Aarhus, danish psychological society, 2014

Perspective on Psychological
Disturbances, Happiness and
Emotional Well Being
Prof Emmy van Deurzen
Aarhus, Denmark
May 2014

9.00 - 10.30: The Existential Therapy Approach.
Fundamental Existential Dimensions of
Human Living & Inherent Paradoxes and Conflicts
10.30 - 10.40: Coffee break
10.40 - 12.00: Psychological Disturbances and Suffering.
How do we live with problems with courage
and a greater engagement? How do we find meaning in life
when happiness is lost?
12.00 - 13.00: Lunch
13.00 - 14.00: Living with Emotions.
14.30 - 15.00: Coffee break
15.00 - 16.00: Happiness & Emotional Well Being
Existential Therapy:
Perspectives on Psychological Disturbances, Happiness and
Emotional Well Being.

What are the human issues we are facing
and how can counselling &
psychotherapy help us find the path to a
better life?

www.nspc.org.uk
www.emmyvandeurzen.com
www.societyofpsychotherapy.org.uk
Facebook and LinkedIn: Existential Therapy
www.existentialpsychotherapy.net
www.icecap.org.uk
www.dilemmas.org
www.existentialacademy.com

Emmy van Deurzen
 PhD, MPhil, MPsych, CPsychol, FBPsS,
UKCPF, FBACP, ECP, HPC reg
•Visiting Professor Middlesex University -UK
•Director Dilemma Consultancy
•Director Existential Academy
•Principal New School of Psychotherapy
and Counselling - London

Past
 Classical education Netherlands (The Hague)
 Philosophy masters, Montpellier with Michel Henry
(France)
 Clinical psychology masters, Bordeaux with Jack Doron
(France)
 Doctorate in social science: City University with Alfons
Grieder (London)
 Worked in psychiatry for seven years-private practice
since 1978, Lacanian, psychodrama and group therapy
training
 London 1977-78: Arbours and PA followed by Esalen, USA,
Gestalt and bioenergetics
 1982: created first masters in existential therapy

most relevant
for today:
2009 book on happiness

3d edition of Existential Counselling and
Psychotherapy in practice or
Everyday Mysteries, 2nd edition
or Skills book for intro

Existential Approach
 A philosophical method for understanding a person’s
difficulties in living
 Enabling people to be more aware of their own existence
 Through dialogue it shows the limits, paradoxes,
conflicts and contradictions of life.

Existential Therapy
 Talking about your troubles is only helpful if
you can talk through them in constructive
dialogue taking you beyond blame and
shame.
 No pathology
 Focus on Problems in Living
 Philosophical view of human existence

Aim of existential
therapy.
 Enable people to tell the truth about their lives and
themselves
 Help them live passionately and to the full taking
authority over their destiny
 Facilitate greater understanding of the human
condition and its purpose
 To think for themselves and live more freely,
responsibly, passionately and compassionately
 Recognize strengths and weaknesses and make
the most of both

Leave behind the dark ages of therapy :
an open, collaborative quest for truth
rather than a dogmatic one

Understanding
connections.
 Helping persons to understand their difficulties
aims at exploring as much of the web of their
lives as is possible, focussing not on one
particular line but on the connections between
as many lines as show themselves.
 (Cohn, in Existential Perspectives, 2005:226)

Asking Questions and
Reflect: a search for
truth

Focus of existential
therapy
 Ontological questions
 Addressed by tackling everyday ontic
problems

Framework
 Asking the BIG QUESTIONS
 What does it mean to be alive?
 Why is there something rather than nothing?
 How should I act and be in relation to other
people?
 How can I live a worthwhile life?
 What will happen after I die?

Existential Authors
Philosophers
of
Freedom
Phenomeno-
logists
Existentialists Post-
Structuralists
Existential-
Humanists
Sðren
Kierkegaard
1813-1855
Franz Brentano
1838-1917
Jean Paul
Sartre
1905-1980
Michel
Foucault
1926-1984
Martin Buber
1878-1965
Friedrich
Nietzsche
1844-1900
Edmund
Husserl
1859-1938
Maurice
Merleau Ponty
1908-1961
Emmanuel
Levinas
1905-1995
Paul Tillich
1886-1965
Arthur
Schopenhauer
1788-1860
Karl Jaspers
1883-1969
Simone de
Beauvoir
1908-1986
Paul Ricoeur
1913-2005
Rollo May
1909-1994
Fyodor
Dostoyevski
1821-1881
Martin
Heidegger
1889-1976
Gabriel Marcel
1889-1973
Jacques
Lacan
1901-1981
Hannah
Arendt
1906-1975
Karl Marx
1818-1883
Max Scheler
1874-1928
Albert Camus
1913-1960
Jacques
Derrida
1930-2004
Abraham
Maslow
1908-1970

Existential Philosophers
 Kierkegaard Nietzsche Husserl Jaspers Heidegger
Sartre de Beauvoir Buber Camus Merleau Ponty
Foucault

Existential Practitioners
 Ludwig Binswanger: 1881-1966.
 Karl Jaspers: 1883-1969.
 Paul Tillich: 1886-1965.
 Medard Boss: 1904-1990.
 Viktor Frankl: 1905-1997.
 Rollo May: 1909-1994.
 Ronald Laing: 1927-1989.

 Binswanger Boss Frankl
 Tillich May Laing

Early
psychiatrists
Humanistic
psychologists
British
alternative
Recent
Americans
Recent British
Ludwig
Binswanger
1881-1966
Paul Tillich
1886-1965
George Kelly
1905-1967
James
Bugental
1915-2008
Hans Cohn
1916-2004
Karl Jaspers
1883-1969
Carl Rogers
1902-1987
Aaron
Esterson
1923-1999
Thomas
Szasz
1920-2012
Freddie
Strasser
1924-2008
Eugene
Minkowski
1885-1972
Rollo May
1909-1994
Ronald
Laing
1927-1989
Irvin Yalom
1931-
Ernesto
Spinelli
1949-
Medard Boss
1904-1990
Viktor Frankl
1905-1997
David
Cooper
1931-1986
Kirk
Schneider
1956-
Emmy van
Deurzen
1951-

No prescription
 Existential therapy does not have to impose
rules for living.
 Uncover the laws of life
 Recover our capacity to trust in life
 Be inspired once again when we were
despondent, forlorn, forsaken, desperate or
confused.

Living matters. Life is short.
 We don’t know how to live well or right
 Living is not easy
 Much of psychopathology is rooted in a lack of
understanding of human existence

Meaning and Purpose
 Find out what is meaningful
 Find out what your purpose in life is and take it
seriously.
 Engage with it and work for it in truth and with
dedication.
 Come what may, follow your dreams and make
sure your actions match your dreams.


Landscapes of our life
• Understand the Lebenswelt:
the world in which we live.
How do we co-constitute the world?

Buber’s encounter
 The interhuman: das Zwischenmenschlichen; the
in-between is where real communication takes
place (Buber, Between Man and Man, 1929).
 All actual life is encounter (ibid: 62)
 This is where truth is found.
 In inter-subjectivity we create the world in which
we live together: I-It or I-Thou.

