The philosophy of existentialism is an illuminating body of thought carefully discovering and documenting human experience at levels of analysis not yet integrated into our collective understanding, common assumptions, and practical know-how. Cultural conditioning can limit or distort our thinking about important matters, often using ill-fitting constructs that are a disservice to the formidable, courageous project of an introspective, truth-seeking self-examination and self-analysis.
Plundering this tradition has been invaluable in growing and refining a compelling understanding of human nature, which directly enriches the art and practice of psychotherapy. After more than a decade of ongoing engagement, this body of work continues to be a rich wellspring from which to draw, integrate, and make use of while working with people dealing with complex issues in a complex world, pressed to delineate their options and what they mean, to make decisions, and to decisively act.
Sartre famously declared that "man is the sum total of his actions" followed by critical thought about the ways we courageously heed this challenge and the clever, creative ways we seek to get away from it. Sartre and de Beauvoir comprehensively analyzed 'bad faith', or methods of self-deception; largely through psychotherapy, client and counselor seek to do the same, carefully revealing distortions, defenses, and, in layman's terms, 'cutting through bullshit' to achieve a more accurate self-concept and representation of life experience.
A welcome complement to this ruthless work of self-honesty is the practice of mindfulness that pulls from a rich field of spiritual traditions seeking to bring love, emotional attunement, and compassion to the work. Not that classic existentialists didn't factor these human capacities into their assessment, not that they didn't work with these themes in the grand personal experiment of their lives. Its a difference in emphasis and I find that an approach that blends gentle inquiry and non-judgmental inclusiveness with the 'no bullshit' rigor of existential analysis a useful and interesting dynamic.
translate this paragraph from journaling: There will always remain some irreducible, unavoidable ‘unsatisfactoriness’ in the ledger of life; I apprentice this Zen-Fact. I keep shedding more and more magical, superstitious, archaic thinking, that have gotten me, gotten us, off track. I replace it with the best art and philosophy and depth psychology that seeks to grapple with this human experience on its own ruthless terms.
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Plundering this tradition has been invaluable in growing and refining a compelling understanding of human nature, which directly enriches the art and practice of psychotherapy. After more than a decade of ongoing engagement, this body of work continues to be a rich wellspring from which to draw, integrate, and make use of while working with people dealing with complex issues in a complex world, pressed to delineate their options and what they mean, to make decisions, and to decisively act.
Sartre famously declared that "man is the sum total of his actions" followed by critical thought about the ways we courageously heed this challenge and the clever, creative ways we seek to get away from it. Sartre and de Beauvoir comprehensively analyzed 'bad faith', or methods of self-deception; largely through psychotherapy, client and counselor seek to do the same, carefully revealing distortions, defenses, and, in layman's terms, 'cutting through bullshit' to achieve a more accurate self-concept and representation of life experience.
A welcome complement to this ruthless work of self-honesty is the practice of mindfulness that pulls from a rich field of spiritual traditions seeking to bring love, emotional attunement, and compassion to the work. Not that classic existentialists didn't factor these human capacities into their assessment, not that they didn't work with these themes in the grand personal experiment of their lives. Its a difference in emphasis and I find that an approach that blends gentle inquiry and non-judgmental inclusiveness with the 'no bullshit' rigor of existential analysis a useful and interesting dynamic.
translate this paragraph from journaling: There will always remain some irreducible, unavoidable ‘unsatisfactoriness’ in the ledger of life; I apprentice this Zen-Fact. I keep shedding more and more magical, superstitious, archaic thinking, that have gotten me, gotten us, off track. I replace it with the best art and philosophy and depth psychology that seeks to grapple with this human experience on its own ruthless terms.
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