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- Despite different emphases, existential perspectives see the human essence as characterized by three qualities: (1) the uniqueness of the human species and the individual; (2) the indissolubility of the person and the situation; and (3) the ubiquity of freedom and threat in human experience.
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Mar 29, 2016 · Existentialism is a term applied to the work of a number of philosophers since the 19th century who, despite large differences in their positions, generally focused on the condition of human existence, and an individual’s emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts, or the meaning or purpose of life. Existential philosophers often ...
Aug 31, 2021 · The two main approaches included: 1) archetypal analysis, based on Jung’s (1969, 1971, 1980 ), Pearson’s (2012) and Pearson and Marr’s (2002, 2007) theories on archetypes and 2) TMT, based on the existentialist work of Becker (1973 ), to uncover the meaning of life and death across Frankl’s lifespan.
- Viktor Frankl
- Roy Baumeister
- Ernest Becker
- Irvin Yalom
- Summary
Frankl (1959/2006) argued that individuals have a “will to meaning,” a motivation to find “concrete meaning” in their lives. Frankl used the term meaning to refer both to a sense of goals/aims in life and to the ability to make sense of life circumstances. In regards to goals, he wrote, “what man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather...
Baumeister (1991) defined meaning as “ideas that connect things together” (p. 27). He posited that as individuals examine their lives as a whole, it is difficult to see all aspects of life as fitting together into a coherent, consistent, and integrated life story or perspective. Despite this, individuals are inclined to believe that there is some l...
Among the four theorists discussed here, Becker’s (1973/1997) perspective is perhaps the most relevant to EM. Becker argued that being human is inherently anxiety provoking: The world is terrifying because death and decay are guaranteed outcomes in life and human beings are aware of such outcomes. To Becker, the dilemma of existence is that of “the...
The idea that EM is not necessarily captured by perspectives on meaning is clear-cut in Yalom’s (1980) perspective. Yalom considers EM as distinct from meaning; moreover, he sees a fundamentally different motivation behind each of them. Yalom discussed two types of meaning: cosmic meaning and terrestrial meaning. Cosmic meaning concerns “whether li...
The perspectives of the above four theorists support the idea that individuals are strongly inclined to see their lives as mattering and as having value and significance in the world. To Becker (1973/1997), individuals are inclined to feel a sense of “cosmic specialness”—a feeling that they are of primary value in the world—and this feeling is prov...
- Login S. George, Crystal L. Park
- 2014
Sep 15, 2023 · In the last decade, there has been a renewed interdisciplinary interest in the study of existential loneliness (EL) or existential isolation (EI). However, to date, there is still no consensus in the literature on what exactly EL/EI is and how should be measured, resulting in a wide variety of definitions and operationalizations of the experience.
Existentialism would influence many disciplines outside of philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology. Existentialist philosophy encompasses a range of perspectives, but it shares certain underlying concepts.
Existential psychology is a branch of psychology that studies how people come to terms with the basic givens of human existence. The existential perspective has important roots in philosophy, which has long tried to make sense of people's being in the world.
This list comprises pioneering existential psychologists and psychiatrists as well as some of the most influential existential philosophers and other existential thinkers, primarily from this century; focusing on the existential-psychological aspects of their thinking.