Boundaries and
consistency
 When we ‘care about’ someone, what we
‘care for’ is their autonomy.
 Consistent and clear boundaries lead to
trust.
 Living a meaningful life means to
acknowledge and live within the boundaries
of existence.

Directive or non
directive?
 The existential therapist is purposeful
(directional) rather than directive. Also
direct.
 Non-directiveness denies autonomy and
can easily lead to stagnation
 A productive therapeutic relationship will be
challenging to both people
 Clients will value a therapist who is willing to
stand with them, but who can also teach
them something new about life

Good disclosure
 Make sure you disclose in the client’s interest
 Is there a less self disclosing way of making the
point?
 Answering direct questions is fine, briefly, returning to
the client’s point as soon as possible
 Volunteering personal information is ok when
1. Client needs example or inspiration
2. Your info is not self indulgent, but engaging
3. Is about something in the past
4. About something you have resolved

Signs of inauthentic
living
 referring to others for guidance about what is true or
what we should do, or
 being unduly influenced by the opinions of society, of
the anonymous voice of the imagined ‘They’ as
Heidegger puts it, or
 blaming others for our predicament and not owning
our responsibility for it, or
 pretending that life has determined our situation and
character so much that we have no choices left, or
 expecting life to be perfect, fantasising about the
problem-free life that is 'just around the corner' or,
 trying to find out the underlying 'cause' of our
difficulties in living, believing this to be the ‘solution’.

Camus: Sisyphus’ plight
Enable people to tackle the important issues
 There is but one truly serious philosophical
problem and that is … whether life is or is
not worth living. (Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus)
 Is rolling the stone up the hill sufficient to fill a
human heart?: meaning is found because of
challenges, not despite them

There is no abstract ethics. There is only an ethics in a
situation and therefore it is concrete. An abstract ethics is
that of the good conscience. It assumes that one can be
ethical in a fundamentally unethical situation.
(Sartre, Notes For an Ethics:17)
Sartre’s existential ethics

Is human emotional suffering
avoidable?
Or does the road of life inevitably take us
through lows and into dark and scary
places?

Is happiness desirable?
Ordoesitsoftenusand
stopusreflectonlife?

HUMAN CONDITION
Understanding the way in which we strugg
with the human condition and how th
struggle leads to the experience

Existential Therapy Understanding human difficulties, conflicts, paradoxes, dilemmas,
contradictions, predicaments
 Working with philosophical methods, amongst
which phenomenology, dialectics, maieutics,
hermeneutics and heuristic methods.

Where do I come from?
Scandinavian Viking, Danish
aristocrat, political/religious leader
banished Bismarck, copper smith
Central European gypsy, Dutch
barge skippers, farmers, art
experts, head of antiques auction

Grew up after WW2 in
war torn Netherlands

Terror of Cold War period
especially Suez crisis and nuclear threat

How to live? What is
truth? What is the
ultimate value of life?

What do we do when
crisis hits?
In the whirlwind of change we need to
find steadiness, persistence and
resilience: we need purpose

Nobody is spared crisis,
Conflict or LOSS
Are we ever prepared for the life changing challenges?

Even if you play it safe and try to
avoid catastrophes
You still need courage and
persistence to brave unexpected
blows of fate: many respond with
anxiety and depression

Facts: depression
 2-10% of European citizens experience depression related
problems
 Each year: 33.4 million Europeans suffer
 Inability to feel pleasure, tiredness, worthlessness, helplessness,
hopelessness and feelings of guilt
 Most suicides (30-88%) related to it
 60.000 deaths by suicide p.a. in the EU (2X > road acc)
 Most common cause of disability in the world, strongly
associated with heart disease in linear causal fashion
 Total cost p/a: UK: £15 billion USA: $100 billion
 Last decade: EU and WHO policy to promote mental health

Facts: anxiety
 Often considered in relation to stress
 Estimated 15.7 million Americans are affected each year
 12% of European population at any time
 The core features of GAD are chronic (>6 months) anxious worrying
with symptoms of hyper vigilance, hyper arousal and tension
 International study: 5.6 to 18.1% for anxiety disorders, of which GAD and
panic disorder together accounted for over half of the prevalence
figures (Baumeister & Hartner, 2007).
 But also Phobias, Panic, OCD, PTSD, SAD (social anx)
 NICE figures: cost of anxiety in EU: 41 billion Euros (2004 prices)
 Long term use of benzodiazepines (Xanax, Librium, Valium, Ativan):
worsens it

Size and burden of mental
disorders
 Most frequent disorders: anxiety (14%), insomnia
(7%), major depression (6.9%), somatoform (6.3%),
alcohol and drug dependency (4%), ADHD (5%)
dementia (1-30%)
 38.2%, i.e. 164.8 million persons affected per year.
 Percentage of disorders of brain: 26.6%, headache,
sleep apnoea, stroke (8.24), dementia, brain injury,
epilepsy, parkinsons, ms, brain tumours (overlap)

People crave happiness and
want to eliminate their
symptoms
in 2010 some 16 million prescriptions were
issued for anti-depressants in the UK: a
10% rise on the previous year. Iceland: 9%

SSRIs as panacea especially with anxiety, but also
NRIs and SNRIs
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (Fluoxetine, Prozac, Paxil,
Zoloft)
noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (Reboxetine, Edronax, Mazanor)
Serotonine- norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (Venlafaxine)
(anxiety, ADHD)
 From 2006 to 2010: 43% increase in prescriptions for
the SSRI antidepressants
 2009 BMJ paper titled "Explaining the rise in
antidepressant prescribing’’: SSRIs are given for all
sorts of problems
 2000-2005: already 36% increase in SSRI

How do people end up so
overwhelmed by their
emotional experience?
Despair leads to loss of self worth
anic at coping alone leads to crippling anxiety
significantly increases mortality

People expect to feel good
But life is not an eternal spring..

Unhappiness is not an
illness
Many people take the view they deserve happiness
 On this view, things like love, friendship,
meaningful activity, freedom, human
development, or the appreciation of true beauty
are ‘‘merely’’ instrumentally valuable for us, i.e.
they are not good as ends but merely as means
to the only thing that is good as an end, namely
happiness. Bengt Brulde 2006.

What happens when life is
hard?
Migrant mother in USA depression 1936

Resilience
 How do we overcome obstacles?
 How do we survive difficulties, crises, trauma?
 How do we rise above adversity?
 Are there personal qualities that enable a person
to be resilient?
 Think about times in your life when you have faced
adversity, difficulty or crisis.
 How did you overcome them?

