Existential applications to practice: Can existentialism integrate psychotherapy?

Reviews the book, The psychology of existence: An integrative, clinical perspective by Kirk Schneider and Rollo May (see record 1994-98741-000). In light of what they see as a growing interest in existential psychology among training clinicians and researchers, Schneider and May have authored a text which introduces the existential movement and outlines clinical applications of existentialism in psychotherapy. The text's most significant contribution is the latter—the presentation of a guiding clinical framework for conducting the "existential- integrative approach" in psychotherapy. While many personality and psychotherapy texts include introductory chapters about existentialism, few discuss how therapy cases are conceptualized and conducted from an existential therapeutic orientation. This text is an important contribution to the clinical psychology training literature. In traditional clinical training programs, existential approaches to psychotherapy are often overlooked, because such approaches are viewed as purely philosophical rather than clinically applicable. Schneider and May challenge this view. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Humanistic–existential psychotherapy competencies and the supervisory process.

There has been an increasing focus in recent years on articulating foundational and functional competencies for practice in professional psychology and how a competency-based approach might inform psychology training. With the aim of contributing to the dialogue in this area, the discussion herein explores psychotherapy competencies through the lens of a humanistic–existential perspective and describes implications for psychotherapy training and supervision. Specifically, competencies pertaining to facilitating the client’s experiential awareness and use of the psychotherapy relationship to engender client change are described. Next, the foundational and functional competencies within professional psychology that are particularly salient to a humanistic–existential psychotherapy framework are discussed. Finally, the ways in which a humanistic–existential supervision framework contributes to the development of psychotherapy competencies in trainees is considered. A brief vignette is presented to illustrate the supervision process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The legacy of Erich Fromm.

Reviews the book, The legacy of Erich Fromm by Daniel Burston (see record 1991-97594-000). In his effort to breathe new life into Fromm's legacy, Burston's employs a critical, developmental perspective, clearly showing both the continuities and the anomalies in Fromm's texts, research, and clinical practice. Writing in a highly readable, lucid style, accented with metaphorical expressions, Burston initially provides some biographical context, discusses Fromm's ambivalent involvement with the Freudian movement, and analyzes Fromm's many original contributions and relation to psychoanalysis, critical theory, existential and humanistic psychology, and social psychology. Throughout Burston's treatment of Fromm, he maintains a balanced yet affectionate perspective, elucidating not only Fromm's strengths but also his contradictions and weaknesses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The psychology of existence: An integrative, clinical perspective.

Reviews the book, The psychology of existence: An integrative, clinical perspective by Kirk J. Schneider and Rollo May (see record 1994-98741-000). There are three goals of this book: 1) to introduce the present generation of graduate students to the richness and value of existential psychotherapy, 2) to show how existential principles and treatments can be integrated with other clinical perspectives and treatments, and 3) to provide a critical link between these goals of integrating existential theory with other clinical perspectives and therapies and showing how existential principles and treatments are applied in real cases. Dividing the text into three parts, the authors present the historical roots of existentialism and recent and future trends in existential-integrative psychology. In addition, they address therapeutic applications. The reviewer concludes that this book is a creative contribution to therapy literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Compte rendu De la phénoménologie à la psychanalyse Freud et les existentialistes Américains.

Reviews the book, De la phénoménologie à la psychanalyse Freud et les existentialistes Américains by Marc-André Bouchard (1992). This book is the work of a true "scholar". The multiple data are presented with an authority of the author that easily justifies the thought that the author has a rich synthesis of several schools of thought in contemporary psychology; in particular the approaches of existential phenomenology, humanistic, gestalt and psychoanalytic psychology. A generous portion of the book is concentrated on therapeutic applications and approaches to questions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Entering the circle: Hermeneutic investigation in psychology.

Reviews the book, Entering the circle: Hermeneutic investigation in psychology edited by R.B. Addison and M.J. Packer (1989). Entering the Circle is highly recommended, if only to familiarize us with (or remind us of) the penetrating critique and contribution that hermeneutic thought offers psychology. In addition this book should be recommended because it contains, perhaps more so then other books of this genre, a diverse group of essays (dealing with developmental, clinical, social and educational psychology) that grapple with methodological and practical issues of hermeneutic psychology by reporting on research that is grounded, to a greater or lesser extent, in a hermeneutic approach. Also, another distinctive aspect of this book is that it is almost entirely devoted to the concerns of hermeneutics (the catchword "interpretive," often used in this book, I take to be interchangeable with "hermeneutic"), and thereby distinguishes itself from what has come to be known as existential or phenomenological psychologies—a distinction that for many purposes is unnecessary but may prove to be helpful in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Philosophy of psychology.

