Posytic Case Study: Daseinsanalysis

This document will explore the fundamental principles that confirm the importance of Frankl’s, Existential Theory and Logotherapy.

During a lifetime, most individuals question the meaning of their existence at one point or another. Existential therapy aims to help individuals find purpose, have better defined goals, and live life to the fullest. Existential therapy takes into account cultural, social and political values of the client. It attempts to help the client live more deliberately, while accepting life’s unpredictable challenges and contradictions. Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is complementary to existential therapy by providing techniques to help clients make changes once their awareness is increased through existential discovery. Existential therapy

Based on my past experience and a review of this week’s reading, I believe the theories that best fit with my personal philosophies are the Person-centered therapy and Existential therapy. As Experiential and Relationship-Oriented Therapies, these theories share some key concepts that really fit with how I see my role in the therapeutic relationship and what I believe about personal power and change.

Existential therapy through the eyes of Dr. Yalom is very fascinating. There is never a fixed life that each person is supposed to live. In his therapy the clients are allowed to find out for themselves what it is they need by receiving adequate questioning from Dr. Yalom. His questioning guides them down the existential path to freedom and responsibility.

  Existentialism is a philosophy dealing with man's aloneness in the universe. Either there is no God or else God stands apart from man, leaving him free will to make his own choices. From this basic idea of man being alone in an uncertain and purposeless world, many related ideas have developed. One great worry of existentialist writers is that life is becoming too complicated and too impersonal. People become more and more involved with their work, which is taking them away from their friends, family, and culture. However, these provide the only "meaning" that life could possibly have. One author prominently known for his work with existential ideas was Franz

Viktor
 Frankl
 and
Sigmund
 Freud, are two
of the most significant
 psychological
 philosophers
 of
 our time. They, have
 formed
 powerful
 perceptions
 concerning
 the
 role
 of
 culture, humanity, and
 the
 healing
 method. Even though
 Frankl
 and
 Freud
jointly
 experienced
 misery
 within
 their
 own
 existences
 and
 equally
 observed
 dramatic
 socio‐political
 alterations
 within
 the
 premature
 twentieth
 century, they eventually came to adopt completely different psychological concepts.

This case study illustrates Ruth being the client. This provides background information about Ruth includes the presenting problem, the history of presenting problem and the psychosocial history. The key concepts, the therapeutic process, the therapeutic relationship, therapist function and roll comes from the three theories Gestalt, Existential and Adlerian. The case identifies and describe goals that would be established for Ruth using all three theories. This case study applies detailed techniques from Gestalt and Adlerian also providing specific examples of Ruth participating in the different techniques. Such as advice, catching oneself, lifestyle assessment, encouraging, task setting and commitment, future projection, empty chair and

experience in this field, we describe the frameworks and methods for these extreme situations as they challenge the usual psychotherapeutic context of intervention of the clinical psychologist. Our description of the ethical, temporal and spatial frameworks allow us to see the mental health care system as favoring the emergence and maintenance the position of subject in a medical environment, which may keep the patient in a position of object. We discuss two methods that can be combined to respond to the request of the subject. The interview in tandem with

Existentialist ideas are brought into the therapeutic process as hermeneutics; the methods of interpretation of personal meanings which enable the therapist to better understand the client’s issues in living.R By working through a multiple of universal aspects of what it is to be human a client is helped to seek new ways of living.

Among these therapeutic approaches are the psychodynamic approach and the existential approach. An example of existential approach psychotherapy is the person-centred therapy that was introduced by Carl Rogers in the 1940s. Person-centred therapy (PCT) focuses on the quality of the person-to-person therapeutic relationship; it places faith and gives responsibility to the client in dealing with problems and concerns (Corey, 2009, p. 30). On the other hand, for the psychodynamic approach, Sigmund Freud, the core founder of this approach developed psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a therapy aimed to treat mental disorder. It is a set of techniques for treating the unconscious causes of mental disorders; as well as to explain the underlying factors of how human personality and abnormality develop from childhood (Corey, 2009, p. 30). This paper examines the similarities and differences between psychoanalytic therapy and

According to Freud, there are three kinds of anxiety – reality, moral and neurotic. Reality anxiety is experienced when there is an actual danger coming from the external world. Moral anxiety arises when there is a conflict between one’s behavior and what the superego is demanding one to do. Finally, neurotic anxiety is felt when the ego feels incapable of controlling the id and the urges hiding in it. The tools people use to get rid of anxiety is what psychoanalysts call “Defense Mechanisms” (Schultz and Schultz, 2009). Defense mechanisms are different behavioral patterns, some of them are considered mature (for example humor) and some immature but what is important for this paper is that in psychoanalytic therapy, defense mechanisms are identified and the goal of the therapy is to overcome them and access the unconscious conflicts which are according to the Freudians the root of any mental problem. Moreover, all problems’ origin can be found in childhood - most often in a faulty relationship with one of the primary caregivers (Hough,

Theories within psychotherapy guide interactions between the therapist and client, providing a process by which the client can come to understand and resolve their problems. However, these theories can often be conflicting with opposing techniques and goals. Existential therapy is best considered as a philosophical approach to the therapeutic process, which gives prominences to the themes of freedom, self-determination, self-awareness and anxiety (Yalom & Josselson, 2011, p. 310). It emphasises the individual’s capacity to make free choices regarding the person they become, and focuses less on the use of techniques. In contrast, Freudian psychoanalytic therapy considers ways to change problematic behaviours or thoughts by examining their concealed unconscious motivations and meanings (Corey, 2013, p. 63). Past experiences are significant in determining the distinctive behaviour of the individual, which is analysed by the therapist through techniques such as dream analysis and free association. Whilst both theories view the individual and their difficulties as unique, existential and psychoanalytic therapy have opposing views of human nature and therapeutic goals.

Different counseling theories, such as psychoanalytic, Adlerian, client-centered therapy, existential psychotherapy, gestalt therapy, and reality therapy can be applied to different clinical settings and populations by a counselor or therapist (Rayner & Vitali, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to apply a counseling theory, existential therapy, to the provided case study of Paul, a 34-year-old male with work inhibition, but yearns for more in his life. Essentially, counseling theories can be used a foundation for counselor’s or therapist’s work with clients. It is one of the most unique forms of counseling theories that aims at exploring the psychological and emotional challenges faced by a client from a philosophical perspective, particularly

“The existential theory is concerned for the personal "commitment" of this interesting existing unique in the "human circumstances”.

Existential theory is only one of many different theories in psychology. This paper will work to help give the reader a better understanding of what Existential theory is, what the common factor accountability is and how the common factor accountability works within the existential theory to help a client and/or therapist gain a better understanding of the choices, thoughts, or behaviors that helped get a client into the position they are in and how holding themselves accountable to their actions, behaviors or thoughts can help them reach healthy attainable goals in their life. In this paper the reader will gain a better understanding about how existential theory looks at the whole person and how they reached the point where they needed to seek assistance in understanding themselves and how they can hold them self and how others can hold them accountable for their actions, thought, and behaviors.