking help may also arise. However, in my opinion, it should not be "imposed" by the therapist, as it can lead the therapeutic process far astray. The therapist must be prepared for such a question from the client, and then logotherapy is what is needed.

Along with the category of meaning, Frankl also considers a more global concept - the concept of super-sense. We are talking about the meaning of that whole, in the light of which human life acquires meaning, that is, about the meaning of the Universe, being, history. This meaning is transcendent to human existence, therefore it is impossible to give any answer to the question about super-sense. Frankl emphasizes that this does not lead to the conclusion about the meaninglessness or absurdity of being, with which a person supposedly has to put up with (or fight) (Sartre, Camus). A person has to put up with something else - with the impossibility of grasping being as a whole, with the impossibility of knowing its super-sense. “This meaning,” he writes, “necessarily transcends man and his world, and therefore is inaccessible to simple rational processes. It is available, rather, for an act of fulfillment that comes from the depths and center of the human personality and, thus, is rooted in total existence. We are not dealing with an intellectual or rational process, but with an integral existential act, which I call the basic trust in being. Ideal meanings and values ​​are rooted in a transcendent being, which is accessible only to an act of faith. Thus, Frankl returns to faith. In general, the acquisition of the meaning of life in religion - in my opinion, is closest to V. Frankl. Frankl's existentialist orientation is undeniable. However, Frankl is critical of a number of provisions of existentialism. Frankl defended the position that the world is not reduced to our subjective projects, but exists objectively and independently of us. He also calls existentialists moralizers, condemns attempts to treat psychotic illnesses with the help of "free choice" and the patient's admission of his own guilt for endogenous depression.

Frankl considers the issue of human freedom in the context of the relationship between free will and predestination. On the one hand, he postulates absolute freedom of choice, on the other hand, the whole life of a person is controlled by a "beaming light from above", logos, super-sense. Sometimes Frankl talks about fate, about the fatal lot of each person. Frankl has a typically ancient thought about the courageous acceptance of fate, which cannot be influenced and which is irrationally connected with the superintelligent divine providence. Frankl's existential analysis absorbed, in addition to existential and psychoanalytic ideas, many of the rather different philosophical currents of our century (Nikolai Hartmann, Nietzsche, even Lenin). In his general approach to personality, Frankl approaches the ideas of the Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky. Both of them speak of the need to build an "apex" psychology as an opposition to "deep" psychology.

In understanding the place of man in the world, Frankl is close to some of the ideas of S.L. Rubinstein. Frankl writes: “not only the world exists in consciousness: but also consciousness exists in the world “is contained in it”. Rubinstein: “Man is inside being, and not only being outside his consciousness.” Both authors express that F. E. Vasilyuk calls the "ontology of the life world": the idea of ​​the inseparable unity of man and the world, primary in relation to their attributive properties. The role of objective activity brings Frankl closer to the "active approach" of A. N. Leontiev: "I not only act in accordance with what I am, but I also become in line with how I act "(V. Frankl).

"Meaning must be found and cannot be given," says Frankl. That meaning cannot be given is beyond dispute. But I believe that meaning should be man-made rather than found. “Meaning should be sought with the help of conscience”: This means that somewhere there is a meaning, it should be found. But man cannot find meaning in a meaningless world. He can only create his personal meaning. Frankl talks about the technique of dereflection. Dereflection means distracting the patient from his own "I", from his dysphoria, switching him to the safe parts of his own personality and to the meanings available to him in his world.

As Yalom says, the technique is “simple and basically consists of the patient being instructed to stop focusing on the self and start looking for meaning outside of the self.” It is indeed important to shift the patient’s attention from self to others. an example of Frankl's therapy case) by frequent appeal to authority ("We doctors will guide you through the crisis"), "which blocks the path to awareness and acceptance of responsibility."

Speaking about Frankl's certain authoritarianism, I would like to give an example of his conversation with an 80-year-old patient dying of cancer. The conversation was held in front of the students, in which Frankl clearly “pushes” his patient to understand the meanings. This conversation is given by Frankl in the book Psychotherapy and Religion. Moreover, although Frankl speaks of the uniqueness of the meaning of each person's life, he nevertheless openly hints at the “universal” meanings discovered by him: achievement, experience, suffering.

