History:
The existential therapy movement was not founded by any one person or group; several currents of thought gave rise to it. Existential therapy grew out of philosophy and emerged spontaneously in different parts of Europe, among different schools of psychology and psychiatry, in the 1940s and 1950s. After the Second World War many Europeans felt the war had devastated their lives, and they were wrestling with existential issues such as isolation, alienation and meaninglessness. Early writers focused on the individual’s experience of being alone in the world and facing the anxiety of that condition (Sharp and Bugental, 2001).
The thinking of existential psychologists and psychiatrists was influenced by several nineteenth-century philosophers and writers. To understand the philosophical foundations of existential psychotherapy, we need to know figures such as Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Buber. These major figures of existentialism and existential phenomenology, and their cultural, philosophical and religious writings, laid the foundation for existential therapy.
Key figures in existential psychotherapy:
Irvin Yalom, Viktor Frankl, Rollo May and James Bugental developed their existential approaches to psychotherapy from strong roots in existential and humanistic psychology.
Irvin Yalom:
Yalom may be called one of the most influential people in existential psychotherapy. Building on the idea that existentialism deals with the “ultimate concerns of existence”, he developed his own approach to individual and group psychotherapy. Isolation and relationship with others, death and living fully, and meaninglessness and meaning are its most important elements.
The existential school seeks a balance between recognising the limits and tragic dimensions of human existence on the one hand, and the possibilities and opportunities of human life on the other. It grew from a wish to help people deal with the hard situations of modern life.
“No relationship can eliminate existential isolation, but aloneness can be shared in such a way that love compensates for the pain of it” (Yalom and Josselson, 2011)
Moeen Counselling Centre plans to run specialist existential therapist training courses for students and professionals in counselling, psychology and psychiatry, taught by Dr Bahman Bahmani. To hear about dates and course requirements, join our network.
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