Existential Therapy

[EvenStrongerNow]

Has anyone ever tried this for ptsd? What is your experience with it?

 

[WillyKat]

I haven't tried it and didn't even know it was practiced, but there's a old book called "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor Frankl, who was a psychiatrist and holocaust survivor. The early title of that book was "Death Camp Existentialism". I believe he called it logo therapy or something, the gist is that by embracing the struggle itself, you can find meaning in life and that is therapeutic. That's too brief a description to do it justice, so I would advise reading the book, regardless if you use it as a form of therapy or not.

I don't know if that is what existential therapy is or not. Maybe you could summarize it for us?

 

[EvenStrongerNow]

This is what I read about it only: [DLMURL]http://www.goodtherapy.org/Existential_Psychotherapy.html#[/DLMURL]

 

[Springer80]

What? Like reading 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?'....:troll::devilish::D

 

[Laura 2]

What? Like reading 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?'....:troll::devilish::D

LOL...now if only I could find my cosmological constant and my warp drive, I'd be just fine....[alien smiley here!]

 

[WillyKat]

I should add that I studied philosophy in college and existentialism really had an effect on my thinking. Still does.

 

[Springer80]

It's been mentioned to me that my issues now are existential. This is after 10 or so years of acute ptsd ending in 2009/10, then a major physical burn out which freaked me out, then CFS.

Thing is about child abuse is that it turns your whole world upside down.

Adults are not always right.
Adults lie.
Parents do not always love their children.
Parents do not do anything to protect their children.
Friends are not always there for you.
You do not always reap what you sow.
Justice does not prevail.
The strong do not protect the weak.

the list goes on and on and on.....

Then the things you cleave too, to try and overcome your symptoms are no longer true as you recover. Were you wrong or right, strong or weak? It's a total identity head ****.

 

[Laura 2]

@WillyKat - and me, I literally felt sick all the way through Nausea. But Sartre did have good things to say, even if he did treat his gfs like dirt. Many a slip twixt cup and lip...

 

[Pencil]

Here's the world according to Somerset Maugham, which is most definitely influenced by Existential philosophy.

"I have never had any sympathy with the ascetic attitude. The wise man combines the pleasures of the senses and the pleasures of the spirit in such a way as to increase the satisfaction he gets from both. The most valuable thing I have learned from life is to regret nothing. Life is short, nature is hostile, and man is ridiculous; but oddly enough most misfortunes have their compensations and with a certain humour and a good deal of horse-sense one can make a fairly good job of what is after all a matter of very small consequence." From The Narrow Corner

 

[Springer80]

My personal favourite was Derrida, until I read that he specified that the one classification all his theories didn't apply to was gender. What bollocks! I still subscribe to his findings but NOT that one.

In terms of denial and the construction of narrative it's a pretty important one.

 

[WillyKat]

I was fond of Camus, especially the Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays.

 

[Springer80]

I think of Sisyphus every time I'm doing the bloody washing up!