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Subject PSYCHOLOGY

Paper No and Title Paper no.6 – Self and Inner growth Module No and Title Module no.21 : VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY Module Tag PSY_P6_M21

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Learning outcomes

2. Introduction

3. View of other Existential Psychology 3.1 Jean Paul Sartre 3.2 Soren Kierkegaard 3.3 Ronald David Laing 3.4 Ludwig Binswanger 3.5 Medard Boss

4. Criticism of Existential Psychology

5. Summary

PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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1. LEARNING OUTCOMES

After studying this module, you should be able to

 Know about view of Jean Paul Sartre  Learn about Soren Kierkegaard contribution to Existential Psychology  Understand the Basic features of R.D. Laing  Learn about the work of Ludwig Binswanger  Analyze the work of Medard Boss  Evaluate Existential Psychology

2. INTRODUCTION

It was Feifel and Maslow who both took part in the (APA) Convention which was held on the topic of Psychotherapy and Existential Psychology in 1959 on September .Due to that the awareness of existentialism and its footings bring into being to influence the front position of psychological belief and preparation. Once the conference was over it was natural that the terminology existentialism became one of the talked about terms of psychology in the 1960s. Rollo May designated this perspective to psychotherapy by means of affirming that the undertaking of treatment be situated to comprehend the client completely as that client is existing in actuality. In existential approach to psychology it is assumed that this approach would involve an assurance on the part of the client to totally recognize how they were living their lives, or it involoves the lives in which they be situated . Apart from this it has been observed that existential approach arose as a dominant method of psychological practice. It was characterized as a cognizance that gained its momentum after the World War II.

As we had discussed in the previous modules existentialism did not originate from the work of a single founder. It started instinctively in numerous regions of Europe from the philosophies of diverse individuals, with many of these creative minds having no knowledge of the amazingly similar exertions of one another. This spur-of-the-moment nature of its beginning makes clear the need that was felt for its manifestation. In previous modules we have discussed the contributions of Rollo May, Viktor Frankl and others in this module we would be discussion briefly the themes and work of Jean-Paul Sartre, Soren Kierkegaard, Ludwig Biswanger, R. D. Laing, Moss and others. All these philosophers influenced the development of existential psychology .Hence these theorist are considered as the main forces in existential psychology.

3. VIEW OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGIST

3.1 J.P.SARTRE Sartre was a French philosopher and writer who was born in Paris in the year 1905, the prominent believer of existentialist approach for the duration of the years after W.W II. He asserted, that "now in the culmination an individual is constantly answerable for whatever remains of one," which was merely a minor amendment of his initial, daring slogan, "man makes himself." Sartre by no means diverged from Descartes' traditional portrayal of human consciousness by way of free as well as diverse from the somatic universe it dwell in. Individual is under no circumstances free of one's "circumstances," he states that, however individual remains constantly free to PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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contradict ("disprove") that condition in addition to attempt toward one’s change. He assumed that if one has to remain conscious, is to be free to visualize, free to indicate, in addition to being in charge for one's share in life. For him consciousness is the key component, he believed that an individual did have freedom to choose what he wants to be and if he does not choose it results in conflict and anxiety.

Edmund Husserl's new theoretical method, phenomenology which is the core of existential psychology as we had discussed earlier had also influenced Sartre’s approach. His work was straight retorts to Husserl in addition to applying the method of phenomenology. His came up in 1936 with an essay on “The Imagination” which helped in the formation of the foundation aimed at whatever was to follow: the merriment of our substantial autonomy to envision the realm other than it is and (in viewing the concept of Kant ) the way that this capability notifies everything of our understanding. The other work which followed after this was in 1937 known as Transcendence of The Ego in which he studied the key notion of Phenomenological Reduction which had originated from work of Husserl. It basically deals with the most significant structures of consciousness and like Husserl he also stated that one cannot look at consciousness without at the same time be aware of the reality of actual objects in the world. It means we cannot reduce consciousness as such and have to view in full context. It has been observed that these concepts he has not only highlighted in his essay on Transcendence of Ego but also in his novel Nausea which was published in year 1938. In his essay Sartre also reassesses the concept of the self, which Husserl (and so a lot of formerly philosophers) had identified with consciousness. Nonetheless the self, Sartre maintains, is not "in" consciousness, much less similar to it. The self is out there "in the world, like the self of another." He believes that, the self is a continuing development in the world with supplementary individuals; it is not basically self-awareness or self-consciousness as such ("I think, consequently I am").