 Man’s task is simple:
he should cease letting
his existence be a
thoughtless accident
Friedrich Nietzsche: The Gay Science

Reality is: we all despair!
 All of us are disappointed, dissatisfied,
disenchanted at times.
 We get sad and depressed.
 Seligman (1973) has described depression
as, `The common cold of psychopathology,
at once familiar and mysterious’

Holmes and Rahe scale
of stressful events
Death of spouse 100
Divorce 73
Marital separation 65
Jail term 63
Death of close family member 63
Personal injury or illness 53
Marriage 50
Fired at work 47
Marital reconciliation 45

Holmes and Rahe
Retirement 45
Change in health of a family member 44
Pregnancy 40
Sex Difficulties 39
Gain of new family member 39
Business readjustment 39
Change in financial state 38
Death of close friend 37
Change to different line of work 36
Change in number of arguments with spouse 35
Mortgage over $100,000 31
Foreclosure of mortgage or loan 30
Change in responsibilities at work 29

Holmes and Rahe
Other Life Events
Son or daughter leaving home
Trouble with in-laws
Outstanding personal achievement
Wife begins or stops work
Begin or end school
Change in living conditions
Revision in personal habits
Trouble with boss
Change in work hours or conditions
Change in residence
Change in schools
Change in recreation

Holmes and Rahe
Change in church activities
Change in social activities
Mortgage or loan less than $30,000
Change in sleeping habits
Change in number of family get-togethers
Change in eating habits
Vacation
Christmas alone
Minor violations of the law

Things can be a lot
worse
Iraqi refugees who dare not go back home

Life reduced to rubble
No safety

Sudanese refugees
no more land, water or hope

Sami people in Lapland
losing land to mining

Suffering and learning
and the learning is always personal

Pain remains for fire fighter
wife, 2013

Japanese girl in
Quarantine after nuclear
disaster 2011

Homes devastated in
Alabama tornado 2011

Coffins arriving from
Afghanistan at Wootton
Bassett, UK, 2011

Myanmar disaster Thai
refugees,2013

We cannot avoid all danger and all
problems and need to learn to cope
 It is by going down into the abyss
that we recover the treasures of
life.
 Where you stumble lies your

Being lost and finding
something new
 Heidegger’s aletheia (ἀλήθεια): truth means:
unveiling the hidden
 In loss we become homeless, Unheimlich and are
forced to find ourselves for the first time.

Shock to one’s system of
meaning.
 In crisis the connections we rely on to find
security and our identity are shaken up at the
roots
 Everything is in question and we can no longer
trust in life, other people, ourselves, fate or
gods
 We can no longer take things for granted

On Dying: Elizabeth Kubler-
Ross
 denial
 anger
 bargaining
 depression : reactive or preparatory
 acceptance
 hope

Laing:
Breakthrough in stead of
breakdown.
 Loss and transition are about breakdown of
the old.
 Instead of breaking down and becoming
depressed it can mean we break through
some block and move on to a next level.
 In the process we become stronger.
 We establish values that are more deeply
rooted.

What meaning after
crisis?
 Ultimately, man should not ask what the
meaning of his life is, but rather must
recognize that it is he who is asked.
 In a word, each man is questioned by
life; and he can only answer to life by
answering for his own life; to life he can
only respond by being responsible.
Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, p.172

Frankl’s way to
meaning
•Experiential values:
what we take from the
world.
•Creative values: what we
give to the world.
•Attitudinal values : the
way we deal with suffering.

What are your values?
 Experiential? What external experiences
make you feel most happy?
 Creative? What do you contribute to the
world?
 Attitudinal? How do you cope with
suffering?

We need problems and
challenges: to learn and evolve
 Camus:
 In the depth of winter I finally learned that there
was in me an invincible summer
 Happiness is nothing except the simple harmony
between a man and the life he leads

In darkness we
learn about the
depth of life
The discipline of suffering,
of great suffering — do
you not know that only this
discipline has created all
enhancements of man so
far?
(Nietzsche, 1886/1990:
225)

Dialectics
 Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.
 Human evolution proceeds with constant
conflict and forward movement in
overcoming a previous state.
 Paradoxes, conflicts and dilemmas are
integrated and gone beyond.
 Perhaps this is the true purpose of life and
suffering: to learn, surpass and evolve.

Taoism: Yin (moon/dark/
female) and Yang
(light/sun/male)

Chiaroscuro, clair-obscur,
the light and shade of life

We need COURAGE
Tillich’s Courage to Be:
 Courage is the universal self-affirmation of
one’s Being in the presence of the threat
of non-Being(Tillich 1952:163).

Integrating non being:
Paul Tillich: 1886-1965
 A neurotic person can take on board only a
little bit of non-being
 The average person can take on a limited
amount of non-being
 The creative person can accommodate a
large amount of non-being
 God can tolerate an infinite amount of non-
being.

Making sense of life
High
Big
Far
Good
Low
Small
Near
Bad

Energy is the flow between
two poles
Source: kidzoneweather.com

Dialectics: working with tension,
dilemma, conflict, opposition,
polarities, paradox
 Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.
 Human evolution proceeds with constant
conflict and forward movement in
overcoming a previous states.
 Paradoxes and dilemmas
are integrated
and gone beyond.

Transcendence
Thesis Antithesis
Synthesis
Dialectics

future
Thesis: my view
(past )
Antithesis: your view
(present)
Dialectics:
transcendence in space and time
Synthesis:
a wider view

Existential Space
Physical space
Social space
Personal space
Spiritual space

DESIRES FEARS VALUES
PHYSICAL life death vitality
SOCIAL love hate reciprocity
PERSONAL identity freedom integrity
SPIRITUAL good evil transparency
Human values
rediscovered.

World:
Dimension

Umwelt:
Where and
how?
Mitwelt:
With
what?
Eigenwelt:
Who?
Uberwelt:
For what?
Physical:
survival
Nature:
senses
Things Body Cosmos
Social:
affiliation
Society:
emotions
Others Ego Culture
Personal:
identity
Person:
thought
Me Self Consciousness
Spiritual:
meaning
Infinite:
intuition
Ideas Spirit Conscience
Different dimensions of human relationships at different levels of
existence

Overview of conflicts, challenges and paradoxes on four
dimensions
World Umwelt Mitwelt Eigenwelt Uberwelt
Physical Nature:
Life/
Death
Things:
Pleasure/
Pain
Body:
Health/
Illness
Cosmos:
Harmony/
Chaos
Social Society:
Love/
Hate
Others:
Dominance/S
ubmission
Ego:
Acceptanc
e/
Rejection
Culture:
Belonging/
Isolation
Personal Person:
Identity/Freed
om
Me:
Perfection/
Imperfection
Self:
Integrity/
Disintegratio
n
Consciousness:
Confidence/
Confusion
Spiritual: Infinite:
Good/
Evil
Ideas:
Truth/
Untruth
Spirit:
Meaning/
Futility
Conscience:
Right/
Wrong

Paradoxes of human
existence
challenge gain loss
Physical Death and
pain
Life to the full Unlived life or
constant fear
Social Loneliness
and
rejection
Understand
and be
understood
Bullying or being
bullied
Personal Weakness
and failure
Strength and
stamina
Narcissism or self
destruction
Spiritual Meaning-
Lessness
and futility
Finding an
ethics to live
by
Fanaticism or
apathy

What stops us?
The fear of truth
which is the fear of freedom Sartre’s
Truth and Existence, 1989:34.
 ‘
 Facing truth is the first step to freedom
 We need to find a new path and new direction
 We have to carry on and find a new way

