marlier.proThe Three Existential Concepts of Anxiety, Guilt,
and Being-in-the-World
September 30, 2003
Existential psychotherapy focuses on the living person in a disintegrating and dehumanized modern world by dealing with essential questions such as anxiety, guilt and the phenomenological notion of Being-in-the-World.
Anxiety arises from our personal need to survive, to preserve our being, and to assert our being. There are three forms of anxiety: Biologically, fear in response to a danger (or an alleged danger) leads to anxiety. Psychologically, there is a “guilt-theory” of anxiety. Anxiety is the product of irresponsibility, guilt, immaturity. Culturally: The kinds of threats which trigger anxiety are largely defined by the culture in which the individual lives. (May, 1950, p. 151)
Anxiety springs from fear of death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. There is a normal anxiety, characterized in that it is proportionate with the objective situation confronted, it does not require repression nor defense mechanisms for its management, and it can be used creatively, as a stimulus, or even relieved. An example of normal anxiety is death anxiety. According to Yalom, this positive anxiety can be used “to live more authentic, meaning-filled and purposeful lives.” (Branfman). Anxiety can also be neurotic, and characterized in that it is not appropriate, disproportionate to the objective situation faced by the patient, it is repressed and involves intrapsychic conflict, is managed by various forms or retrenchment of activity and awareness: inhibitions, development of neurotic symptoms and defense mechanisms. It is destructive, not constructive, and it paralyzes the individual. “In severe clinical cases, anxiety is often experienced as a dissolution of the self.[...] Kierkegard named this the fear of nothingness.” (May, 1950, p. 193)
Similarly to anxiety, guilt can take either a normal or a neurotic form. Normal guilt sensitizes us to the ethical aspects of our behavior. Neurotic guild arises out of transgressions. Transgression can be not only against others or some moral or social order or code, but also against oneself. The transgression against oneself is the failure to live the life allotted to us. If we protect ourselves from anxiety through avoidance mechanisms and repression, we are seeking safety and relief from anxiety, but at the same time, we are cutting ourselves from life. We don’t live as intensively as our potentialities would allow us. This life restriction generates a form of guilt referred to as existential guilt.
Existential isolation refers to a huge gap between oneself and other beings. It also refers to the separation between oneself and the world. Eventually between oneself and oneself. In this case, the person and other persons or the external world, instead of constituting several distinct entities which interact and correlate in complex ways, are referred to as a single entity named being-in-the-world. (May et al., 1958, p. 55). Being-in-the-World (Heidegger’s dasein) involves Being-with-Others and Being-with-Oneself. It is Merleau-Ponty’s appartenance au monde: the unity of person and environment. The opposite of Meursault in Camus’ L’Étranger. The individual is the center of is own culture, his own world. This world spans over three levels: the Umwelt, the biological world, the environment, the natural world of biological urge and drive; the Mitwelt, the world of other human beings, the social, interactive, interpersonal aspects of existence; and the Eigenwelt, the own-world, the relationship to oneself, the subjective phenomenological world of the self. In addition, Being-in-the-World should be open to one’s past and future as well as one’s present as it is the nature of man transcend the immediate situation.
Essential as may be the concepts dealt with by existential psychotherapy, their level of abstraction certainly makes them difficult to apprehend and put in practice. There was some resistance against existential psychotherapy because it stems from philosophy. Yet, this is changing, as van Deurzen-Smith expresses it:
The existential approach to counselling centres on an exploration of someone’s particular way of seeing life, the world and herself. The goal is to help her to establish what it is that matters to her, so that she can begin to feel more in tune with herself and therefore more real and alive… Much of what has always been taken for granted is therefore re-examined in the light of a search for truth about life. (p. 27)
In the light of what philosophy at large can bring to the practical field, “In the last few years, there has been a steady increase in philosophical interest in psychopathology and mental health.”(Perring, 1998). Some universities now offer degrees and seminars in Philosophical practice and counselling (Felician College, N.J.; Berkeley; University of Copenhagen; three master’s degrees in the UK).
and Being-in-the-World
September 30, 2003
Existential psychotherapy focuses on the living person in a disintegrating and dehumanized modern world by dealing with essential questions such as anxiety, guilt and the phenomenological notion of Being-in-the-World.
