ON „ENCOUNTER“
For Alfried on his 70th birthday
FERNANDO LLERAS
The following thoughts are solely meant as an attempt to approach the phenomenon of “encounter”, which actually cannot be conceptualized, as we will see later on. The intended “attempt” is not carried out within an explicit discussion of other authors, which is why literature references will be missing to a great extent. At the end of the essay however, I will make references to several works which have formed my experiences in silent confrontation, since what will follow is rather a tentative articulation of an experience.
EGO – PERSON – CONSCIENCE
Illustrated with the phenomenon of inner dialogue
EMMANUEL J. BAUER
In Existential Analysis, inner dialogue plays a key role for authentically being oneself. As important as this personal-existential realization may be, it is equally difficult to describe it philosophically in an adequate manner. Describing it as a dialogue be-
tween two independent persons or as an act of rational self-reflection must be ruled out. The question debated by Längle and the author in this contribution is: In inner dialogue, does the ego encounter the person, or does it rather encounter conscience? Latter view is supported by the author, which consequently requires not understanding the person as “something” inside the human being, but rather as a being-unity of existential abilities establishing the personal „modus existendi“.
Keywords: person, conscience, ego, authentic being oneself
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF THE PERSON IN ALFRIED LÄNGLE’S EXISTENTIAL ANALYSIS
VLADIMIR SHUMSKIY UND ELENA UKOLOVA
In the first part of this article, the most important chapters in the development of the understanding of the person in the history of European culture is outlined, ranging from antiquity, Christianity, modernity until the philosophy of Personalism and the philosophical anthropology of Max Scheler. Against this historico-cultural background, the second part of the article reflects upon Alfried Längle’s contribution to the development of the idea of the person in Existential Analysis.
The differentiation of manifestations of human beings spiritual dimensions in Ego and Person, the systematization of the delineation of the person as a phenomenon of being human, the description of the dialog as an essential feature of the person as well as the description of the inner dialogue between the ego and the person create the methodological foundation for this (anthropologically justified) psychological theory and for the system of methods of existential analytical counseling and psychotherapy. It becomes evident, that personalist ideas of A. Längle are most closely connected to the historico-cultural tradition of the understanding of the essence of human beings in European culture and constitute a conceptualization of the idea of the person in psychological and psychotherapeutic discourse.
Keywords: person, ego, dialogue, anthropology, spiritual dimension, Existential Analysis
EMPATHY AND PHENOMENOLOGY
Commonalities, differences and their application in practice
A conversation with Alfried Längle
ANGELIKA S. LÄNGLE
Following a short introduction into the development of the concept of „empathy“ until its usage in psychology, the dialogue with Alfried Längle reflects on the understanding and function of empathy and phenomenology within the scope of Existential Analysis. While empathy is predominantly seen as relationship-building in Existential Analysis, phenomenology deals with actual understanding. Since the therapeutic process in Existential Analysis is primarily carried out phenomenologically, the relation between empathy and phenomenology will also be reflected, and at which point the respective application is beneficial.
Keywords: Empathy, Phenomenology, existential analytical therapy
HOW DOES THE HUMAN BEING DO IT?
Orientation to the subjective experience in the works of Alfried Längle
A contribution to his 70th anniversary
SILVIA LÄNGLE
In this historical and epistemological contribution, the continuous development of the basic concern Alfried Längle has introduced to Existential Analysis is portrayed: to open up to the human being, to let oneself be touched by what is essential to him/her and by what he/she is searching for, and to encounter and approach him/her therein. His practice experience turned into the fundaments of his methodological developments. In the year 1983 already, rigorous orientation towards the observation of the human being marks the beginnings of his specific existential-analytical work. During the following 10 years, this approach is further enhanced by the development of methods and theories. In the process, it becomes clear how what was initially thought as the extension of practice of Frankl by replenishing blank spaces evolves into an independent anthropological approach through shifts in the semantic content of central terms. This alteration increasingly provides space to inward personal attention aside Frankl‘s one-sided emphasis on orientation towards the world. In the theories of the Fundamental Motivations and Personal Existential Analysis this step is formulated in more detail through a dialogical and existential approach. Under the effects of this comprehensive and efficient approach, the anthropology of Frankl retreats into the background. Within the GLE, this shift in perception is referred to as the „personal revolution“. But this isn’t really a turning point in the work of Längle. Because this dialogical and personal approach is perceptible as a specific characteristic which he developed from the beginning during the years 1983 until 1993 by applying phenomenology, and its development is continuing up to this day.