Hold strong, even
though we are afraidSouth Sudan soldier before liberation

Show courage and defiance
Tank man in Tiananman Square 1989

Onto-dynamics
 Learning to live in line with the laws of life
 Paradox, conflict, difficulty and dilemmas
are our daily companions
 When crisis comes we need to have the
courage to descend to rock bottom
 From there we can build something better
 Important to take context, political, cultural
and social into account

Images of happiness
 Walhalla, Utopia, el Dorado, Garden of
Eden, Nirvana, Land of the Lotus eaters

What is happiness anyway?
Classic distinction
hedonism/eudaimonia
 Positive emotion: feeling good
 Life satisfaction (Diener): an evaluation of
overall picture of one’s life
 Absence of problems: having a good time
 Contentment or state of harmony
 Elation or bliss and ecstasy
 An aim which is always elusive

Problems with happiness
 Nagel’s post accident situation of not having a
care in the world, yet being pitied: happy fool
(View from Nowhere, 1986).
 If pleasure or feeling good is the goal, then what
of Nozick’s ‘experience machine’ (1974)?
 Need for pleasure is addictive and undermines
happiness
 Pure happiness is unrealistic: not true to life.

Tree of Knowledge and Exile
from Paradise: human
evolution.
 Kierkegaard: the Fall : tragedy or necessary
and beneficial?
 After Eden: knowledge of good and evil
 Return to Eden is not the objective
 Rather to live with consciousness and learn

 Greater values than
happiness:
 love, truth, beauty, loyalty,
honour, courage, freedom.

Hedonism or
Eudaimonia:
are we after ease or do we seek to
live well?
www.existentialacademy.com 123
 Aristotle’s Eudaimonia: value based  Or a banker’ version of value: how big was
your bonus?

Global map of Well
Being 2006
(or affluence/prosperity)

What is the Happy Planet
Index?
 Global measure of sustainable well-being:
the extent to which countries deliver long,
happy, sustainable lives for the people that
live in them.
 The 2012 HPI report ranks 151 countries
based on their efficiency – the extent to
which each nation produces long and
happy lives per unit of environmental input.

How is the Happy Planet
Index calculated?
 Experienced well-being x Life expectancy
 Divided by Ecological Footprint
 The website www.happyplanetindex.org
 Well Being measured by Gallup World Poll Ladder of Life: 0-10 rating
 Life expectancy: average age people can expect to reach
 Ecological Footprint: WWF measure of per capita hectares of land
required to sustain consumption pattern

Can we have enduring
happiness ?
 Happiness and unhappiness are twins that grow up
together. (Nietzsche, 1882: 270)

Dangers of
complacency
 1994 study Galen Bodenhausen: students in
happy mood more keen to condemn their
less privileged peers
 Diener’s follow up study: happy kids drop
out of college more, earn less later on
 June Gruber: happiness good but you can
have too much of it
 Iris Mauss: happiness leads to lack of training
for crisis

Don’t lose yourself when
life is tough
 The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard
work. Harry Golden

The art of living is to be equal to all
our emotions rather than to select
and cultivate only the pleasant
ones

Tuning into our feelings in order
to move towards understanding
 A pathway
towards the light
of understanding

We have learnt to deal in
emoticons

Your own little sphere of
existence matters

Imagine a person like a
sphere

That person is located in a
universe with other planets, stars,
suns, moons and spheres

Sphere as a planet or a cell:
micro or macro level.

If a cell: connection with other
cells, function and internal
constitution are paramount

If planet: orbit and
position matter

Merleau Ponty: Visible and
Invisible
 Things are structures – frameworks – the stars
of our life: they gravitate around us. Yet
there is a secret bond between
us and them –
through perception
we enter into the
essence of the flesh
(Visible and Invisible: 220)

A fractal universe: patterns of leaf veins repeat

Going into the molecules at the
quantum level: we discover whole
worlds of atoms and anti-matter

Other end of spectrum: into
infinity: galaxies and black
holes

Feeling our own
feelings
The universe is our
location
We are part of it
We are also an entire
universe of our own: the
human universe
Each of us is a universe
to ourselves.

You experience yourself as
having a nucleus: a core, a
heart or a soul

Layers of the sun
 Corona, chromosphere, photosphere,
convection zone, and core.

Perhaps we are more like
suns, generating heat and
light

Merleau Ponty: soul
 The soul is the hollow of the body, the body
is the distension of the soul. The soul adheres
to the body as their signification adheres to
the cultural things, whose reverse or other
side it is. (233)

Layers of a person’s life.
4.Physical: Umwelt
3.Social: Mitwelt
2.Personal: Eigenwelt
1.Spiritual: Uberwelt

Spiritual:
Good/Evil
Intuitions, values, beliefs, purpose, meaning.
Worldview/Ideas.
Personal:
Strength/Weakness
Thoughts, memories, identity, freedom.
Selfhood/Me.
Social:
Love/Hate
Feelings, relations, belonging, acknowledgement.
Communication/Others.
Physical:
Life/Death
Sensations, actions, environment, body, things.
Survival/World.
Dimensions of existence

Different quality of
experience at each
dimension

Befindlichkeit
 Befindlichkeit, attunement, disposition or
state of mind: the way I find myself. The way
I am situated in the world, disposed towards
it. Affectedness: an implicit understanding
of the world, not yet articulated. (later:
understanding and language)
 In an ontic fashion every moment of our
experience will be coloured by a particular
tonality, or mood (Stimmung).

Emotions are our
orientation.
 Emotions are like the weather: never none.
 They are the way we relate to the world.
 They define the mood of the moment.
 They are our atmosphere and modality.
 They tell us how and where we are.
 They show us what we want and don’t want
 Learn to tune in rather than tune out.

Freedom and the
brain: connectivity is
everything
The more explicit we can make our
experience the more connected we
become. Each feeling left goes into
implicit rather than explicit
memory. The more organized our
connections, the greater the
freedom. Pre-frontal lobes, rather
than just limbic system.

Emotions and
values
Emotions are always
experienced in relation to
values and beliefs and
principles.
They are our response to and
message about our
ideologies

Ideologies, values and
transcendence
Polytheism:
Many Gods
Monotheism:
One God
Marxism:
Society as
God
Psychology:
Individual as
God
Atheism: No
God
Science:
Fact are
God
Humanism:
Mankind as
God
Agnosticism:
Don’t know
God
Pantheism:
All is God

Classic solutions
dealing with emotions by
changing your values/beliefs
 It is not death that a man should fear, but he should
fear never beginning to live (Marcus Aurelius).
 The un-reflected life is not worth living (Socrates)

Early therapists
 Gilgamesh (Noah) 2750 BC
 Dwaipayana (Krishna) 1500 BC
 Moses 1400-1280 BC
 Zoroaster 630 -553 BC
 Lao-Tze 604- 531 BC
 Gautama Buddha 563 –510 BC
 Confucius 557- 479 BC

Wide range of Athenian and
Roman philosophies
 Plato 427 – 347 BC
 Diogenes 413 - 323 BC
 Aristotle 384 – 322 BC
 Epicurus 341 – 270 BC
 Zeno 335 – 263 BC
 Cicero 106 – 43 BC
 Lucretius 98 – 51 BC
 Jesus Christ 4 BC – 29 AD
 Seneca 1 AD - 65 AD
 Epictetus 55 - 135
 Marcus Aurelius 21 - 180

Socrates: 469 –399 BC
 Preceded by Heraclitus 540 –480 BC
and Parmenides 515- 450 BC
 Taught his students how to examine life:
cultivating the love of wisdom.
 Get out of the cave, in which we are chained
in ignorance living amongst shadows.
 Rediscover the light of truth about life.

