Existential 2009

8/14/2019 Existential 2009

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Humanistic Psychology THE POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY MOVEMENT

(Sometimes called the "human strengths" movement)

In agreement with humanistic psychology, positivepsychologists argued that psychology has tended to:

Examine individuals suffering from distress

Use those experiences as their foundation for theorizing aboutpeople

End up with theories that emphasize the negative whileoverlooking human strengths

To rectify this, positive psychologists have tried toportray the nature of human strengths and virtues

Their methods are not primarily phenomenological, butare nomothetic and psychometrically based.


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Positive Emotions

The Virtues of Positive Emotions

Psychologists commonly have studied emotionssuch as fear, anxiety, and anger

Have devoted lesser attention to the role ofpositive emotions pride, love, happiness inpersonality development and functioning

There are dozens of theories of depression, buthardly a word, until recently, about happiness.


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Positive Emotions

Barbara Fredricksons broaden-and-build theoryofpositive emotions (Fredrickson, 2001)

Positive emotions broaden thought and actiontendencies by widening the range of

Ideas that come to mind

Actions that individuals pursue Interest leads people to pursue novel activities

Pride motivates one to continue activities

Positive emotions can further build humancompetencies and achievements

In short, positive emotions dont lead to contentmentand idleness, but rather motivate thought and actions.


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Flow: Congruence between skills andactivities

Developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi; describes a

feature of conscious experience characterized by: A perceived match between personal skills and environmental

challenge

A high level of focused attention

Involvement in an activity such that time seems to fly by andirrelevant thoughts and distractions do not enter into

consciousness A sense of intrinsic enjoyment in the activity

A temporary loss of self-consciousness such that the self isnot aware of functioning or regulating activity

If skills are much higher than demands: boredom

If skills much lower than demands: frustration/aggression


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Existential Psychology The Darker Side of the Third Force

Most existentialpsychologists/therapists wereinfluenced by Heideggers existential

phenomenology. Europeans: Ludwig Binswanger

(Daseinanalysis), Viktor Frankl

Americans: Rollo May (founder), Irving

Yalom, Ernest Becker Each has distinctive emphasis, but

some common themes.


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Existentialist Themes

Freedom and Responsibility Phenomenologically, we are free.

Because we are free, we areresponsible for our lives (at least forour attitudes toward what befalls us).

Many people deny or relinquish theirfreedom (its my genes, its my

parents, its my environment).


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Existentialist Themes

Thrownness and the search formeaning

Here I am. What now? What does it

all mean? What shall I do? All existential psychologists

emphasize the importance of findinga meaning in life as a primary humanmotivation.

Without meaning, people will evengive up their lives.
http://books.google.com/books?id=K2AvZmco3E0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Viktor+Emil+Frankl&psp=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Victorfrankl.JPG


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Viktor Frankl

Mans Search for Meaning (1946) Formerly: From Death Camp to Existentialism

In camps from 1942-1945: Both parents,brother, and wife died in camps.

In his books, Frankl describes his insights intohuman nature that grew out of hisobservations of his fellow camp prisoners

(and even the Nazi guards, etc). What did he observe about human

motivation?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Victorfrankl.JPGhttp://books.google.com/books?id=K2AvZmco3E0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Viktor+Emil+Frankl&psp=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Victorfrankl.JPG


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Viktor Frankl In camps, physiological, safety, belongingness, and

self-esteem needs threatened every day.

Many people lost the will to live (suicides common),or became selfish, greedy, & ruthless as Maslowmight have predicted.

Yet many endured, were kind and dignified through

it all, and even gave up many physiological andsafety needs for the sake of others.

In such cases, these actualized people had a deepspiritual and philosophical life, some eternalmeaning was driving them.

The will to meaning: People will sacrifice lower-level needs for the sake of something higher.


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Existential Themes Existential Anxiety

Anxiety produced by the burden offreedom. When we contemplate ourpossibilities and the necessity of choice.

Not a bad thing: existential anxiety canmotivate change.

Existential Guilt

A dull guilty feeling that we havesquandered our freedom, that we havewasted our lives.

Not guilt over a specific action (e.g., cursedmy mother), but over ones wholeexistence.


