Phenomenology and Depth in Existential Psychotherapy

Abstract

All psychotherapies try to approach what is essential for alleviating patient suffering. In humanistic psychotherapies such as person-centered, Gestalt, and existential therapy, the focus is typically centered on the person, the essence of the human being. The person, however, as that which is free in human beings, cannot be fixed or measured. This raises a difficult question: How do we gain systematic access to this “person” when they cannot be grasped concretely? Drawing on Existential Analysis, the authors describe a phenomenological approach as possibly the most suitable method for this therapeutic task, because it is pervaded by an attitude of allowing the other to be free and a respect for the uniqueness of the person. In this approach, what is essential is drawn from the depth of the person, simultaneously involving the depth of the therapist, while bracketing foreign interpretations and theories. This article describes this method for accessing personal depth in psychotherapy via an existential-phenomenological perspective.