Socrates
The unreflective life is not worth living

Aristotle
 Eudaimonia: the good life : virtue ethics
 Should benefit the community at large rather than only the
individual
 Philosophy teacher's discourse with the pupil (client) should
be a co-operative, critical one that insists on the virtues of
orderliness, deliberateness and clarity

Aristotelian practice
 Pupils are taught to separate true beliefs from false
beliefs and to modify and transform their passions
accordingly
 Winnowing and sifting opinions
 Virtue ethics: live in line with the demon: force,
power, spirit.

Epicureans
 The Epicureans seek to treat human suffering by
removing corrupting desires and by eliminating pain
and disturbance (ataraxia).
 Adjust values retaining only those that are attainable
and may bring pleasure.
 Relinquish the unobtainable and adjust expectations
to what is realistic, so that with a slight of hand we
can obtain what we think we want.

From Socrates to Epicures
 Dialectical investigation and critical thinking are
replaced with formulae and communal living
enforces the creed.
 Epicures understood something that neither Plato
nor Aristotle had fully grasped, i.e., that false beliefs
are often settled deep in the soul and that they may
not be available for argument.

Skeptics
Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360-275 B.C.)
 The Epicurean view is that pleasure is the only good
and we are taught to adjust our needs so as to
guarantee the procurement of pleasure from small
natural resources.
 Skeptics: the only way to stop pain and suffering is to
simply not believe in or desire anything.
 So whilst Epicureans try to get rid of false beliefs, the
Skeptics want to get rid of all beliefs.

Stoics: overcoming weakness
 Ordering of the self and soul
 Exercise of the mind
 Lack of moral fibre and emotional weakness
 Everything is connected, but Stoics consider that
different temperaments need different approaches
and that there is a critical moment (kairos) for
change :
 Zeno: virtue is its own reward

Stoic goal
 For the Stoics the pupil's goal is to become his own
teacher and pupil
 In order to improve a person's life the soul must be
exercised everyday, for instance by the use of logic
and poetry
 The objective is wisdom, the only ultimate value and
virtue and leads to eudaimonia, the flourishing life:
wisdom, courage, justice, temperance
 The means: detachment and self-control : apathy

Spinoza-ethics
 Prop.VI. The mind has greater power over
the emotions and is less subject thereto, in
so far as it understands all things as
necessary. (under a species of eternity)

Sartre Theory of Emotions
 The existence of desire as a human fact is sufficient
to prove that human reality is a lack. (87)
 Human reality is its own surpassing towards what it
lacks; it surpasses itself toward the particular being
which it would be if it were what it is. (89)

Sartre’s emotional theory
 Embodied human existence mobilizes itself towards
or away from that which it desires or dreads.
 We can do magic in letting ourselves fall into
emotion, thus transforming the world in bad faith.
 Difference between reflective and non reflective
emotions.

Project
 Man is characterized above all by his going beyond a
situation and by what he succeeds in making of what he
has been made.
 This going beyond we find at the very root of the human-
in need. (scarcity)
 This is what we call the project. (elementary objective,
original intention)
(Sartre, Search for a Method:91)

Emotion classification tree
Virginia Teller.

pride
jealousy
anger-
despair
fear
sorrowshame
envy
hope-
desire
love
joy
Sadness
Low
Happiness
High
Anxiety
Excitement
Engagement
Depression
Disappointment
Disengagement
Compass of
emotions
evd 10

Four kinds of emotions
• Loss of
value
• Aspire
to value
• Threat
to value
• Gain
value
approach fight
flightfreeze

Threat to value:
pride, jealousy, anger
Pride
Jealousy
Anger

Loss of value
(despair, fear, sorrow):
Despair,
fear,
sorrow

Aspire to value:
desire, envy, shame
Desire
Envy
Shame

Gain value: hope, love, joy
Hope,
love, joy

Physical: things
Social: others
Personal: self
Spiritual:
ideas
Four relational layers

World:
Dimension

Umwelt:
Where and
how?
Mitwelt:
With
what?
Eigenwelt:
Who?
Uberwelt:
For what?
Physical:
survival
Nature:
senses
Things Body Cosmos
Social:
affiliation
Society:
emotions
Others Ego Culture
Personal:
identity
Person:
thought
Me Self Consciousness
Spiritual:
meaning
Infinite:
intuition
Different dimensions of human relationships at different levels of existence

Overview of conflicts, challenges and paradoxes on four dimensions
World Umwelt Mitwelt Eigenwelt Uberwelt
Physical Nature:
Life/
Death
Things:
Pleasure/
Pain
Body:
Health/
Illness
Cosmos:
Harmony/
Chaos
Social Society:
Love/
Hate
Others:
Dominance/Sub
mission
Ego:
Acceptance/
Rejection
Culture:
Belonging/
Isolation
Personal Person:
Identity/Freedom
Me:
Perfection/
Imperfection
Self:
Integrity/
Disintegration
Consciousness:
Confidence/
Confusion
Spiritual: Infinite:
Good/
Evil
Ideas:
Truth/
Untruth
Spirit:
Meaning/
Futility
Conscience:
Right/
Wrong

1:Pride-confidence-arrogance-conceit
2:Jealousy-worry-vigilance-caution
3:Anger-hate-rage-despair
4:Fear-confusion-cowardice-alarm
5:Sorrow-misery-resignation-regretShame-emptiness-guilt-humilation:7
Envy-curiosity-aspiration-interest:8
Hope-desire-resolve-trust:9
Love-courage-commitment-vow:10
Joy-thrill-excitement-bliss:11
6. Low
Despondency
Depression
Sadness
Exhilaration
Happiness
Gladness
12:High
Up
gain
Down
loss
Emotional
Compass

How do we experience
our world?
 We are lenses, prisms for light to refract. We
allow light through, reflect it, magnify it,
block it, divert it. We change the tone and
mood and affect the world in turn.

Tune into the feelings and moods that
colour our worldview
 They create different atmospheres at different times.