Sartre’s most influential work , came about in 1943 called Being and Nothingness which also stresses upon this departure of self and consciousness as well as the elimination of the self as purely self-consciousness .That one arrangement is unabashedly Cartesian, consciousness ("being-for-itself") at the one culmination , the existence of ordinary things ('being-in-itself") on the other hand . Sartre defines consciousness as "nothing"--"not a thing" nonetheless an action, "a wind blustering as of from nowhere headed for the creation." Sartre frequently recourses to intuitive metaphors while evolving such issues (e.g., "a worm curled in the soul of being"), however considerably of whatever he is at variance is known to other theoretical readers as have been pointed in simple words by Kant, who as well cautioned in contrast to the irrationalities ("parallelisms") of considerate consciousness through means of this one a (plausible) thing of consciousness realistically than as the drive of founding the objects of consciousness.

Dominant towards the disagreement of being and emptiness and Sartre's persistence happening the prevalence of human freedom is his persistence that consciousness cannot be comprehended in fundamental relations. It is constantly self-determining in addition, it is usually is what it is not supposed to be and is not that what it is"--a lively puzzle that talk about the element that we are at all times in the development of selecting. It is because of this nonexistence of consciousness in addition to its actions that denial originates in the world, our capability to visualize the sphere extra to what it is and the inevitable requirement of visualizing oneself to what one is additional to what we appear to be like. As consciousness is nothingness, it is not subject to the rules of causality. Consciousness is "nothing," but the self is always on the way to being something. Throughout our lives we amass a body of facts that are true of us--our "facticity"--but during our PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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lives we continue open to visualize innovative potentials to restructuring ourselves in addition to reinterpret our facticity in the view of original tasks and ambitions--our "transcendence." This indeterminacy means that we cannot ever remain whatever, and when we attempt to form ourselves as somewhat particular-- whether a societal role (policeman, waiter) or a definite character (reluctant, intelligent, cowardly)--we are in "immoral conviction." Bad faith is incorrectly viewing ourselves as something static and established (he totally discards Freud’s theory of the unconscious purpose of our personalities and behavior), nonetheless it is furthermore bad faith to observe oneself as being of immeasurable potentials and neglect the at all times obstructive evidences and situations contained by which entire choice requirement be presented. At the same time, we remain continuously trying in the direction to describe ourselves and on the other end we remain at all times at liberty to break away from what we are, at the same time we remain accountable for what we have ended up making ourselves. However it is certainly not an easy perseverance or "equilibrium" between facticity and autonomy, to some extent a type of conflict or strain. This leads in the direction of unsatisfied yearning to exist as Divinity, to be equally in-itself and for- itself. Nevertheless this is not consequently considerably profanity as a manifestation of desolation, a form of ontological creative depravity, and the impracticality of being mutually open and at the same time being what we desire to be.

For Sartre "Consciousness is an existence whose way of life postulates the core, and contrariwise it’s consciousness of an organism, whose crux suggests its existence, in which presence places right to being. Thus being is universally all over and one needs to comprehend that this being remains nothing Trans phenomenal being of occurrence as well as nor a nominal being that is concealed behind them. It needs just that the being of that which appears that doesn’t happen merely in as distant as it seems. The Trans phenomenal being of whatever occurs in lieu of consciousness is the aforementioned in itself.... Consciousness is the revelation of existents, and existents occur already in accordance of consciousness arranged before the basis of their being. He states that Consciousness can always go beyond the existent, not toward its being, but toward the meaning of this being. An essential feature of its transcendence is to transcend the ontic toward the ontological. The connotation of the existence of the ongoing happening so far as it is to divulge itself to consciousness is the phenomenon referred to as of being. This illumination of the meaning of being is effective only for the being of the phenomenon....For being is the being of fetching and owing to this element it is out there becoming, thus referring to it is what it is. This highlights that by itself it cannot even remain what it is not...It is complete positivity. It sees no otherness; it on no occasion postulates itself as other-than-another-being. It can maintain no linking through another. It is itself indeterminately and it consumes itself in being...Consciousness unquestionably cannot stem as of no matter what, could be from someother individual, or commencing an option, or from a necessary law. Not created, short of any purpose for being, devoid of any association with another being, being-in-itself is de trop for eternity." (Being and Nothingness, 1943.