Yalom says that we talk about the meaninglessness of life when we look at our life from a galactic point of view. And those moments are rare. The rest of the time, says Yalom, “things matter because they matter. Things matter to us all the time." Based on this, Yalom recommends: “The therapist should help the patient understand that his current doubts (or the acceptance of a new meaning scheme) do not destroy the reality of past meanings.” Yalom considers the most effective therapeutic tool against meaninglessness to be involvement in life. Frankl argues that pleasure is a by-product of meaning, and our search should be devoted to finding meaning. I believe that the search for meaning is just as paradoxical; the more we rationally search for it, the less we find it; questions that a person asks about meaning will always outlive the answers. Meaning, like pleasure, should be pursued indirectly, "- writes. And the therapist, according to Yalom, does not need to" create "involvement in the patient:" the desire to be involved in life is always inside the patient, and therapeutic actions should be aimed at removing obstacles in the patient's path. The most important therapeutic agent here will be the personality of the therapist, his involvement in the relationship with the patient. patient. “Make the decision of inclusion, and not dive into the problem of meaninglessness. The question of the meaning of life, as the Buddha taught, is not decided by instruction. One has to dive into the river of life and let the question float away,” concludes Yalom.

B. Time

Time is a very important existential, the concept of time in existential psychology differs from the understanding of time in other systems of psychotherapy. In existential psychology, past, present, and future are inextricably linked. Psychoanalysis is dominated by the past tense and cause-and-effect relationships. In existential psychology, little importance is given to the past, since the past is “dynamic”, our attitude towards the past changes, a person constantly reinterprets his past. Causal relationships in existential psychology are rejected, but the relationship between the past and the present is not rejected. says that true existence is connected with the future, with the transcendence of one's own limits. If openness to the future disappears, then a person explains everything that happens to him with a causally conditioned past. and other existentialist psychologists emphasize that the future, in contrast to the present and the past, is the main pattern of time for a person. The past acquires meaning only in the light of the project of the future, events are selectively drawn from our memory. The meaning of the past is not fatal. Loss of perspective on the future leads to depression and anxiety.

For Medard Boss, the temporality of existence is not time on a clock or calendar. Time is always time for something, for doing something. Time can shrink and stretch (“this moment seemed like an eternity to me”).

CONCLUSION

Existential psychology is a science that studies the meaning of life in a practical aspect, in the aspect of its significance for a person.

Existential psychology - a paradoxical science. On the one hand, psychology is a positive science that studies the objective laws of the psyche. On the other hand, existential problems are the realm of spirit and freedom proper. Thus, existential psychology must seek the need for freedom, the mental in the spiritual, determination in existence; to decide what forces stand behind human freedom and determine it. Like existential philosophy, existential psychology is largely contradictory and has many theories. Even existential therapists themselves disagree on a number of theoretical (and practical) issues (for example, in their relationship to the unconscious).

As evidence of the vulnerability of existential psychology, I would consider the complexity, incomprehensibility of the language of existential philosophers. After all, one of the most important works for existential psychology, "Being and Time", according to Yalom, is "an unsurpassed example of verbal fog"! Indeed, existential givens are not complex; every person faces them in his life. These data simply need to be disclosed, not deciphered or analyzed. Perhaps that is why many works on existential psychology are extremely literary: this form is needed in order for a person to look inside himself, to pay attention to his existential situation. However, if this “literaryness” seems interesting to me, as a philologist, then for the rest it can significantly complicate understanding. As Frankl said, every time needs its own psychotherapy. In my opinion, an integrative psychotherapy is now needed, which would combine all the best in different directions and schools. After all, despite the fact that there is a desire for meaning, there are also instincts and a desire for power. In practical activity (and in science as well), one cannot but take into account such schools as the school of Freud or Adler.