THE ART OF LIVING:
HOW TO BE ON THE PATH OF LIFE?
Understanding our emotions is the best way towards
understanding our mode of being and our values. Living with
our emotions is the path to our elemental objectives

The art of living is to be equal to all
emotions rather than to select only
the pleasant ones

When the storm hits at sea
we need to be prepared

pride
jealousy
anger-
despair
fear
sorrowshame
envy
hope-
desire
love
joy
Sadness
Low
Happiness
High
Anxiety
Excitement
Engagement
Depression
Disappointment
Disengagement

Greed
Stinginess
Frustration
Disgust
PainNeed
Craving
Excitement
Lust
Pleasure
Deprivation
Emptiness
Satisfaction
Fullness
Gain
Survival
surprise
Loss
Threat
shock
Sensory Compass

Care
Jealousy
Anger
Fear
RejectionShame
Envy
Approval
Love
Acceptance
Isolation
Separateness
Belonging
Oneness
Engagement
Disengagement
Emotional Compass

Superiority
Stubbornness
Defiance
Deflation
HumiliationInferiority
Anxiety
Courage
Commitment
Confidence
Imperfection
Weakness
Perfection
Strength
Success
Failure
Mental Compass

Pride
Prudence
Wrath
Resignation
DisillusionmentGuilt
Aspiration
Hope
Resoluteness
Bliss
Futility
Absurdity
Meaning
Purpose
Good
Evil
Moral Compass

Rising above your emotions
 Above the clouds the weather is steady even when it
rains below.
 Transcending our own situation and emotions allows
us to understand our own response.

Bringing down emotional intensity:
painting the world pale or in pastel shades

Anxiety as source of
energy
Anxiety is life energy rather than a symptom of
illness
When we face the responsibility of making
something out of nothing we become anxious

Heidegger and anxiety
 Anxiety individualizes. This
individualization brings Dasein
back from its falling, and
makes manifest to it that
authenticity and inauthenticity
are possibilities of its Being.
(Heidegger 1927:191)

Going beyond
happiness
 Happiness as a high is doomed: every high is
followed by a low.
 Constant pleasure leads to addiction and misery.
 Happiness as contentment may be more feasible,
but could easily lead to mediocrity and lack of
awareness.
 Beyond the quest for happiness is the quest for right
living.
 This is not just about meaning and purpose but about
truth, being, nothingness, learning and evolution,
dialectically integrating paradox.

Existential intelligence
 Embracing existence in its contradictions and rising
to its challenges.
 Realizing that there is no such thing as a perfect
human being.
 Learning to be resilient and flexible enough to
negotiate on-going paradoxes
 Facing existential challenges in a personal and
creative manner that allows for dialectic.

Emotional well being
 An ability to creatively encounter challenges and
crises.
 Capacity for re-establishing equilibrium through
strong, dynamic centre of narrative gravity.
 Enhanced enjoyment of life, appreciation of
physical world, others, self-worth and meaning.
 True freedom is always spiritual. It has
something to do with your innermost being,
which cannot be chained, handcuffed, or put
into a jail.
 The Courage to Be Yourself

Making suffering
meaningful
 Processing is of prime importance.
 Assimilate crisis and make it meaningful.
 Process emotions, values, beliefs
 Transcend and overcome.
 Rise to the challenge
 Find the purpose and meaning in the
suffering

What helps?
 Those who have experienced trauma do better if they have good social support.
 They do significantly better if they have integrity and a sense of wholeness. (to
survive trauma you either need good conscience or no conscience at all…)
 The conflict or trauma has to be put to good use.
 There has to be a safe place one can retreat to.
 It makes a big difference whether you can take some responsibility for your fate.
 It helps if you feel your trauma is in some ways a proof of your character or a
building block of it.
 If you can claim the crisis as part of your success
rather than evidence of failure and bad character:
making it count!

Resilience
Physical: safety, sleep, food,
comfort, survival, healing, repair,
recovery
Social: strong
relationships,
allow and
understand
emotions,
belonging,
caring, sharing,
support
Psychological: clear thinking,
making sense, analysis,
understanding, new perspective,
taking charge, responsibility,
character building
Spiritual: review
values, new
vision, trust,
transcendence,
dialectic,
stronger beliefs,
meaning,
purpose

Rita’s Grief
 When I speak to Rita, who is grieving over
her husband and small son who have
perished in a car accident, the words that I
say to her at first hardly reach her.
 She is in a place of relative safety deep
inside of herself, in a state of suspended
animation behind the façade that she turns
to the world. She barely engages with
people at all.

Rita’s grief 2
 At first it is not my words that make the link to
her world, but the consistency that I can
offer in being attentive and careful to not
hurt her further or push her too hard.
 I spend nearly half an hour in relative silence
with Rita, at times formulating her fear on
her behalf, gently, tentatively, checking for
verification by noting her response.

Rita’s grief 3
 Mostly the work consists of me letting
myself be touched by her suffering and
learning to tolerate her pain with her, so
that I can offer reactions and words that
soothe and move her forward to a place
where she can begin to face what has
happened to her so shockingly out of
the blue. In this process she guides me
and exposes more and more of her
nightmarish universe to me as she
perceives me as capable of venturing
further into it with her.

Bringing down emotional intensity

Rita
World Physical Social Personal Spiritual
Umwelt Take
interest in
objects,
space
Meet
others
Relate to
own body
again
Recognize
value
Mitwelt Leave
dead
behind
Love dead
still
Find self
valid
Find others
valid
Eigenwelt Recover
sense of
self care
Rediscover
love
Love self Find
project
Uberwelt Make
sense of
disaster
Life with
others is
worthwhile
I am me
and this
matters
There is a
purpose to
it all

Dimension Positive
Purpose
Negative
Concern
Minimal
Goal
Optimal
Value
Physical: Health Illness Fitness Vitality
Pleasure Pain Safety Well Being
Strength Weakness Efficacy Ability
Life Death Survival Existence
Social Success Failure Skill Contribution
Belonging Isolation Kinship Loyalty
Acceptance Rejection Recognition Cooperation
Love Hate Respect Reciprocity
Personal Identity Confusion Individuality Integrity
Perfection Imperfection Achievemen
t
Excellence
Independenc
e
Dependenc
y
Autonomy Liberty
Confidence Doubt Poise Clarity
Spiritual Good Evil Responsibility Transparenc
y

Spiritual:
Integrate what has happened in world view
Improve rather than give up values, beliefs, purpose, meaning.
Stick with what is true.
Personal:
Allow the event to strengthen your character
Express thoughts and memories. Regain a sense of freedom in relation to adversity.
Learn to yield as well as be resolute.
Social:
Seek to go beyond hateful and destructive relations by isolation and avoidance till
Reconciliation is possible. Seek belonging with like minded allies.
Communicate your emotions without reproach, resentment, bitterness.
Physical:
Seek safety when under threat.
Trust and heed sensations of stress. Find natural environment that can soothe as
well as expand your horizons.
OVERCOMING TRAUMA

How to create value in
life?
 Through committed and engaged action
 Step by step
 Diligently proceeding no matter what
challenges come on your path
 Steady progress comes from undaunted
focus on your project
 Flexibility and finding joy in the process
rather than aiming for success or happiness

We are united
with
what we love

Help others when
possible
bushfires in Victoria 2009

ake gestures of good will
when possible
Pentagon Vietnam protests: flower power

Loving your Life
 Loving your fate and destiny in all its manifestations
(Nietzsche’s Amor Fati)
 Challenges and difficulties are not the enemy, nor to be
avoided but rather to be welcomed as grist for the mill
and par for the course: life as an adventure.