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Existential Themes

Death


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Existential Themes

Heidegger described human beings (Dasein)as beings-towards-death", in that ourfinitude is a horizon continually before us.

Human awareness of death can be a stimulus

for a deep search for meaningand no timeto waste.

But the anxiety created by reflection ondeath can also lead us to throw ourselves into

everydayness and busyness in anattempt to distract ourselves from reflection.


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Beware ofexistentialmeltdown


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Beckers Thesis:

The main thesis of this book is that the ideaof death, the fear of it, haunts the humananimal like nothing else; it is a mainspring ofhuman activity - activity designed largely toavoid the fatality of death, to over come it bydenying in someway that it is the final destinyfor man.


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Assumptions All animals experience fear and anxiety when

immediately threatened by death.

Humans are self-conscious, symbol-using animals whoare capable of being aware of death at every moment.

Such awareness, if constantly present before the mind,would lead to paralyzing anxiety and fear.

This fear is actually an expression of the instinct of self-preservation, which functions as a constant drive tomaintain life and to master the dangers that threaten it.The fear of death must be present behind all our normalfunctioning, in order for the organism to be armed towardself-preservation. But the fear of death cannot be presentconstantly in ones mental functioning, else the organismcould not function.


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How do we avoid paralysis?

We simply repress the fear of death, or usedefenses like intellectualization (understand

it abstractly, but keep the emotions fromsurfacing).

More generally, we adopt world-views (hero-systems, Immortality Projects) that give us

a sense of permanence and elevate our self-esteem. Culture provides a kind of symbolicimmortality.


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Becker and Freud

For Freud, the primary repressionsare sexual and destructive drives.

Culture and civilization are sublimations

of these drives. For Becker, the primary repression is

the fear of death.

Culture and civilization are attempts tocreate something of lasting value,something that transcends our personalmortality.


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How is personality formed in theexistential view?

Broadly, personality is shaped by what we invest withmeaning and pursue as an ultimate end.

Becker: fetishization whatever we elevate to ultimateimportance in creating meaning for our lives. A fetish is a segment of the world which has to bear the full load

of life meaning.

The individual has to protect himself against the world, and hecan do this only as any other animal would: by narrowing downthe world, shutting off experience, developing an obliviousnessboth to the terrors of the world and to his own anxieties.

Character is the restrictive shaping of possibility.


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Most men spare themselves this trouble[of the terrors of death] by keepingtheir minds on the small problems oftheir lives just as their society maps

these problems out for them. Theseare what Kierkegaard called the"immediate" menThey "tranquilizethemselves with the trivial" - and so

they can lead normal lives."


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Sren Kierkegaard

Enten-Eller[Either-Or] (1842)

Each person faces a choice betweenthree broad modes ofexistence:

The aesthetic mode

The ethical mode

The religious mode

erkegaard reflected on what peopleetishized, where they put ultimateportance in their lives


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Aesthetic Mode (Living for Oneself)

Beauty & Health

Wealth, status, and fame

Talent and genius

Crude hedonism (Eat, drink, & be merry;sex, drugs, & rock-n-roll)

Refined Hedonism:

Romanticism: Ironic detachment from life;avoid serious attachments and commitments.

Sophisticated amusements, life asinteresting, charming, poetic.


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Ethical Mode (Living for others)

A life of reason, duty, and socialresponsibility

Firm commitments to

Community and institutions

Political Causes

Social Welfare

Family and Children

Work and the future

Life as serious; actions judged by right orwrong, not amusing vs. dreary.


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Are these satisfactory?

Kierkegaard presented the best of both modes ofexistence. He believed that neither was satisfactory, bothended in despair.

Ethical Mode: Life of duty and social roles can end infeelings of being smothered, trapped, questioning what

might have been. (existential guilt) Aesthetic Mode: Life of detachment and hedonism can end

in emptiness, boredom, lack of selfhood. Pleasures do notlast (satiation); one can grow perverse, needing moreshocks to the nervous sytsem to feel alive. Aestheitic aimsare ultimately outside your freedom and control.