Keywords: anthropology Frankl & Längle, existential analytical methods, fundamental motivations, Personal Existential Analysis, personal revolution, development of theories of Längle
THE HERMENEUTICAL SPACE IN THE THERAPEUTIC APPROACH OF A. LÄNGLE
GABRIEL TRAVERSO
This essay seeks to highlight the hermeneutics behind the development of the psychotherapy posed by Alfried Längle.
The emphasis on hermeneutics not only states a comprehensive aspect on the theory of Existential Analysis, it also provides benefits for practice as well, by helping the clients to re-signify their reality, allowing them a more coherent understanding of it. The PEA (Personal Existential Analysis) cycle is shown as a complete hermeneutical process, in all its steps. The highlight here is how the hermeneutical attitude is reinforced and complemented by the phenomenological attitude.
The essay seeks to demonstrate that the epistemology at the base of its approach, is hermeneutics, unlike Frankl’s Logotherapy, and that the latter corresponds to another scientific paradigm. It is pointed out that epistemologically and paradigmatically, Längle’s approach would be closer to postmodern approaches such as those centered on narratives and social constructionism.
THE QUESTION OF GOOD LIFE AS INITIAL SPARK FOR PRACTICE RESEARCH
30 years of empirical research in Existential Analysis
ASTRID GÖRTZ
This contribution is a short journey through 30 years of research activity within the GLE, from the pioneering stage in the beginning of the 1990s until today, following around 150 research conversations with Alfried und Silvia Längle.
Key Words: empirical research, phenomenological research
DREAMS SEEN FROM A PHENOMENOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
CLAUDIA REITINGER
The paper elucidates different phenomenological approaches of dream analysis. On the one hand it describes the similarities of these approaches, and on the other hand different ways of understanding phenomenology in dream analysis are outlined. After explaining the methods of Medard Boss, Carl Craig and Clark Moustakas, a specific existential analytic understanding of dreams is presented, which combines phenomenology as a method with the four conditions of human existence.
Key words: dreams, phenomenology, case study, Daseins-
analysis, Existential Analysis
PAUSING FOR A MOMENT
A challenge in a dynamised world
TONI NINDL
Our individualized society with is uncountable possibilities continuously confronts us with decisions: What is appropriate, what is coherent for me? The situational performance pressure in a living environment which is always getting faster and faster misleads many of us towards a conformist drivenness, towards functioning until falling over, towards distraction whenever and wherever possible. Burn-out is a topical issue once again. In this excessive losing of oneself in external demands we arrive at the question: When is it enough? The answer is often characterized by the desire to let it all be and to attentive inner reflection of oneself. What makes it so hard to limit oneself and to follow one’s own intuition – and how delimitation and serenity can at least partially succeed, are the question pursued in this contribution.2
Keywords: acceleration, serenity, decision, intuition
MEETING ALÉTHEIA
MICHÈLE CROQUEVIELLE
This work seeks to look closely at the concept of “truth” and its confrontation in the field of psychotherapy. It is a subject that had strong impact on me on my path of Existential Analysis (EA) with Alfried Längle, who refers to truth in its existential importance in his work with students and patients: Existential truths as those facts according to which we must act, without euphemisms, leaving out the “taboos”.
Keywords: truth, confrontation, existential analysis, psychotherapy
THE ATTEMPT TO PUT THE UNFATHOMABLE INTO WORDS
Existential Analysis as practice of poetry
MARKUS ANGERMAYR
The essay plays with the view onto existential analytical psychotherapy and illuminates a poetic viewpoint which complements the understanding of psychotherapy as a scientific method and handicraft. Phenomenology is the foundation of the practice of poetry. The poetical perspective serves liveliness and connectedness, and opens up a space for the essential to emerge (gr. poesis). The instants of emergence of the essential have their very own “magic”. These unavailable moments of process are pursued in this article.
Keywords: orientation towards being, phenomenology, liveliness, poetic free space, self-education, éducation sentimentale, education by taste
EXISTENTIELLES COACHING: FIT FOR THE FUTURE?
SUSANNE POINTNER
Existential Analysis has collected a pool of knowledge, methodology and working experience in the area of coaching, and is gaining attention in the field of economics, in burnout prophylaxis, in the shaping of working life as well as in the management of profit- and nonprofit organizations. In this paper, we want to acknowledge the theoretical contribution to existential coaching and the training and educational offerings based on them, and simultaneously contrast this with current terms in the coaching scene. Some aspects in the current existential analytical coaching practice are considered from the point of view of popular requirements and developments in society. To do this, we refer to sociological generation research as well as statements from futurology. Finally, the paper is concerned with the answer to the question, whether existential coaching, and which aspects of it, does justice to the challenges of current and future developments of society.