The third fundamental category after being-in-itself and being-for-itself he mentions is "being- for-others." To assert that it is not derived is to maintain that our understanding of others is not contingent, e.g., through more or less dispute by analogy, from the behavior of others, and we ourselves are not absolutely founded through our self-rules as well as the details about oneself. Sartre gives us a ruthless but acquainted daily illustration of our understanding of being-for- others in what he calls "the look." Somebody sees us "in the act" of performing something shameful, and we find ourselves defining ourselves (probably also struggling that definition) in PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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their terms. In his saint genet (1953), Sartre defines such an alteration of the ten-year-old Jean Genet into a thief. So, too, we tend to "catch" one another in terms that are ever so often unappealing. However these decisions become an indispensable and unavoidable element in our sense of ourselves, and they too results in conflicts--indeed, conflicts so rudimentary and so frustrating that in his play No exist Sartre showed one of his character coming up with the famous line, "Hell is other people."

Thus we can summarize Sartre’s existentialist considerate of what it is to be human in his opinion that the fundamental motivation for action is to be establish in the nature of consciousness which is a desire for being. It is up to each individual to implement his freedom in such a way that he does not lose ability to see his existence as a facticity, as well as a free human being. In doing so, he will come to comprehend further about the unique choice which his whole life signifies, and consequently about the values that are in so doing projected. Such an understanding is simply attained through living this specific life and evading the drawbacks of approaches of self-deceit such as bad faith. This authentic option for human life characterizes the understanding of a widespread in the individuality of a life of a human.

3.2 SOREN KIERKEGAARD (1813-1855)

Soren Kierkegaard was a 19th-century Danish philosopher who has been referred to as the “Father of Existentialism”. In divergence from theorist Rene Descartes’s statement “I consider consequently I am”. He stated that “I exist thus I think”, this modest proclamation predisposed a complete cluster of European philosophers and psychologists, shifting their methodology to intervention. However, democratization also assisted in instigating one of Kierkegaard’s greatest persistent rational themes: autonomy may perhaps essentially can result in fearing. Despite the fact the innovative spiritual and societal choices accessible in Denmark got various constructive deviations, they correspondingly results in psychosomatic consequences which intensely disturbed Kierkegaard. He sensed that devising the autonomy to choose inescapably could lead to the feeling of anxiety over which route to choose, even as it at the same time enthused joy.

Hegel was a logician from Germany who penned for the duration of the end of 1700s and the initial to the middle of1800s in addition to that his effort had dominated European theoretical assumption. A major forces which influenced the foundation of Kierkegaard’s effort led him to contradict the system of belief of philosophy of Hegelian. His most important deep-thinking task was emerging the concept of a “historic harmony.” Commonly talking, the dialectic is a rational, challenging technique that theorists similar to Plato and Socrates got involved with their determinations in the direction to regulate the fact. It has been seen in the dialectic, an individual proposes a notion or acceptance. In contrast the other significant other counters that notion, by highlighting the negative points of that notion .This sanctions a novel, additional considerable dispute towards being far-reaching. The procedure remains till the time entire misunderstanding gets sorted out altogether as well as merely the fact is achieved. Hegel supposed that the progression of human cultures possibly will be clarified permitting towards the model of dialect. He assumed that the ideas of the societies emerge together communally. The social order initiates through unique viewpoint of the creation in addition to negating which results to an innovative, jointly recognized ideal. An ethos’s thoughts as expected besides unstoppably evolves rendering to this outline of dialectical. The ancient dialectic would in the end lead a beliefs to Divinity, who was, conferring to Hegel, the foundation of the reasonable construction of the world.