Reviews the book, Philosophy of psychology by Daniel N. Robinson (see record 1985-97596-000). In this book, Robinson offers what might be considered to be four essays in the philosophy of mind. In these essays he has set out to clarify some rather fundamental concepts operative within the mainstream of psychology, and he brings to bear on these the conceptual machinery of philosophical psychology proper. That is, he asks foundational, or meta-psychological, questions about the reigning assumptions in the field. These questions fall into four general areas, or sub-themes, within psychology as a whole, each topic being taken in a separate chapter. These topics will be explored briefly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metaphysics and Psychology: A Problem of the Personal.

This paper attempts to reexamine the relationship between metaphysics and psychology. It proposes that the rejection of metaphysics in psychology is due to a conception of metaphysics in more traditional terms, despite the fact that much of psychology is influenced by this traditional metaphysics. Our proposal is to look at metaphysics in a way that emphasizes the personal. By accomplishing this paradigm shift, psychology can be seen as intrinsically harmonious with an underlying metaphysical position accurately reflecting lived human existence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Psychological Thought from Pythagoras to Freud: An Informal Introduction.

Reviews the book, Psychological Thought from Pythagoras to Freud: An Informal Introduction by Gardner Murphy (1968). Those individuals who look on Gardner Murphy as one of the (alas) few really literate psychologists of the twentieth century will have their admiration of him reinforced by this volume of essays. They were originally presented as a series of lectures at the Menninger School of Psychiatry in 1966-67. One of them, on "The Mathematical View of Life and Mind: Pythagoras", has already been published in the American Psychologist while another, "Evolution: Charles Darwin", has appeared in the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. Whether the topic is the place (and misplace) of quantification in psychology, materialist and functionalist views of psychology, the role of divine grace in the evolution of the concept of the will, nationalistic differences in the handling of common psychological problems, psychology's post evolutionary theory concerns, the stream of William James' thought, Gestalt psychology or Freudian psychoanalysis, Murphy remains erudite, informative and, occasionally, provocative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Exploring existential meaning: Optimizing human development across the life span.

Reviews the book, Exploring existenial meaning: Optimizing human development across the life span by Gary T. Reker and Kerry Chamberlain (2000). The form of personal meaning that constitutes the main focus for the volume is existential meaning, characterized by the editors in terms of "attempts to understand how events in life fit into a larger context," which involves both "a sense of coherence (order, reason for existence) and a sense of purpose (mission in life, direction)" (p. 1). This is a remarkably well integrated collection of essays, given the usual standards for edited volumes. The contributed chapters, sandwiched between the editors' brief Introduction and their longer integrative chapter at the end, are organized into distinct sections addressing, respectively, theoretical and conceptual issues, empirical research, and applications and interventions. This volume not only provides a comprehensive survey of recent work on existential meaning but is likely to have a broader appeal as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of essay: Critical theories of psychological development.

Reviews the book, Critical theories of psychological development, edited by John M. Broughton (see record 1988-98228-000). This is a collection of essays geared toward both rethinking the nature of mainstream academic developmental psychology and providing alternative directions in which future work might move. For those social scientists—psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and historians—interested both in facing the concept of development head on and expanding their own vision of what developmental psychology is and could be, this collection of essays will provide an excellent opportunity to do so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The relational self: Theoretical convergences in psychoanalysis and social psychology.

Reviews the book, The relational self: Theoretical convergences in psychoanalysis and social psychology edited by Rebecca C. Curtis (see record 1991-97680-000). The relational self, a collection of papers from a conference held at Adelphi University in 1990, represents the latest attempt at rapprochement between psychoanalysis and social/personality psychology. The core unifying theme in this new effort at integration is the relational self. The dialectical relation between the self and environment is well illustrated by four essays devoted to current perspectives from social psychology. Several other essays provide the reader with a glimpse of the richness and vitality in current research on the self. I see no easy way of reconciling the two underlying research traditions, which differ not only in their methods and aims but also in the basic language used to describe human experiences. Perhaps in these postmodern times, there is no urgent need to stretch paradigms in the quest for unity of science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

High school psychology: A history and some observations.

Psychology has been in the secondary curriculum by title since at least 1895. 390 questionnaires were sent to superintendents and principals in 46 states. "Returns were received from 39 states which represented 64% of the original mailing." A table indicating dates for the introduction of psychology into the curriculum ranged from 1895 to 1959 discloses "a gradual increase in the number of schools introducing the course up to the modal year 1948." Once in the curriculum it tends to remain. Schools indicate 3 major reasons why psychology is not being offered and why others drop it: (a) an already crowded curriculum; (b) lack of trained teachers; (c) since "the trend of today is toward a more intense development of science, psychology cannot be offered." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Appointment of new editor.

