existential therapy and human development

Existential Therapy and

Human Development.

Martin Adams

What are the characteristics of an existential phenomenological model of

human development ?

A short history of human development

A short history of human development

• How did I get here?

• What happens after I die?

• What shall I do in the meantime?

Research method

Phenomenology

• We are active interpreters and creators of our world.

• No observation we make can ever be free of assumptions.

• We co-constitute each other’s worlds

What is the best way to describe a life?

People see their life and the life cycle differently depending on where they

are in it

What makes a theory existential?

What makes a theory existential?

• Existence before essence

What makes a theory existential?

• Existence before essence

• Personal responsibility

What makes a theory existential?

• Existence before essence

• Personal responsibility

• Phenomenology

‘How do we get from birth, when these paradoxes are not understood, to

existential maturity and wisdom, which is by no means guaranteed anyway,

when they are understood?

‘Biological birth is a definitive act whereby the infant organism is precipitated into the world [....]

Under usual circumstances, the physical birth of a new living organism into the world inaugurates

rapidly ongoing processes whereby [….] the infant feels real and alive and has a sense of being an

entity with continuity in time and a location in space. In short, physical birth and biological aliveness are followed by the baby becoming

existentially born as real and alive. Usually this development is taken for granted.’ (TDS:44)

Merleau-Ponty

• If early development has an influence on later life, then how does this happen?

• How is it that a person, who is a mass of sensations that are not directly available to another, gets the idea that an other person is in some way similar and therefore that mutual understanding is possible?

Sartre

• Where does the sense-of-self come from and what is it – existentially?

Sartre

• Where does the sense-of-self come from and what is it – existentially?

Since we are nothing, potentially we can be anything.

This evokes anxiety so we make ourselves into something, but this leads us into bad faith – an awareness that we are limiting our potential, our freedom

Heidegger

• Present-at-hand

• Ready-to-hand

Themes of an Existential Phenomenological model of

Human Development

Themes of an Existential Phenomenological model of

Human Development

• Being in space

Themes of an Existential Phenomenological model of

Human Development

• Being in space • Living in time

Themes of an Existential Phenomenological model of

Human Development

• Being in space • Living in time• Loving and being loved

Themes of an Existential Phenomenological model of

Human Development

• Being in space • Living in time• Loving and being loved• Making an autobiography

Themes of an Existential Phenomenological model of

Human Development

• Being in space • Living in time• Loving and being loved• Making an autobiography • Struggling against adversity

Themes of an Existential Phenomenological model of

Human Development

• Being in space • Living in time• Loving and being loved• Making an autobiography • Struggling against adversity• Living with freedom and uncertainty

Implications for practice

• Age appropriate?

Implications for practice

• Age appropriate?• Why now?

Implications for practice

• Age appropriate?• Why now?• Life is change

Implications for practice

• Age appropriate?• Why now?• Life is change• Personal responsibility

Implications for practice

• Age appropriate?• Why now?• Life is change• Personal responsibility• Story making and story breaking

Implications for practice

• Age appropriate?• Why now?• Life is change• Personal responsibility• Story making and story breaking• Care and autonomy

ConclusionThe developmental model most consistent with an existential-phenomenological view is a life long process model. The ontological themes of spatiality, temporality, relationality, identity, struggle and responsibility are engaged with ontically by each particular person in their particular context, and it is the quality of this engagement that make each person distinctive.