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Traditionally, philosophers have talked about two diverse kinds of truth: objective and subjective truth. While the objective deals with the approached systematically via reason, empiricism and logic, the later fairly deals with what is passionate, personal and practical. Hegel stated that if one has a seamless understanding of an inclusive system of logic, one gains an objective understanding of the whole of existence. On other hand Kierkegaard excluded the idea of an objective system to understand existence and he believed in the subjective truth. Kierkegaard asserted that objectivity focuses on what is said, whereas subjectivity highlights how it is said. Kierkegaard believed that “to exist” meant to realize oneself through self-commitment to the choices one makes as a free subjective individual. According to Kierkegaard we cannot find the truth through a detached "objectivity" but instead one requires a deep engagement with the world. His method goes back to the Socratic question of how to live one’s life and thus it is a shift from a philosophy that is searching to collect a set of facts about the world. The way to answer this question must be entirely subjective and personal, since ‘the crowd is untruth’ and that one cannot accomplish accurate truth if one does not look for it through ‘passionate inwardness’. In fact, to grow into an individual, one must move away from the crowd by creating personal choices, since taking the choices of the crowd as a case in point moves oneself further away from subjective, authentic truth.

Kierkegaard was totally religious and ridiculed the tradition of religious philosophy to make an effort to associate faith to objectivity and reason. Kierkegaard was particularly sensitive to, and intolerant of, the hypocrisy of pretending to spirituality while in fact acting from worldly motives. Faith, for Kierkegaard, is basically illogical and cannot be acquiescent with any objective truth even in principle. If one would try to validate faith via recourse to any objective practices like reason or science, it would defeat the determination of faith. Faith can only be approached by the individual through the continuous choice to ardently embrace the absurdity and the paradoxes that are at its very core. Nevertheless, the absurd is both the origin of faith and is however resolved by it: “When the believer has faith, the absurd is not the absurd—faith transforms it, but in every weak moment it is again more or less absurd to him. The passion of faith is the only thing which masters the absurd.” For Kierkegaard, it is a process that is never finished and relies on one’s responsibility to always make choices. As Daniel Johnson put it in his analysis of Kierkegaard, to live subjectively is to live decisively.

According to Kierkegaard persistent of an individual is the incongruity concerning realization of our individualism and part-divinity, as well as the fear of the sphere besides our identifiable demise in addition to deterioration. The ultimate dread of self-consciousness remains that an individual comprehends his/her own bereavement. The illness unto demise is a condition of the inner self which is as well referred to as desolation. Its three forms are: o a. The despair of spirit-lessness: it deals with one being spiritual without being aware of it besides that also being as an emotional -bodily organism. o b. The despair of encapsulation: one is mindful about having an internal identity however they desire despondently, to not remain this person. o c. The despair of defiance: Cognizant of internal self besides that wanting to sustain this self, nevertheless deprived of identifying the connection to as well as eventual reliance of the human self on God.

The occurrence from contented lack of knowledge into self-consciousness results in fear, or else apprehension. We live in a situation of uncertainty where one is unable to become neither an angel nor animal. This fear, or apprehension, sometimes could act as a catalyst intended for PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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progress into novel proportions. Wellbeing is not merely "typical regulation," or "societal normalcy". Those who are actually in fine health are the ones who had gone beyond themselves by means of dismissing the fabrications of our personality by figuring out the reality of our condition, besides violating our soul on view of its habituated reformatory. Self-development involves awareness of equally the two one's authenticities and one's restrictions. It has been assumed that the main difficulty of life is to determine one's accurate ability, secret ability, and genuine vocation as well as in what way can we direct this aptitude, give it a direction , commit it to something away from oneself.