Chiaroscuro, claire-
obscure, the light and
shade of life

When it is dark enough,
you can see the stars. Ralph
Waldo Emerson

Eventually: Earth Rises
again
1968 picture from Apollo mission

www.icecap.org.uk
www.dilemmas.org
www.nspc.org.uk
Podcast of Living with your Emotions on

Existential therapy: reflecting on life and what is implicit
rather than explicit: asking rather than answering
questions
 What is the person’s worldview?
 What is their situation?
 What are their values and beliefs?
 What is their purpose in life?
 What has been their fate?
 What is their purpose?
 What are their talents?
 What are their yearnings?
 What are their connections
to the world and others?
 What is their attitude?
 What are their actions?
 How do they create meaning?

Method: Edmund Husserl’s
Phenomenology
1859-1938
 Phenomenology: appearance<>essence
 Wesenschau: to things themselves.
 Intentionality (Franz Brentano)
 Intuition: question natural attitude.
 Knowledge begins with experience
 Bracketing assumptions, epoche

Phenomenology
 Key points
 We are always making sense of the world, we can never be free of our
assumptions.
 Existential philosophy is an application of the phenomenological
research method to the study of existence.
 Existential therapy is a phenomenological research project for both
therapist and client.
 It needs to comply with rigorous standards of philosophical research
and verification as well as with the requirements of human interaction
and encounter.
 In order to get a more accurate picture of the world we need to
understand how we make sense of it.
 By attending – just noticing, describing – not explaining, and not pre-
judging, we can get a better idea of our assumptions

Phenomenological
openness
 By being phenomenological we can become
more aware of the way we interpret the world in
narrow and often unrealistic ways.
 Listening with the right sort of openness and
attentiveness is the foundation of all good
practice.
 The task of existential therapy is one of
facilitating the client to be come freer to choose
when to be open and when not to be open.
 Openness to experience means to able to
embrace autonomy and this is as true for the
therapist as for the client.

Intentionality
 Ego cogito (subject): transcendental reduction
 Noesis or cogitatio (process or predicate):
phenomenological reduction
 Noema or cogitata (object): eidetic reduction

Assumptions
 Existentially, all assumptions relate to the givens of
existence - there are:
 Physical assumptions like, ‘my children will not die
before me’,
 Social assumptions like, ‘my intimate relationships are
always of a particular quality’,
 Psychological assumptions like, ‘I never get to do
things the way I want’, and
 Spiritual/ethical assumptions like, ‘People will be
punished if they do bad things’.


Phenomenological Method
I. Phenomenological reduction
 Noesis
II. Eidetic reduction
 Noema
III. Transcendental reduction
 Cogito

I.Phenomenological reduction
cogitatio: process of thought
1. Noesis.
2. Epoche: suspend assumptions.
3. Description.
4. Horizontalization.
5. Equalization.
6. Verification.

Description
 Phenomenology is about description not
explanation.
 The intention is to open out possibility, not to
close it down.
 The client’s autonomy is respected at all times
 The person is enabled to combine a subjective
and an objective view on their own life

Take an everyday object, like a
paper clip, a milk carton, a
newspaper or a flower.
Without assessing effectiveness or
value, think of 20 other uses for
the object.
What did you have to do in order to stop thinking
of the object in terms of its original use?

Verification: check that
what you think makes
sense to the person Characteristic statements or intentions of verification are:
 ‘What is your part in what you are describing?’ This brings present
responsibility into the dialogue and questions the client’s denial of
responsibility and their sense of separation from both their own life and
the lives of others.
 ‘Has this ever happened before in your life? Is this feeling familiar?’
This introduces the past, previous experience, into the
dialogue and looks to finding the universals behind the individual
properties.
 ‘How is this leading you to what you say you want?’ This introduces the
future, hope, expectation and change, into the dialogue.
 ‘On the one hand you feel [...] but on the other hand you feel [...].’
This draws the client’s attention to the dilemmas, contradictions and
the tension between opposites that they usually try to avoid. It
highlights the dynamic nature of emotional life and helps them to face
up to their inner and outer reality, gaining strength from their ability to
do so.

II. Eidetic Reduction
cogitatum: object of thought
1. Noema.
2. Abschattungen: profiles, adumbrations.
3. Wesenschau: intuiting essences.
4. Genetic constitution (vs. static).
5. Universals beyond the properties.

Adumbrations
 Different facets of experience

Genetic constitution
 Things change over time

III. Transcendental reduction
cogito: ego, thinking mind
 1. Cogito.
 2. Transcendental ego.
 3. Solipsism overcome.
 4. Horizon of intentionality.
 5. Self as point zero.
 4. Transcendental inter-subjectivity.

We are connected to all
there is
 We are part of and generate
electromagnetic fields
 Resonance
 Presence/energy
 Transcendence

Existential approach
not a technique
 It is a worldview which allows to integrate a
variety of methods
 Addresses universal problems
 Provides a method for rigorous philosophical
questioning and logical tools
 Non prescriptive

Assumptions and
prejudice
 We are always making sense of the
world, we are never free of assumptions
 Understand how we make sense of it
 Attend, notice, describe
 Don’t explain, pre-judge, condemn
 Existential therapy is a phenomenological
research project for both therapist and
client.
 Bracketing

Hermeneutic interpreting
1. It must be tentative, for the client must be able to
dispute it and consider it, rather than to feel
obligated to swallow it whole and agree with it: they
are interpreting, not you.
2. Any interpretations we may must make a direct
connection between a trigger event that the client is
currently preoccupied with and its internal and
external consequences it has in the client’s life.
3. Therefore the emphasis is ultimately always on the
authority of the client. We model a modest though
clear speaking clarity so that the client can learn to
articulate their own living experience for themselves
with increasing authority.

Quest for Truth
 Truth is paradoxical: coming to term with
the dark and light sides of life equally.
 Not just well being, but also tackling
negativity and difficulties with courage.
 Gestalt therapy (polarities). Jungian
therapy (shadow). Later Freud: death
instinct (destrudo) alongside libido, the
life instinct.

Work with bias.
 Become aware of your own and your client’s bias:
outlook, assumptions, beliefs, prejudice, blind
spots.

Big Questions
 What does it mean to be alive? Who am I?
What is the purpose of my existence? How
should we live? What can I hope to achieve?
Is happiness possible? What is expected of
me? How should I act and be in relation to
other people? Is there fairness in the world?
Can I make a change for the better? Is it
possible to understand life and get a grip on
it? Can I find ways of overcoming my
troubles? Is it necessary to suffer this much?
How can I be a better person and live a
worthwhile life?