Existential psychology is critical to the attitudes of scientific psychology and psychiatry. Existential psychology questions the principle of objectivism, causality, the attitude to a person as a thing among things, the evaluative categories of norm or pathology. Humanistic and existential psychology became a breakthrough psychology from Western civilization. The main trend of Western psychology in recent times is the recognition of pathology of almost all phenomena of the psyche: a person feels too bad - pathology, too good - also pathology. Any deviations are interpreted as a sign of illness.

Outlining the atmosphere of modern society, he notes that in large cities people are manipulated like things. Psychologists state the typical state of anxiety, despair and uncertainty in the modern world.

It is natural that under these conditions the interest of philosophers and psychologists turns to a specific individual in search of the human in a person.

Existential psychology has already served an important cause. This work is the salvation of psychology from being immersed in a sea of ​​theories that have lost contact with the everyday world. “Back to the things themselves,” he said. To observe, describe, analyze behavior without being burdened by abstract theories is refreshing and enlivening. Existential psychology helps to revive the science of psychology, and does not "mortify" it. She tries to see what is relevant, to describe human existence in concrete terms. writes: “The attractive power of existential therapy is due to the fact that it is firmly rooted in the ontological foundation, in the deepest structures of human existence. It also attracts by the fact that it has a humanistic basis and, being the only one among therapeutic paradigms, fully embraces the intensely personal nature of the therapeutic enterprise. However, Yalom speaks of the existential approach as precisely "one of the paradigms" whose existence should be determined by its "clinical usefulness".

“But it is a paradigm,” writes Yalom, “not a paradigm—it is useful for some patients, but not for all; suitable for some therapists, but not all. Existential orientation is a clinical approach that exists side by side with other clinical approaches. It reorganizes clinical data, but like all other approaches, it is not exclusive and cannot explain all behavior. Man is a being too complex and endowed with too many possibilities to be otherwise.”

List of used literature:

1. Being-in-the-world. Moscow. Refl-Book. 1999
2. Kempinski A. Existential psychiatry. Moscow, Saint Petersburg. "Perfection". 1998
3. Lectures by Dr. on Existential Psychology. Vilnius. 2000
4. May R. Love and Will. Moscow. "Wakler". 1997
5. Needleman, J. A Critical Introduction to Existential Psychoanalysis. Moscow. Refl-Book. 1999
6. Tikhonravov Yu.V. Existential psychology. Moscow. "Intel-synthesis". 1998
7. Tolstoy L.N. Confession (collected works)
8. Fundamentals of logotherapy. Psychotherapy and religion. St. Petersburg. "Speech". 2000
9. human situation. Moscow. "Meaning". 1995
10. Treatment from love and other psychotherapeutic novels. Moscow. "Class". 1997
11. Existential psychotherapy. Moscow. "Class". 1999

Usually, the emergence of existential psychology is counted from the appearance of the 1930 article "Dreams and Existence" by the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger. He was a great friend and at the same time an admirer of the philosopher. Binswanger tried to directly transfer the ideas of Heidegger and other existentialist philosophers into clinical psychiatric practice.

Martin Heidegger, portrait by Herbert Wetterauer

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From philosophy to psychology

Soren Kierkegaard, who lived in the first half of the 19th century, is considered to be the founder of existential philosophy. After his early death, he was forgotten for more than half a century, and at the beginning of the 20th century his works began to be translated, republished, and a number of philosophers found much in tune with Kierkegaard's ideas. It was then, between the First and Second World Wars, that existential philosophy took shape. The first authors who worked in this vein were Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus. You can also name such authors as Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, Nikolai Berdyaev, Mikhail Bakhtin - their ideas are not completely reduced to existentialism, but they made a great contribution to it.

J.-P. Sartre "Existentialism is Humanism", book cover

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The main philosophical formula of existentialism, which was published by Jean-Paul Sartre, says: "Existence precedes essence." Existence is what happens in this moment. Essence is something deep, reproduced in different situations over and over again. The translation of this formula into simpler language: "What happens is not completely derived from something known in advance and existing before." This idea underlies the existential worldview in the broadest sense of the word. You can find its analogues in antiquity, for example, in Heraclitus, in Eastern teachings, in branches of all world religions.

