ABSTRACT

In 1958 in their book Existence, Rollo May, Henri Ellenberger and Ernst Angel introduced existential therapy to the English-speaking psychotherapy world. Since then the field of existential therapy has moved along rapidly and this book considers how it has developed over the past fifty years, and the implications that this has for the future.

In their 50th anniversary of this classic book, Laura Barnett and Greg Madison bring together many of today's foremost existential therapists from both sides of the Atlantic, together with some newer voices, to highlight issues surrounding existential therapy today, and look constructively to the future whilst acknowledging the debt to the past. Dialogue is at the heart of the book, the dialogue between existential thought and therapeutic practice, and between the past and the future. Existential Therapy: Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue, focuses on dialogue between key figures in the field to cover topics including:

  • historical and conceptual foundations of existential therapy
  • perspectives on contemporary Daseinanalysis
  • the search for meaning in existential therapy
  • existential therapy in contemporary society.

Existential Therapy: Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue explores how existential therapy has changed in the last five decades, and compares and contrasts different schools of existential therapy, making it essential reading for experienced therapists as well as for anyone training in psychotherapy, counselling, psychology or psychiatry who wants to incorporate existential therapy into their practice.

chapter |13 pages

Existential Psychotherapy, Discipline and Démarche

Remembering Essential Horizons

chapter |13 pages

Existential Psychotherapy and Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis

Historical Perspectives and Confluence

chapter |17 pages

Daseinsanalysis

A Dialogue

chapter |13 pages

Tedium, Ennui, and Atonement

Existential Perspectives on Boredom

chapter |14 pages

Experiential–Existential Therapy

Embodying Freedom and Vulnerability

chapter |16 pages

Palpable Existentialism

An Interview with Eugene Gendlin

chapter |12 pages

Applied Existential Psychotherapy

An Experiential Psychodynamic Approach

chapter |17 pages

R. D. Laing Revisited

A Dialogue on his Contribution to Authenticity and the Sceptic Tradition

chapter |14 pages

The Existential ‘Therapy' of Thomas Szasz

Existential, Yes; Therapy, No 1

chapter |12 pages

The Viennese School of Existential Analysis

The Search for Meaning and Affirmation of Life

chapter |12 pages

Reasons for Living

Existential Therapy and Spirituality

chapter |9 pages

Research

An Existential Predicament for our Profession?

chapter |16 pages

Depth and the Marketplace

Psychology's Faustian Plight: A Dialogue