Existential Theory

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Existential Theory
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To explore deeply from an existential
perspective does not mean that one explores the
past rather it means that one brushes away
everyday concerns and thinks deeply about ones
existential situation. It means to think outside
of time, to think about the relationship between
ones feet and the ground beneath one, between
ones consciousness and the space around one it
means to think not about the way one came to be
the way one is, but that one is.....The
future-becoming-present is the primary tense of
existential therapy.

• Yalom, I. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. New
  York Basic Books, p. 11

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• Wilber, K. (1977). The spectrum of
  consciousness. Wheaton, IL Theosophical
  Publishing House.
• Tillich, P. (1980). The courage to be. New
  Haven Yale University Press.
• Buber, M. (1970). I and thou. New York
  Scribner.
• Bugental, J. (1978). Psychotherapy and process
  The fundamentals of an existential humanistic
  approach. Reading, MA Addison-Wesley.
• Nietzsche, F. (1967). The will to power. (W.
  Kaufmann R. Hollingdale, trans.). New York
  Random House
• Kierkegaard, S. (1944). The concept of dread. (W.
  Lowrie, trans.). Princeton, NJ Princeton
  University Press
• Kopp, S. (1972). If you meet the Buddha on the
  road, kill him. New York Bantam.

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Human Nature

• Core Tendency To achieve authentic being
• Only creature born with the ability to think and
  reason

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• Free will

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Core Characteristics

• Being-in-the-world
• Umwelt-World Around
• Mitwelt-With-World
• Eigenwelt-Own World

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Six Ontological Principles

• Every person is centered in self and lives life
  through the meaning he or she places on that
  center
• Every person is responsible for mobilizing the
  courage to protect the self, to affirm it, and to
  enhance its continued existence

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• People need other people with whom they can
  empathize and from whom they can learn

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• People are vigilant about potential dangers to
  their identities
• People can be aware of themselves thinking and
  feeling at one moment and may be aware of
  themselves as the person who thinks and feels in
  the next moment
• Anxiety originates, in part, out of a persons
  awareness that ones being can end.

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Goals of Integration

• Consciousness of self
• Intentionality
• Aware of choices
• Aware of paradoxes

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• The Daimonic
• Power
• Intentionality
• Freedom and Destiny
• Courage

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Development

• Early Development
• Richness of experience
• Limits
• Respect
• Symbolization, imagination, judgment

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• Later Development
• Aesthetic phase
• Idealistic phase

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Periphery of Personality

• Authenticity
• Conformism