In existential psychology, all ideas and approaches are heavily philosophically loaded. And this is not just a refraction of the ideas of existentialist philosophers, but these are their own philosophical psychological theories psychologists, each of whom was part philosopher.

Schools of existential psychology

Ludwig Binswanger's first version of existential psychology, or rather, existential psychiatry, was not very successful. More serious and holistic approaches began to take shape after the Second World War. From the 1940s to the 1960s, major schools formed in existential psychology. Their field of application was predominantly psychotherapy, but nevertheless they were absolutely original psychological theories, the independent significance of which went beyond the scope of an auxiliary tool for the psychotherapist.

Ludwig Binswanger, portrait by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

// wikipedia.org

The Swiss school founded by Binswanger is also called Dasein analysis. Heidegger's hard-to-translate concept Dasein means ‘being here and now as it is’. In the post-war period, the main leader of the Swiss school was Medard Boss, a follower and at the same time a competitor of Binswanger. Today, the Swiss school has receded into the background; there are no leaders on the level of Binswanger and Boss. The Swiss were the first to start the movement in the field of existential psychology, but everything that was worth doing by them was later assimilated by other schools.

In the 1940s–1950s, a philosophical and psychological doctrine of the pursuit of meaning was created by an outstanding thinker. Later, the Austrian school of existential psychology formed around him - the school of logotherapy and existential analysis. In the 1960s, the British school appeared, associated with the name of Ronald Laing, also a unique thinker. The American, Californian, school is associated with the names of Rollo May and James Bugenthal. All four main directions developed more or less independently, and their leaders formed the field of existential psychology.

Existential psychology developed in the 20th century away from the main line of development of psychological thought, existential ideas were marginal. The trends of recent decades, on the contrary, are related to the fact that, firstly, schools are becoming more aware of their common foundations. Secondly, the ideas developed in existential psychology are beginning to be in demand in the main line of scientific psychology, becoming a serious part of the mainstream. The peculiarity of the leaders of existential psychology was that they always focused not so much on professional colleagues as on a wide audience. They wrote books that were published and republished in huge editions. First of all, these books were addressed to people without psychological education. Both Frankl and Laing and May are best-selling authors whose books are popular with a wide audience.

Schools of existential psychology today

The Austrian school split into two directions. The development of orthodox logotherapy, based on the teachings of Frankl, is carried out by his students: the scientific leader of the school, Elisabeth Lucas, and the organizational leader, Alexander Battiani, the younger. Another peculiar direction is also based on Frankl's teaching, but at the same time it went beyond it and received an independent status. This branch of the Austrian school is associated with the name of Alfried Lenglet.

In the British school today, two scientifically equal key figures are in competitive relations and have a great influence on the formation of this field - Emmy van Dorzen and Ernesto Spinelli. Van Dortzen, however, has a strong social temperament, and she makes a great organizational contribution to the formation of the community. Thus, she played a key role in organizing the First World Congress on Existential Psychotherapy in London in 2015, which brought together most of the schools.

The main heir to the American school was Kirk Schneider, a student of James Bugenthal. Separately, it is worth mentioning Irvin Yalom, who has always worked alone. Yalom has created unique genres: he has a number of books in the genre of therapeutic stories, historical novels with real characters. His books are also translated into different languages ​​and published in hundreds of thousands and millions of copies. Yalom is close in content to the Californian school, but works without followers, without creating his own school. He has essentially turned into an existential writer and in this way spreads his ideas to a wide audience.

Ideas of existential psychology

Trying to determine what the essence of existential psychology is, each time one has to build a rather complex system of explanation, because one position cannot be singled out. We can say that existential psychology proceeds from the fact that in a person's life there is a lot of indeterminate, unpredictable. Traditional psychology explains a person in those aspects in which he is predictable, manageable, explainable. We can test a person, draw some conclusions, and the person will generally behave in accordance with the predictions.