The Executive Committee of the Society of Theoretical and Philosophical Society (Division 24 of APA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Thomas Teo as the fifth editor of Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (JTPP). Thomas Teo received his doctorate of philosophy from the University of Vienna, Austria, and has worked as a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education in Berlin, Germany. He is now Associate Professor in the History and Theory of Psychology Program at York University, Toronto. His research in historical and theoretical psychology is based on critical-hermeneutic analyses. He has also published on the transformation of psychology in nineteenth-century German philosophical psychology and on the history of race psychology and scientific racism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Award for distinguished contributions to the international advancement of psychology: Harry C. Triandis.

Harry C. Triandis has been instrumental in establishing cross-cultural psychology as a distinct discipline within psychology. His accomplishments in this international component of the field have included major theoretical and methodological innovations as well as educational and leadership contributions. The six-volume Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology, published in 1980 under his general editorship, is widely considered an important milestone in the development of the discipline and is a testament to his stature in the field and to his unique abilities to integrate divergent perspectives from around the world. In more recent years Harry Triandis has focused on the study of cultural syndromes like individualism and collectivism. This article discusses Harry C. Triandis's life and his dedication to the field of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retracing the footsteps of Wilhelm Wundt: Explorations in the disciplinary frontiers of psychology and in V?lkerpsychologie.

In 1927, Wilhelm Wundt’s daughter, Eleonore Wundt, compiled and published a comprehensive catalogue of her father’s works and works in translation. We use this catalogue as a starting point for an examination of the breadth of Wundt’s contributions, the reaction to his works from the international psychological community, and the overall trajectory of his academic career. Two areas of particular interest are Wundt’s view on the nature of psychology and its relationship to other disciplines, and his discussion of the nature of V?lkerpsychologie and its role in psychology. A close examination of original sources reveals that Wundt anchored psychology in the realm of mental sciences. He regarded “psychology [to be] in relation to natural sciences the supplementary, in relation to the mental sciences the fundamental, and in relation to philosophy the propaedeutic empirical science.” The accomplishments and limitations of Wundtian V?lkerpsychologie are viewed stereoscopically through the lenses of its explicated conceptions, goals, and methods, on one hand, and of the contemporary advancements in psychology, on the other. Current implications of Wundt’s works and further developments of his ideas are related to Davidson’s theory of epistemology and to present-day deliberations on the biocultural coconstruction of human development. We conclude by considering the continuing relevance of Wundt’s intellectual legacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making the history of psychology clinically and philosophically relevant.

The author discusses ways to make the history of psychology course relevant for a clinical psychology doctoral program within a multidenominational Protestant theological seminary. She uses a personalist orientation to emphasize the need to integrate psychology, philosophy, and theology. She differentiates among the intrapersonal, interpersonal, impersonal, and transpersonal dimensions of experience. She illustrates the rich multidisciplinary historical roots of contemporary psychology by tracing the history of the term psychology and examining its meanings in the existential psychology of S?ren Kierkegaard and in the 19th-century novel. She includes brief histories of the "new psychology" and of the unconscious. She describes how she uses the field of psychotheological integration to illustrate principles of historiography and summarizes resources used to supplement traditional textbooks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Existentialism, psychology, and psychotherapy.

The basic elements of existentialism and its relevance to psychology and psychotherapy are considered. "Existentialists are concerned with the meaning of life… . The existential analysts emphasize the study of the experiencing individual. Events are looked at in terms of their meaning for the individual… . In an attempt to get at the patient's inner universe of experience, the existential analyst studies how the phenomenological coordinates of time, space, causality, and materiality are experienced… . Logotherapy focuses upon the search for meaning in human existence." If it is approached as an area representing possible suggestions for further study "existentialism may have much to offer and psychology considerable to gainp" (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theistic existential psychotherapy.

Recently, the dichotomy between psychotherapy and spirituality has weakened as scholars and practitioners have begun to acknowledge the value of spiritual factors in clients’ lives. This article integrates I. D. Yalom’s (1980) existential psychotherapy with the theistic worldview and with the assumptions and ideas of theistic scholars such as Kierkegaard. The philosophical foundations of Yalom’s existential psychotherapy are contrasted with those of theism. A theistic reconceptualization of existential personality theory is presented, and the existential approach to treatment is reconsidered in light of theism. Finally, a case vignette involving fear of love loss is presented to illustrate how a theistic perspective can enhance the practice of existential psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)