Anxiety arises from our personal need to survive, to preserve our being, and to assert our being. There are three forms of anxiety: Biologically, fear in response to a danger (or an alleged danger) leads to anxiety. Psychologically, there is a “guilt-theory” of anxiety. Anxiety is the product of irresponsibility, guilt, immaturity. Culturally: The kinds of threats which trigger anxiety are largely defined by the culture in which the individual lives. (May, 1950, p. 151)
Anxiety springs from fear of death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. There is a normal anxiety, characterized in that it is proportionate with the objective situation confronted, it does not require repression nor defense mechanisms for its management, and it can be used creatively, as a stimulus, or even relieved. An example of normal anxiety is death anxiety. According to Yalom, this positive anxiety can be used “to live more authentic, meaning-filled and purposeful lives.” (Branfman). Anxiety can also be neurotic, and characterized in that it is not appropriate, disproportionate to the objective situation faced by the patient, it is repressed and involves intrapsychic conflict, is managed by various forms or retrenchment of activity and awareness: inhibitions, development of neurotic symptoms and defense mechanisms. It is destructive, not constructive, and it paralyzes the individual. “In severe clinical cases, anxiety is often experienced as a dissolution of the self.[...] Kierkegard named this the fear of nothingness.” (May, 1950, p. 193)
Similarly to anxiety, guilt can take either a normal or a neurotic form. Normal guilt sensitizes us to the ethical aspects of our behavior. Neurotic guild arises out of transgressions. Transgression can be not only against others or some moral or social order or code, but also against oneself. The transgression against oneself is the failure to live the life allotted to us. If we protect ourselves from anxiety through avoidance mechanisms and repression, we are seeking safety and relief from anxiety, but at the same time, we are cutting ourselves from life. We don’t live as intensively as our potentialities would allow us. This life restriction generates a form of guilt referred to as existential guilt.
Existential isolation refers to a huge gap between oneself and other beings. It also refers to the separation between oneself and the world. Eventually between oneself and oneself. In this case, the person and other persons or the external world, instead of constituting several distinct entities which interact and correlate in complex ways, are referred to as a single entity named being-in-the-world. (May et al., 1958, p. 55). Being-in-the-World (Heidegger’s dasein) involves Being-with-Others and Being-with-Oneself. It is Merleau-Ponty’s appartenance au monde: the unity of person and environment. The opposite of Meursault in Camus’ L’Étranger. The individual is the center of is own culture, his own world. This world spans over three levels: the Umwelt, the biological world, the environment, the natural world of biological urge and drive; the Mitwelt, the world of other human beings, the social, interactive, interpersonal aspects of existence; and the Eigenwelt, the own-world, the relationship to oneself, the subjective phenomenological world of the self. In addition, Being-in-the-World should be open to one’s past and future as well as one’s present as it is the nature of man transcend the immediate situation.
Essential as may be the concepts dealt with by existential psychotherapy, their level of abstraction certainly makes them difficult to apprehend and put in practice. There was some resistance against existential psychotherapy because it stems from philosophy. Yet, this is changing, as van Deurzen-Smith expresses it:
The existential approach to counselling centres on an exploration of someone’s particular way of seeing life, the world and herself. The goal is to help her to establish what it is that matters to her, so that she can begin to feel more in tune with herself and therefore more real and alive… Much of what has always been taken for granted is therefore re-examined in the light of a search for truth about life. (p. 27)
In the light of what philosophy at large can bring to the practical field, “In the last few years, there has been a steady increase in philosophical interest in psychopathology and mental health.”(Perring, 1998). Some universities now offer degrees and seminars in Philosophical practice and counselling (Felician College, N.J.; Berkeley; University of Copenhagen; three master’s degrees in the UK).
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