Talk:Existential therapy


 * There's a lot of Further Reading, but no references/citations of assertions in the article itself. Scouttle 07:27, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Existential Analysis
My recollection is that the original title for this article was "Existential Analysis". I see someone has decided for Wikipedia that it should be "Existential Therapy". Why?

The professional association has named itself the Society for Existential Analysis. The leading journal is named Existential Analysis. It would appear appropriate to use the name that the profession itsel uses. LAWinans (talk) 02:03, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

Intro sentence needing a rewrite
The intro ends with the following statement:
 * "Existential therapists have their own unique views about human nature, mental dysfunction, wellness, and therapeutic techniques."

This is pretty unhelpful. What are their "unique views" on these? Specify them!! FT2 (Talk 00:46, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Style comment re use of last names
In articles for general readership, I'm used to seeing first name, last name the first time a person is mentioned. While some of the names were familiar to me, I was not sure who Tillich was, and there is no Wikipedia link to him.

72.75.109.139 20:37, 17 June 2007 (UTC)athoma

Re: Style comment re use of last names
I've added the first and last names to all the only last names the first name a person was mentioned (at least I saw).

blah blah blah learn some real philosophy psychology is for weaklings

this introduction!!!
someone please re-write this as there are many forms of existentialism and it isn't soley that humans are alone in the world!!! [pretty much only Sartre who thinks this] E.G. Kierkegaard believes in life after death and god, the main thing about it is that humans should try to lead their own lives, not to shy away from decsion making ect.

Iwi the kiwi 17:33, 24 August 2007 (UTC)Iwi the Kiwi

No existentialists thinks that we are alone in the world. Without others is just another mode of being-with-others. Others are a part of the human condition. You mean that they believe that there is no higher power or that a higher power wouldn't explain the subjective experience of consciousness. If you want I can dig up the pages in Being and Nothingness where Sartre says that or you could just think about it and realize that it's true.


 * taken literally (providing a whole kind of other philosophic implication) that would be solipsism. 184.76.53.217 (talk) 11:47, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard (1813–55) protested vigorously against Christian dogma and the so-called 'objectivity' of science (Kierkegaard, 1841, 1844). He thought that both were ways of avoiding the anxiety inherent in human existence.

I don't know how to how to go about it but this needs to be changed. What "dogma" did Kierkegaard "vigorously" protest against? The phrase "so-called" is too vulgar for an encyclopedia. 12.184.53.155 (talk) 02:27, 19 April 2008 (UTC)


 * unless it is taken as meaning 'so-named' in a less than further so assigned manner. 184.76.53.217 (talk) 11:43, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Clean up
This page needs a good clean up. I am gonna attempt a rewrite here: User:The.Filsouf/Existential_therapy, if anyone else has a broom or ideas please come and drop by at the talk page there. Cheers. --The.Filsouf (talk) 19:46, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Specific to therapy...
This article is pretty damn verbose, and while it talks about existential therapy, most of the articles seems to be focused on the debates focused around existentialism. I'd say the majority of the article could be integrated into existentialism, and this article started from scratch. Focus on the existential quadrants, and how clinicians work using the fundamentals of existentialism.

And like the previous commenters said, it's quite course to use colloquialisms in academic writing. Avoid it.

Edit: TheFilsouf, your proposed article seems to be on the right track.

Victor 134.115.23.30 (talk) 06:38, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Interesting relating existentialism to Gestalt psychology at the links, In agreement I suggest one consider;
....that, existentially, absolute value in any particular given/at-hand is the, while extrinsically subjective (to 'others'), sole possible measure of what may ever be a concrete nature ("existence precedes essence") which is ever inherently dependent upon the primacy of the individual observer's thus universal scope in all potential contingent classification or rendering which can at no point extend beyond its categorical terminus where that resultant defined wholeness stands as immanent observation; where any subsequent cohesion, avoiding presupposition, delineates all interconnectedness whatsoever within what amounts to every attainable systematization of absolute and it always being periphery to empirical strata as what upholds such very same empirical condition, in eternal a-priori. 184.76.53.217 (talk) 11:39, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Death might not be an inevitability in the future

 * "These givens, as noted by Yalom, are: the inevitability of death". Fair enough, if that's the quoted stated opinion of Yalom then no change is required, but I take it then that he hasn't heard of Aubrey de Grey or the SENS foundation?

Shtanto (talk) 22:12, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Plagiarism?
Hi, just noticed this article, almost word-for-word, at http://www.psychology-books-reviews.com/2011/03/irvin-d-yalom-existential-psychotherapy-ebook-preview/ and am not sure if this is kosher. Just an FYI, good article, thanks. IDave2 (talk) 01:21, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

On a first reading....
I have two questions:

"Welcome""
"In the last decades the existential approach has spread rapidly and has become a welcome alternative to established methods."

Who (aside from existential therapists) has welcomed it? 133.25.247.222 (talk) 07:46, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Is it worth it?
How should existential therapy be evaluated? (What would constitute success in existential therapy?) What, then, is the evaluation?

I'm neither a therapist nor a psychologist, but/so this seems a fundamental question to me. Yet this article doesn't seem to mention it. 133.25.247.222 (talk) 07:46, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Possible sources
Here are some sources I plan to use to update this article. I appreciate any feedback regarding their appropriateness, etc.

J.,, Comer, Ronald. Fundamentals of abnormal psychology (Eighth edition ed.). New York. ISBN 9781464176975. OCLC 914289944.

Barnett, L., & Madison, Greg. (2012). Existential Therapy : Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue.(Advancing theory in therapy). Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.

Bwoollard (talk) 17:55, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Proposed merger
I cannot see any distinction between existential counseling and existential therapy besides the terminology. I would imagine that "therapy" is what people would be searching for more often, so I would recommend merging the content of the counseling article with this article. HappyWanderer15 (talk) 14:33, 22 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Support - these two topics seem to be the same to me, and the page traffic of the target is clearly much higher. Psychastes (talk) 19:12, 23 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Support - I agree, these topics seem the same and it is unnecessary to have separate pages. Sloopyhangon (talk) 04:49, 6 July 2024 (UTC)