Keywords: coaching, futurology, groups, supervision, generation research
SAYING YES TO LIFE NEVERTHELESS – LIVING LIFE WITH APPROVAL
BARBARA JÖBSTL
With inspirational support from Christian Probst und Hans Zeiringer
By short definition, we as trainers of the GLE teach our candidates, that Logotherapy aims at “still saying Yes to life” and that Existential Analysis is concerned with “finding a life of inner approval”.
Beginning in the year 1986, we the authors, had the honor to enjoy training by Alfried Längle, which was the first group in Graz and one of the first training groups in general. In this period, Längle was still closely working together with Viktor E. Frankl, which is why the first years where characterized by the anthropology of Logotherapy and Existential Analysis founded by Frankl, which he largely had written down in The Doctor and the Soul.
In this essay, I would like to retrospectively illuminate and reflect the developmental path of Frankl’s Logotherapy towards Personal Existential Analysis, which we partially were allowed to witness from the perspectives of young medical students. Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, as it is taught and implemented these days, is Alfried Längle’s elaboration of this new development – not to say a revised version of Existential Analysis –, and attained ministerial acknowledgement as an independent method of psychotherapy through the GLE in the year 1993.
Keywords: Logotherapy, Copernican revolution, power of spite, Personal Existential Analysis, existential revolution, approval, existential meaning
EXISTENTIAL ANALYSIS TRAINING UNDERGOING CHANGE
HELENE DREXLER
The following article presents a journey through the 38 years of existential analytical training, starting from 1983 to this day. Milestones of this development are mentioned such as the admission to the umbrella association for psychotherapy and the acknowledgement as state-approved therapy method, the development of the new Existential Analysis as well as the spreading of this school from Europe onto other continents. The key role in the approbation of Existential Analysis, and the establishment and spread of this school of psychotherapy, is ascribed to Alfried Längle. His tireless activity, and occasional struggle, is taken into account, enriched by personal encounters and experiences with him in the context of training.
Keywords: Existential Analysis, Logotherapy, Phenomenology, structural model, process model, Personal Existential Analysis, Alfried Längle
„THIS JUST CANNOT BE TRUE!“
A personal experience report on the first encounter with Personal Existential Analysis and the Existence Scale
DORIS FISCHER-DANZINGER
The following article describes a turning point in Existential Analysis which took place due to Alfried Längle’s initial presentation of the concept of “Personal Existential Analysis” (PEA) during the Viennese spring conference 1990 of the “GLE Vienna” (the subdivision of GLE-International und die GLE-Austria hadn’t existed back then). This step is also called an “emotional revolution” since PEA starts from the experience of the human being: The objective of Existential Analysis was newly defined as the authentically felt approval to one’s own way to live life – this was revolutionarily new, because it now started from an approach which assumed that the ego as a person is equally important as the values in the world (“double openness of the person to oneself and to the world”).
Keywords: PERSONAL EXISTENTIAL ANALYSIS, EMOTIONAL REVOLUTION, DOUBLE OPENNESS OF THE PERSON, AUTHENTICALLY FELT APPROVAL
EXISTENTIAL ANALYSIS (EA) IN CANADA:
REFLECTIONS FROM PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PRACTICE, TRAINING, AND RESEARCH
DERRICK W. KLAASSEN1, JANELLE L. KWEE, MIHAELA LAUNEANU
This paper represents an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of Existential Analysis (EA) to psychotherapy practice and training, research and scholarship, and community development in Canada. We begin by outlining the history of EA in Canada and elaborate on some milestones of development and accomplishment, such as the formation of the Existential Analysis Society of Canada (EAC), the launching of training cohorts, and various scholarly efforts of EAC members. Following this, we offer some reflections on the place of EA and its unique contributions to the psychotherapeutic landscape in North America. We believe that EA’s phenomenological and personal stances offer a unique contribution to both psychotherapy practice and to psychotherapy training by re-centering psychotherapeutic praxis on the person and on a phenomenological method. Finally, we conclude this paper by envisioning a future for EA in Canada that considers our particular history and the ways in which EAC may develop with respect to psychotherapy training, scholarship and community development.
Keywords: History of EA in Canada, Existential Analysis Society of Canada (EAC), training cohorts in Canada, EA and North America, future for EA in Canada
ALFRIED UND DIE SCHWEIZER*INNEN
ERIKA LUGINBÜHL, THERESE JONES, BRIGITTE HEITGER
This article humorously outlines Alfried Längle’s commitment to the establishment of Existential Analysis in Switzerland and is intended to express our heartfelt gratitude.
Key words: Birthday Alfried Längle, Existential Analysis in Switzerland