But there is always something in people that goes beyond this determinism, conditionality, predictability, because we are dealing with a fairly large degree of uncertainty in the world. And the further we go, the more we realize the role of uncertainty and ambiguity. Prominent scientists, not only the humanities, wrote about this: we are parting with the idea of ​​a world dominated by clear, rigid, unambiguous laws and predictability, in fact, everything is more complicated. The difference of the existential approach is due to the fact that it primarily considers that aspect of our life that deals with this uncertainty. We, at our own peril and risk, introduce certainty into our lives both in terms of a general worldview and in terms of professional and life practice.

Problems of existential psychology

Different areas of existential psychology came to a common language independently of each other. Irvin Yalom once formulated a number of key problem areas that existential psychology deals with. The first knot is the issues of time, life and death. The second node is the problems of communication, love and loneliness. The third is the problem of freedom, responsibility and choice. And the fourth node is the problems of the meaning and meaninglessness of existence.

But the concepts and problems themselves do not yet determine the approach, because all these things can be approached existentially and non-existentially, even the problem of meaning. A non-existential approach to the meaning of life is possible: “I must find out exactly what the meaning of life is, and when I know it, it will be clear what to live for.” The existential approach to the meaning of life is expressed in the good old principle: "It is important to seek, not to find." When you find something, it disappears, disappears, and you have to look again. The meaning of life is not the ultimate truth, but that which gives direction, directs the search process and the process of life. But this is not where we can stop. After all, if we, having found the meaning of life, stop in search, then a boring, deterministic life begins. There is a proverb: "Trust those who seek the truth, and do not believe those who claim to have found it."

“Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?", Paul Gauguin

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existential psychotherapy

There are many discussions about the specifics of existential therapy. Rollo May said that there is no fundamental hard difference in it from other types of therapy. Existential therapy is not an alternative to other approaches, but rather an add-on, addition, or deepening. It addresses a level of our being that other therapies simply don't work with.

This level of existence is associated with reflective consciousness. In classical ancient Eastern philosophy, it was called awakening, in contrast to sleep, in which we spend most of our lives. We are in a slumber, but sometimes we wake up, begin to wake up and discover something that we have not noticed all this time - new opportunities. Existential psychotherapy opens up a new dimension of life related to self-determination in relation to possibilities.

The ideas of the existential worldview are realized in therapy, but not only: there is much in common in the work of a therapist, a good teacher and a preacher. In different forms of communication with people, there are similar ways of expanding the world and awakening, supporting self-determination, accepting responsibility and opening up opportunities. This is used not only in a psychotherapeutic key, but also in other contexts of life. In fact, what is most specific and most important in existential psychotherapy is that which does not belong to the classical skills and abilities of psychotherapy, but goes beyond it and connects it with other forms of practice. This is an expansion of consciousness, an expansion of the picture of the world.

Benefits of an Existential Worldview

The existential worldview provides the resources to live in the most satisfying way possible. It opens up a new dimension of life, which is connected with development, with control over life. Existential psychology is the psychology of an adult who is responsible for himself and finds a solution to problems, unlike an impulsive and short-sighted child, therefore it represents an alternative to infantilism that is now widespread throughout the world.

Infantilism is largely supported by mass culture and leads to the fact that a huge number of people do not want to think about the meaning, about the future, about relationships with other people. In the "golden billion" favorable conditions have been formed for people: there is no need to worry and think about difficulties. These conditions are favorable for relaxation and unfavorable for development: people drive away thoughts about how the world works, and remain in an infantile state in which they are comfortable enough until circumstances change for the worse.

Existential psychology reveals an alternative to infantilism, in which a person is his own master and independently solves questions about how to live, not focusing on external sources and internal impulses, but using the resources of his mature consciousness and recognizing the uncertainty and unpredictability of the future.

It is in the movement towards the existential dimension that we realize our potential. Our human capabilities, even in favorable conditions, are in demand and are often realized to a very small extent. Existential psychology makes it possible to discover non-trivial possibilities for those who are interested not only in survival and adaptation to what is, but in development and complication. It is precisely in their existential view of the world that they discover what is consonant with them.