Existential Psychotherapy: The Questions of Technique, Effectiveness and Applicability

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to introduce an important and acknowledged, in Slovenia practically unknown, approach of existential psychotherapy (EP). The main principles of EP, based on the works and ideas of existential philosophers and psychiatrists, are outlined. Rather than focusing on the philosophical and theoretical foundations of this approach, the article discusses its practices or ‘technique’. Some innovative attempts at the systematization of existential psychotherapy are described, which could potentially contribute to greater academic support of EP, to its acceptance within psychiatric and psychological circles, and to its wider recognition. In the paper I particularly focus on the questions of effectiveness and applicability of this method, frequently used as arguments against it. Standpoints of advocates and opponents of EP are confronted regarding their epistemological and theoretical antagonisms. Finally, important therapeutic dimensions or factors are outlined that could—notwithstanding the anti-positivistic and anti-psychiatric stance of existential psychotherapy—be integrated into other therapeutic approaches and hence contribute to humanization of psychotherapy in general.