Different layers and
levels of intervention
 Umwelt: understand physical subtext and embodiment: person’s relation
to the world around them. Behavioural/Bioenergy/Biodynamic/Classic
Psychoanalysis.
 Mitwelt: describe and take into account the social, cultural and political
context of the client’s life. Object
relations/Systemic/TA/Group/CBT/Adlerian.
 Eigenwelt: read and understand the text of the client’s life, find the
narrative point of gravity. Who do they think they are? Gestalt/Self
Psychology/Ego-Psychology
 Uberwelt: recognize worldview and values: what is the purpose of the
person’s life? Jungian/Psychosynthesis/Core process/Transpersonal

Values and actions to make
you feel good and strong and
true instead of happy.
1. Earning your keep with your own labour
2. Understanding others
3. Pondering your own motivations
4. Reflecting on your life
5. Living true to your own values
6. Living in line with the purpose and truth of human existence.
7. Contributing more to the world than you take from it.
8. Respecting nature and the universe
9. Making your life matter
10. Loving as much as you can.
11. Being prepared for change and transformation.
12. Knowing when to be resolute and when to let go.

Background action to make
life right.
 to be healthy and look after your body the best way possible.
 to enjoy what is free in the world and be close to nature
 to be loving with others and care for someone deeply.
 to respect and esteem yourself and make sure others do too.
 to find concrete goals worth putting your whole energy into.
 to learn to question things and not take anything for granted
 to find life interesting and relish every minute
 to be prepared to let things go and be ready to die
 to strive for wisdom and excellence
 to be content and find routines that satisfy you
 to achieve something, whatever, and leave the world a better
place than you found it.

Emotional well being
 An ability to creatively encounter challenges and
crises.
 Capacity for re-establishing equilibrium through
strong, dynamic centre of narrative gravity.
 Enhanced enjoyment of life, appreciation of
physical world, others, self-worth and meaning.
 True freedom is always spiritual. It has
something to do with your innermost being,
which cannot be chained, handcuffed, or put
into a jail.
 OSHO, Freedom: The Courage to Be Yourself

Baumeister (1991)
Meanings of Life
 Baumeister concluded that there are four basic needs for
meaning:
1. Need for purpose (spiritual)
2. Need for value (social)
3. Need for efficacy (physical)
4. Need for self-worth (personal)
 It is the process of going in the general direction of these
four objectives that makes for a good life.

Baumeister & Deurzen
 Feel effective in our embodied existence in the
physical world, in relation to nature and the objects
we encounter, whilst feeling part of the cosmos.
 Feel of value by having confidence in our personal
ego, whilst relating with others in the social world,
with a sense of belonging to the culture we live in.
 Feel a sense of self worth as the individual we are, at
ease in that private sphere where we encounter our
personal thoughts and consciousness.
 Feel purposeful in relation to what is sacred,
meaningfully and soulfully proceeding to transcend
the banality of our lives.

Baumeister (1991:214)
 Happiness is when ‘reality lives up to your desires’.
 Long-term goals offer a sense of direction, but it is
necessary to have short-term goals in order to derive
daily meaning.
 In fact it is having short term achievable goals that
allow us to feel efficient and purposeful that gives us
most of a sense of self worth and value of life.

How to find our way in our
Existential Space
Physical, natural space
Social interpersonal space
Personal, psychological space
Spiritual, ideological space

Dialogue of the
therapeutic relationship
Being
therapist
Client’s life
client

Like Sisyphus
Always onwards
And upwards
Enough
To fill
A
Human
Heart.

Trusting that we can discover what is true,
possible and right.
The freedom of our feelings: making room for our life

remember to face up to
life:
 Time and space to pay attention to our passions
and reflect on the things that matter to us and we
feel strongly about whether positive or negative.

www.nspc.org.uk
www.icecap.org.uk
www.dilemmas.org

Objective of therapy.
 Rediscover vision
 Seeing and overseeing their situation
 Widening the horizon
 Helicopter view of life
 Broader perspective
 New connections
 Understand human existence
 Encouragement
 Liberation
 Purpose, direction
 Engagement

Four dimensions of life.
4.Physical: Umwelt
3.Social: Mitwelt
2.Personal: Eigenwelt
1.Spiritual: Uberwelt

Spiritual:
Good/Evil
Intuitions, values, beliefs, purpose, meaning.
Worldview/Ideas.
Personal:
Strength/Weakness
Thoughts, memories, identity, freedom.
Selfhood/Me.
Social:
Love/Hate
Feelings, relations, belonging, acknowledgement.
Communication/Others.
Physical:
Life/Death
Sensations, actions, environment, body, things.
Survival/World.
Dimensions of
existence

Umwelt Mitwelt Eigenwelt Uberwelt
Physical
survival
Nature Things Body Cosmos
Social
affiliation
Public Others Ego Culture
Personal
identity
Private Me Self Consciousness
Spiritual
meaning Transcendence
Different dimensions of the four
spheres of existence
evd 10

Reflecting on our
emotions and actions
 Doing magic and transforming the world in
a positive and constructive way

Magritte:
Empire of
Lights.
Learning to live with paradox and the tensions of life

Meaning and Purpose Find out what your inner landscape currently is:
what is meaningful to you and inspires you.
 What is your purpose in life ?

Living happily or living well:
an existential view
 Crystallization of discontent may be the
beginning of insight into what is wrong.
 Conflict, dilemmas and problems are an
intrinsic part of being alive
 Being cured of difficulties is the death of
possibility and creativity
 Perhaps constant problems and troubles are
necessary to a well lived life and provide the
depth of life

Emotions are our
orientation.
 Emotions are like the weather: never
none.
 They are the way we relate to the world.
 They define the mood of the moment.
 They are our atmosphere and modality.
 They tell us how and where we are.
 Learn to tune in rather than tune out.

Kierkegaard’s breathing
 Personhood is a synthesis of possibility and
necessity.
 Its continued existence is like breathing
(respiration),
which is an inhaling and exhaling.
 (Kierkegaard, Sickness unto Death: 40)

Inspiration and
expiration
let go
Exhale
Depression
release
pause
Inhale
Anxiety
tension
hold

VALUES AND BELIEFS
 Values and beliefs are the basis of a personal
code of ethics which is about:
 how I want to live my life
 how I want to treat others
 how I want to be treated by others
 how I aim to evaluate my actions and those of
others
 how I feel about human existence as a result

Checklist of existential
therapy
 1. Collaboration, liberty and equality
 2. Uncovering the implicit
 3. Themes and personal predicaments
 4. Four worlds and emotional compass
 5. Projects, values, fears and tensions
 6. Complexity; connectivity
 7. Structural analysis: clarity
 8. Meanings: hermeneutics, heuristic practice
 9. Paradoxes: positives and negatives
 10. Dialectics: human evolution and transcendence
 11. Liberation and freedom
 12. Savouring life: both resolution and letting be.

Recapturing radical
FREEDOM
 ‘Freedom is not a
property
(Eigenschaft :
characteristic) of
man; man is the
property (Eigentum:
possession) of
freedom.’
 (Heidegger 1971: Schelling’s Treatise on the Essence of Human
Freedom, transl. Stambaugh J. (Athens Ohio: ohio University Press
1985: 11/9).

Work hard, enduring hardship and
forging forwards, to find light at end of
the tunnel.

When the going gets
tough, the tough get
going:
we get to work..

working together to
make sure things get
better and not worse

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
Michel de Montaigne

We endure and wait
patiently
North and South Korean family united briefly in 2010

We survive and count
our blessings

Aarhus, danish psychological society, 2014

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