We have looked at neurosis as a problem of character andhave seen that it can be apprehended in two ways: as aproblem of too much narrowness toward the world or toomuch openness. There are those who are too narrowlybuilt-into their world, and there are those who are floating

too freely apart from it.--Becker


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Religious Mode

Commitment to God (The Eternal)

Only religious existing can conquer dread;all worldly activities must be placed in an

eternal perspective. From the religious perspective, one can be

ethical and one can be detached, butthese are relative, not ultimate, values.

Fetishizing anything other than God isidolotry (Thou shalt have no other gods.)


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Terror ManagementTheory

Experimental Existentialism Terror management theory (TMT) of Solomon,

Greenberg, and Pyszczynski examines theconsequences of the combination of two factors: 1. Peoples desire to live (which people share with all

other animals) 2. Peoples awareness of the inevitability of death (an

awareness that is uniquely human)

Social and cultural institutions protect against terror by

furnishing 1) meaning in life and

2) a way to achieve self-esteem (living up to thestandards and values of the culture)


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TMT

TMTs implications:

If cultural beliefs buffer against fear ofdeath, and if people are induced to thinkabout death, then they should display astronger-than-usual need to posses and

to defend their cultural beliefs Over 200 studies have shown that this is

so.


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Terror Management Theory

The Mortality Salience ParadigmTwo groups of participants, randomly assigned to

conditions:

One group is asked to write about what they think willhappen when they die and their feelings about it

This is done to activate, or warm up the concept of death. This is called the Mortality Salience condition

The other group (control group) writes about somethingunrelated (e.g., favorite TV show)

Later, both groups rate their degree of commitment to

various values and belief systems, or Rate their liking or disliking of people who support or

oppose their values or beliefs.


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Terror Management

Those in mortality salience conditions,compared to controls, show more attachmentto their culture and previously held ideas.

More nationalism

More liking for ingroup members; more hostility to outgroupmembers

More donations to charities

Harsher sentences for criminals

Liberals become more liberal, conservatives more conservative

Among young people, more attachment to youth culture

Among religious people, more attachment to religious faith;among non-religious, more attachment to materialism.


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Existential Approaches toTherapy

Much variability among different existentialtherapists.

Most existential therapists are not technique-oriented.Freely draw techniques from other orientations.

Some existential therapists resemble psychoanalysts,

using interpretations, offering insights, pointing outdefenses.

But the insights are based on philosophical viewsabout the nature of human existence.


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Common to ExistentialTherapies

Understand the clients subjective world

Challenged clients to take responsibility forhow they choose to be, decide how theywant to be different, and take actions.

Major themes in therapy sessions areanxiety, freedom, isolation, death, and thesearch for meaning.

Assist client in facing life with courage,hope, and a willingness to find meaning inlife.

Frankls Logotherapy:


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Frankl s Logotherapy:Techniques

A type of existential therapy that focuses onchallenging clients to search for meaning in their lives.

Dereflection: Too much self-attention and ruminationcan intensify anxiety and symptoms. Hyper-self-consciousness can interfere with spontaneous activity. Dereflection is an attempt to move clients focus away from

their fears, obsessions, and troubles to other, external issues.

Paradoxical intention: A therapeutic strategy in whichclients are instructed to engage in and exaggeratebehaviors they seek to change, often to the point oflaughter. By prescribing the symptom, therapists help clients achieve

distance from symptoms.


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Commonalities of Existential andHumanistic Approaches

Both influenced by Husserls phenomenology.

Both view the conscious self as the primarypsychological structure.

Both emphasize the integrity of the person as a

whole (rather than a collection of mechanisms)

Both emphasize the present and the future ratherthan dwelling on the past.

Both emphasize the therapeutic relationship as a

key factor in treatment.


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Differences between Existentialand Humanistic Approaches

Humanistic Existential

Human nature is basically good. Human nature contains thepossibility of good or evil.

Personality depends primarily onthe social environment

(unconditional regard, empathy,genuineness, etc.)

Personality depends upon choicesand commitments freely made by

the person.

The true self must be discovered(finding oneself)

The self must be created(making oneself)

Therapist is entirely non-directive,reflecting back what the clientexpresses.

Therapist can sometimes challengeclients assertions (e.g., aboutwhether they have choices in agiven situation, or whether theirbehavior is a defensive response toexistential anxiety).


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