Existential Therapy: Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue

by Barnett; Laura

• ISBN13: 9780415564342
• ISBN10: 0415564344
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-01-12
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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 this book Laura Barnett and Greg Madison bring together contributors from both sides of the Atlantic 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 Dialogueexplores 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.

Author Biography

Laura Barnett is an existential psychotherapist working as therapist, supervisor, consultant, and trainer in the NHS, and in private practice. Greg Madison, PhD is a chartered psychologist and psychotherapist in private practice in London and Brighton.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. ix
Series preface	p. xv
Acknowledgements	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Existential psychotherapy, discipline and demarche: remembering essential horizons	p. 7
Existential psychotherapy and post-Cartesian psychoanalysis: historical perspectives and confluence	p. 21
Daseinsanalysis: a dialogue	p. 35
Tedium, ennui, and atonement: existential perspectives on boredom	p. 53
Experiential-existential therapy: embodying freedom and vulnerability	p. 67
Palpable existentialism: an interview with Eugene Gendlin	p. 81
Applied existential psychotherapy: an experiential psychodynamic approach	p. 97
R. D. Laing revisited: a dialogue on his contribution to authenticity and the sceptic tradition	p. 109
The existential 'therapy' of Thomas Szasz: existential, yes; therapy, no	p. 127
A dialogue on dialogue	p. 141
The Viennese School of Existential Analysis: the search for meaning and affirmation of life	p. 159
Reasons for living: existential therapy and spirituality	p. 171
Research: an existential predicament for our profession?	p. 183
Depth and the marketplace: psychology's Faustian plight: a dialogue	p. 193
On reading Irvin Yalom's Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Dread of Death	p. 209
Conclusion	p. 233
Index	p. 237
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