3.3 R.D. LAING (1927-1989)

R.D.Laing, considered one of the most renowned psychiatrist and a leading supporter of existentialism approach. He was born in Glasgow and also completed his medicine at the same university. He existed as a radical philosopher who probed the controls which are imposed on a person by family, government, and humanity (Alic, 2001). His theory is rooted in the viewpoint of existential thought which were predisposed by the views put forth by theorist like Heidegger, Nietzche, and Sartre (Burston, 1998).It was observed that Laing was a criticizer of contemporary practice of psychiatric besides the remedial treatment along with psychological ailment. He suggested that mental diseases were mainly due to the result of societal circumstances, by means of familial forces, irrational thoughts, unbearable public burdens, or unable to follow the norms imposed by the prevailing exemplary notion of societal actuality in dynamism. He founded the organization of groups involving therapy to the clients where they could undergo the experience of their ailment devoid of the use of the medications, ECT, psychosurgery, etc. He was significantly inclined towards Existential philosophy and Phenomenology. Like other Existential theorist he placed lot of importance to personal understanding, and the distinctive abilities of the "I -Thou" link in the helpful association. R.D. Laing is possibly aware while recounting the beneficial affiliation. He perceived the therapy as, “a determined effort between the two individuals to make progress and move towards being comprehensive of individual by having the association amid them." Therefore he sensed that the awareness of the therapy comes about starting through the expectation of dependable association amongst individuals remains quite probable, as well as perceived that treatment includes: - “a partaking of the reparation of each contemporary instant - that is the remedial aspect."

R. D. Laing supposed that the cognizance of contemporary human being is an at odds object: the made-up character in addition the true self. He considers current collective communication in addition to the family in precise is detrimental. He considers that the society forces one’s to pursue for meaning less goals which in turn suffocate our true feelings. Agreeing to Laing, the family disappoints reliable (factual) conduct. Through the phase we stretch to adulthood one is detached beginning our real self. An individual may appear to be normal nevertheless one is in fact intensely diminished (Laing, 1967). He viewed maladaptive behavior as a purpose of associations.

Laing's was mainly concerned with the comprehensive consideration in addition to the treatment of schizophrenia. He may perhaps possibly be designated an "existentialist therapist." In fact, his one of the initial work was on Jean-Paul Sartre, as well as he utalized thoughts from Sartre, Hegel and other thinkers in making an effort to theorize the domain of the individual suffering from schizophrenia. Laing (1979), assumed that Schizophrenia, is an unusual approach that an individual devises so that one can cope with those situations which are unable to handle. He PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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acknowledged to the fact there might exist about genetic disposition in the direction of schizophrenia nevertheless he definitely supposed that social pressures may perhaps indicate individuals on the way to discover that such individuals can now no longer keep up to their deceitful self and therefore they withdraw from realism inside their private innermost realms. His future effort was related to the kind of interactions as well as the mechanisms involved in the families of a schizophrenic individuals. Furthermore his work involved in combining many interpretations taking place the way in which school and other social organization detains both youngsters and grownups in circumstances that complicates almost their individual opinions and feelings, prompt them to consider they devise the generally recognized beliefs and frame of mind which other individuals seeks in them in addition as a consequence leads the person to become irrational. Laing questioned the basis of the foundation on which the community was grounded. He probed the procedures of analysis, treatment, and interventions. Laing questioned any person who thought that he had bring into being the solution or who came up with a conclusive account as regard to the entire experience of an individual . In his book entitled, Politics of the Family and Other Essays (1969), he penned that in every case one must originate the theory or method of treatment. In Laing's opinion, medications makes it more difficult for an individual to reflect as a result it hinders with the kind of personal work that can help in the retrieval of the individual.

3.4 LUDWIG BISWANGER (1881-1966)

Ludwig Binswanger was born in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland on April 13, 1881, into a family which were recognized both in medicine as well as psychiatric convention. The name of his granddad was same as Ludwig who was the one who established Bellevue Hospital in Kreuzlingen in the year 1857. Binswanger got his M.D. degree from the Zurich University in the year 1907.After which did his training underneath well-known Carl Jung as well as aided Jung with the work of Freudian Society. Comparable to Jung, he did his internship under Bleuler, who formulated the terminology schizophrenia. Jung introduced Binswanger to Sigmund Freud in 1907. In 1911, Binswanger became the chief medical director at Bellevue Sanatorium. The subsequent year, he became ill and received a visit from Freud, who seldom left Vienna. Their friendship lasted until Freud's death in 1939, in spite of their central disparities over theory, in the early 1920's, Binswanger nurtured an interest in Existential philosophy and, by the early 1930's, we can say that he was the first existential therapist. In 1943, he published his major work Grundformen und Erkenntnis menschlichen Daseins, which remains untranslated into English. In 1956, Binswanger walked out from his position at Bellevue after 45 years as its chief medical director. He continued to study and write until his death in 1966.

