Existential Psychotherapy
Details
This month we will be reading:
Existential Psychotherapy (only part 2 (Freedom), chapter 6 and 7)
by Irvin D. Yalom
Notes:
Please note this event requires reading the book.
About next meetup event (IMPORTANT!)
Because this is a long book, the material is really dense and interesting and you can't just skim over it if you intend to grasp all ideas, we will be reading one part a month. If you are interested in Existentialism and especially how this knowledge can be used to understand yourself and life better and use it as a practical guide, make sure you get the book, personally for me it was one of the best investments, also bear in mind we will have 4 sessions with this book!
Given we have already covered the topic of Death in the Death of Ivan Ilyich recently, we will start from the second part about Freedom and come back to part one if we would like to later. So again, this month we will be only covering part 2 (Freedom), which is chapter 6 and 7.
About book.
What is Existential Psychotherapy about? This book explores the essential struggles that individuals face regarding the ultimate concerns of life. Yalom delves into four significant themes: death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness, offering insights into how these issues influence human behavior and mental health.
With freedom comes the responsibility of choice. Yalom argues that the burden of making choices can be terrifying for many. Throughout the book, he illustrates how individuals may evade responsibility, leading to personal turmoil. He advocates for embracing freedom as a pathway to personal growth and self-discovery.
Freedom is the realization that we are responsible for our choices, which can evoke anxiety due to the weight of responsibility.
This book profoundly impacts the reader’s view of existence. Yalom’s unique synthesis of psychology and philosophy encourages an authentic engagement with life’s ultimate concerns. The book serves as both a guide and a companion for those enduring existential dilemmas. This comprehensive exploration of anxiety, choices, and relationships inspires readers to pursue a deeper understanding of themselves and their lives. By acknowledging the inevitable truths of life, readers are empowered to navigate their unique paths with clarity and purpose. This is more than a textbook; it is an intellectual and emotional resource poised to enlighten anyone willing to confront the essence of being human.
About Responsibility and freedom.
Responsibility and freedom are fundamental to human existence
"To be aware of responsibility is to be aware of creating one's own self, destiny, life predicament, feelings and, if such be the case, one's own suffering."
Responsibility as authorship. The existential view posits that individuals are entirely responsible for their lives, choices, and actions. This responsibility extends to:
1. Creating meaning in one's life
2. Shaping one's character and destiny
3. Taking ownership of one's feelings and reactions
4. Recognizing one's role in creating personal suffering
Accepting this level of responsibility can be anxiety-provoking, as it confronts individuals with the groundlessness of existence. Many people employ various strategies to avoid this awareness, such as displacing responsibility to others or believing in external controlling forces.
Responsibility assumption is crucial for therapeutic change
"Until one realizes that one has created one's own dysphoria, there can be no motivation to change."
The here-and-now focus in therapy reveals patterns of responsibility avoidance
"By focusing on experiences that have transpired in the therapy situation, experiences in which he or she has participated, the therapist may help the patient examine the latter's own responsibility for nascent behavior—before it becomes encrusted and obscured by mechanisms of defense."
Few quotes from book:
Freedom. Another ultimate concern, a far less accessible one, is freedom. Ordinarily we think of freedom as an unequivocally positive concept. Throughout recorded history has not the human being yearned and striven for freedom? Yet freedom viewed from the perspective of ultimate ground is riveted to dread. In its existential sense “freedom” refers to the absence of external structure. Contrary to everyday experience, the human being does not enter (and leave) a well-structured universe that has an inherent design. Rather, the individual is entirely responsible for—that is, is the author of—his or her own world, life design, choices, and actions. “Freedom” in this sense, has a terrifying implication: it means that beneath us there is no ground—nothing, a void, an abyss. A key existential dynamic, then, is the clash between our confrontation with groundlessness and our wish for ground and structure.
....What is worth underlining in this illustration is that Ruth’s lament, “Tell me what to do,” was a statement of responsibility avoidance. When sufficient leverage was placed upon her, she knew very well what to do in therapy. But she did not want to know what to do! She wanted help and change to come from outside. To help herself, to be her own mother, was frightening; it brought her too close to the frightening knowledge that she was free, responsible, and fundamentally alone.
Existential Psychotherapy