Everyday Mysteries: A Handbook of Existential Psychotherapy

383 Pages·2010·2.07 MB·English

Everyday Mysteries
This book provides an in-depth introduction to existential psychotherapy.
Presenting a philosophical alternative to other forms of psychological treat-
ment, it emphasises the problems of living and the human dilemmas that are
often neglected by practitioners who focus on personal psychopathology.
Emmy van Deurzen defines the philosophical ideas that underpin existen-
tial psychotherapy, summarising the contributions made by Kierkegaard,
Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre among others. She proposes a systemic and
practical method of existential psychotherapy, illustrated with detailed case
material. This expanded and updated second edition includes new chapters
on the contributions of Max Scheler, Albert Camus, Gabriel Marcel and
Emmanuel Levinas, as well as on feminist contributors such as Simone de
Beauvoir and Hannah Arendt among others. In addition a new extended case
discussion illustrates the approach in practice.
Everyday Mysteries offers a fresh perspective for anyone training in psy-
chotherapy, counselling, psychology or psychiatry. Those already established
in practice will find this a stimulating source of ideas about everyday life and
the mysteries of human experience, which will throw new light on old issues.
Emmy van Deurzen is an existential psychotherapist, counselling psychologist
and philosopher, who has published numerous books and who lectures inter-
nationally on a broad range of existential topics. She was the founder of
Regent’s College School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, of the Society
for Existential Analysis and of the New School of Psychotherapy and Coun-
selling in London, which she continues to direct. Her private practice,
Dilemma Consultancy Ltd., is based in Sheffield and London.

Everyday Mysteries
A handbook of existential
psychotherapy
Second edition
Emmy van Deurzen
First edition published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
First published 2010
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an Informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 2010 Emmy van Deurzen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
This publication has been produced with paper manufactured to
strict environmental standards and with pulp derived from
sustainable forests.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Van Deurzen, Emmy.
Everyday mysteries : a handbook of existential psychotherapy /
Emmy van Deurzen. — 2nd ed.
p. ; cm.
Prev. ed. has subtitle: Existential dimensions of psychotherapy.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978–0–415–37642–6 (hbk) — ISBN: 978–0–415–37643–3
(pbk.) 1. Existential psychotherapy. I. Title. II. Title: Handbook of
existential psychotherapy.
[DNLM: 1. Psychotherapy. 2. Existentialism. WM 420 V243e 2010]
RC489.E93V359 2010
616.89′14—dc22
2009020050
ISBN 0-203-86459-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN: 978–0–415–37642–6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978–0–415–37643–3 (pbk)
To Anne Hensel, my mother, and in
memoriam of Arie van Deurzen, my
father, for having given me life.
‘Wouldst thou’—so the helmsman answered,—
‘Learn the secret of the sea?
Only those who brave its dangers
comprehend its mystery!’
(The Secret of the Sea, H. W. Longfellow)
Contents
Preface x
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction 1
PART I
Philosophical underpinnings 7
1 Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855): a very individual
approach 9
2 Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900): with passion and
intensity 21
3 Edmund Husserl (1859–1938): phenomenology –
a new science of psychology 36
4 Karl Jaspers (1883–1969): the way to wisdom 47
5 Martin Heidegger (1889–1976): a blueprint for living 53
6 Martin Buber (1878–1965): human relations
reconsidered 70
7 Max Scheler (1874–1928): the human heart and
intersubjectivity 75
8 Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980): to be or not to be 78
9 Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961): embodied living 93
10 Paul Tillich (1886–1965): a new spirituality 99
viii Contents
11 Other philosophical contributions 105
Albert Camus (1913–1960) 106
Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973) 107
Emmanuel Levinas (1905–1995) 108
Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005) 109
Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) 112
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) 116
12 Female and feminist contributions 120
Edith Stein (1891–1942) 121
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) 121
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) 123
Recent feminist contributors: Luce Irigaray,
Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva 127
PART II
Existential dimensions: a map of the world 129
13 Worldviews, paradoxes and dialectics:
a Copernican revolution 131
14 The physical dimension: being with nature 145
15 The social dimension: being with others 155
16 The personal dimension: being with oneself 162
17 The spiritual dimension: being with meaning 168
PART III
New foundations for psychotherapy 177
18 Introduction to new foundations for psychotherapy 179
19 Karl Jaspers (1883–1969): psychopathology 181
20 Eugene Minkowski (1885–1972): the dimension of time 186
21 Jacques Lacan (1901–1981): the role of language 189
22 Ludwig Binswanger (1881–1966): the beginning of
existential therapy 196
23 Medard Boss (1903–1990): Daseinsanalysis 200
Contents ix
24 Viktor Frankl (1905–1997): logotherapy and the search
for meaning 206
25 Rollo May (1909–1994), James Bugental (1915–2008),
Irvin Yalom (1931– ) and others: the American
contribution 210
26 Thomas Szasz (1921– ): the social dimension of therapy 215
27 Ronald Laing (1927–1989): anti-psychiatry 218
28 The contribution of the British School of Existential
Analysis and Psychotherapy 225
29 Philosophical practice: an alternative to therapy 229
PART IV
Parameters of existential psychotherapy 233
30 Objectives of the existential project 235
31 Ground rules of existential work 249
32 Consciousness and the unknown 263
33 Therapeutic dialogue 281
34 The dynamic, multiple and changing self 295
PART V
Illustration 315
35 A case study: Rita’s grief 317
36 Conclusions 341
Appendix: four dimensions of existence 346
References 348
Index 361