Ludwig Biswanger in 1958 asserted to the fact that one has to comprehend in what manner way of life feels, that is the basic core of the methodology of phenomenology and where one needs to recognize their levels of experiences on three distinct points. In other words it refers that the conscious experience of existence can be related to three main constituents: biotic which is referred to as (Umwelt), societal (Mitwelt) as well as internal or emotional experience (Eigenwelt) which can be described as follows:  Umwelt: one needs to recognize in what manner being feels we require to be attentive of one’s bodily perception like: discomfort, preference, starvation, warmness, cold and so on.

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 Mitwelt: this refers to how one comprehends in what ways the being of life is like and one essentially requires to be attentive of one’s interpersonal relations. It deals with how one thinks and feels about others in addition to the point of view and mental state one obtains from others constitutes the Mitwelt.  Eigenwelt: This may perhaps can be stated as reflection. One needs to comprehend how does existence feels which can be recognized if one is mindful of the internal mechanisms which is taking place inside themselves. This refers to one’s effort to know about oneself thoroughly thus: the knowledge of experience itself.

Binswanger has embraced the terminology and ideas of Martin Heidegger. The first and the most important was Dasein, which refers to human existence. Accurately, it means "being there," but alongside this it has a little additional implications: The conventional German usage of the term proposes ongoing existence, perseverance, persistence. As well, the stress is on the "da" or "there," and so has the sense of being in the middle of it all, in the thick of things. The "da" also carries the sense of being there as conflicting to being here, as if we were not quite where we belonged, and were pulling towards somewhere else. There are also other names for Dasein. Sartre also recognizes this sense of openness, by referring to human existence as nothingness. Like a hole can only exist in contrast to something solid, Dasein stands out in sharp contrast to the "thickness" of everything else. The main quality of Dasein, according to Heidegger, is care (Sorge). "Being there" is never a matter of indifference. We are involved in the world, in others, and in ourselves. We are committed to or engaged in life. We can do many things, but not to care is not one of them.

3.5 MEDARD BOSS (1903-1990)

Medard Boss got his degree in the field of medicine and his publication comprised of Psychoanalysis and Daesinanalysis (1963) and Existential Foundation of Medicine and Psychology (1977). Boss came up with different characteristics which are inherent in human existence and he referred to these characteristics as essentials. Some of these characteristics are as follows:

 Spatiality: According to Boss it deals with psychological closeness or distance that an individual progresses towards others.  Temporality: Denotes having a time or not having a time for doing a construction thing.  Bodyhood: Does not only deals with human physical body alone but it goes beyond it and includes our relations with objects, procedures and persons of the world.  Sharing: it refers to sharing the feelings with other people of the world.  Mood: it point outs towards the way we perceive the world and which is contingent upon our moods at that instant .This phenomenon is also referred to as attunement.

Similar to some other existential psychologists, Boss also highlighted upon becoming .He stressed that human existence was a continuous process of becoming something new. He asserted that “A man is free to choose an authentic / an authentic life”. Subsequently a man has such freedom, he is also reflected proficient of varying and growing .He believed there are people who denied to become or grow .Though, they can change the direction of their lives towards realization of their basic potentialities. PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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Boss also highlighted that man was aware of his death .Since death is inescapable, a person is aware of the closure of his life. This has also been the most important concern of the existential psychologists. Boss was also involved in making analysis of dream. He prohibited the symbolic analysis of dreams as made by Sigmund Freud .His view was that dreams could be entirely understood only by questioning the dreamer properly. Boss emphasized that there was a parallel between changes in the contents of dreams as well as an enhancement in the waking existence of the patients. In fact, throughout psychotherapy the patient moved from inauthentic existence to a more responsible authentic existence.

4. CRITICISM OF EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Existential Psychology has been criticized on many grounds. Following are the major points of criticisms:  Many theorist believed that existential psychology lacks objective methods and principles. In absence of such objectivity, it is problematic to agree to basic features of the existential psychology precisely in modern days of experimental science.  Behaviorists and experimental psychologists have often pointed out that the existential psychology is categorized by subjectivism, dualism and lack of objective referents .Besides, its methodology also take after the classical method of introspection .as such, and it is difficult to accept the existential psychology as illustrative of scientific psychology.  Some theorist have pointed out that existential psychology uses vague language which is difficult for people to understand.

Hence we find that the existential psychology, regardless of some similarities, is to some extent different movement from that of humanistic movement.

5. SUMMARY:

 Sartre was influenced by Edmund Husserl's new philosophical method, phenomenology which is the core of existential psychology.  Sartre’s most influential work , came about in 1943 called Being and Nothingness which also stresses upon this separation of self and consciousness and the elimination of the self as simply self-consciousness .Its structure is unabashedly Cartesian, consciousness ("being-for-itself") on the one end , the existence of ordinary things ('being-in-itself") on the other hand .  Sartre defines consciousness as "nothing"--"not a thing" but an activity, "a wind blowing from nowhere toward the world."  For Sartre "Consciousness is a being whose existence postulates its core, and contrariwise it is consciousness of a being, whose crux suggests its existence; that is, in which presence places right to being.  Sartre’s existentialist considerate of what it is to be human in his opinion that the fundamental motivation for action is to be establish in the nature of consciousness which is a desire for being.  Soren Kierkegaard was a 19th-century Danish philosopher who has been referred to as the “Father of Existentialism”. PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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 Kierkegaard was totally religious and ridiculed the tradition of religious philosophy to make an effort to associate faith to objectivity and reason. Kierkegaard was particularly sensitive to, and intolerant of, the hypocrisy of pretending to spirituality while in fact acting from worldly motives.  Faith, for Kierkegaard, is basically illogical and cannot be acquiescent with any objective truth even in principle.  According to Kierkegaard persistent of human life is the incongruity between consciousness of our individuality and part-divinity, and the terror of the world and our own death and decay.  Ronald David Laing was an eminent psychiatrist and Britain's leading supporter of existential psychotherapy.  He was a radical thinker who questioned the controls that were forced on a person by family, state, and society (Alic, 2001).  He was a severe critic of modern psychiatric practice and the medical intervention with mental illness. He suggested that psychiatric illness was mainly the result of social conditions, such as family dynamics, pathological communication, intolerable social pressures, or failure to conform to the dominant model of social reality in force.  He founded the running of therapeutic communities where patients could "go with" their illness experience, without the intervention of drugs, ECT, psychosurgery, etc.  He saw psychotherapy as, “a determined effort of two people to recover the wholeness of being human through the relationship between them."  He felt that the idea of therapy comes about from the hope that authentic meeting between human beings is still possible, and perceived that therapy involves: - “a partaking of the sacrament of every present moment - that is the healing factor."  Laing's was mainly concerned on understanding and treating schizophrenic patients. He could possibly be termed an "existential psychiatrist."  Ludwig Biswanger in 1958 asserted that in order to comprehend how existence feels, which is at the heart of the phenomenological approach, one needs to understand our experiences at three different levels. That is, that the conscious experience of being alive has three components: biological (Umwelt), social (Mitwelt) and inner or psychological experience (Eigenwelt) .  Binswanger has adopted the terms and concepts of Martin Heidegger. The first and the most important was Dasein, which refers to human existence. Accurately, it means "being there," but alongside this it has a few more connotations.  Boss came up with different characteristics which are inherent in human existence and he referred to these characteristics as essentials.  Boss also highlighted that man was aware of his death .Since death is inescapable, a person is aware of the closure of his life.  Boss emphasized that there was a parallel between changes in the contents of dreams as well as an enhancement in the waking existence of the patients. In fact, throughout psychotherapy the patient moved from inauthentic existence to a more responsible authentic existence.  Existential Psychology has been criticized on many grounds. Many theorist believed that existential psychology lacks objective methods and principles.  Behaviorists and experimental psychologists have often pointed out that the existential psychology is categorized by subjectivism, dualism and lack of objective referents.

PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY

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 Some theorist have pointed out that existential psychology uses vague language which is difficult for people to understand.

PSYCHOLOGY PAPER No. : PSY – P6 – Self and Inner growth MODULE No:M21: VIEWS OF OTHER EXISTENTIAL PSYCHOLOGY