Introducing Science to the Psychology of the Soul: Experimental Existential Psychology

ABSTRACT— Humans live out their lives knowing that their own death is inevitable; that their most cherished beliefs and values, and even their own identities, are uncertain; that they face a bewildering array of choices; and that their private subjective experiences can never be shared with another human being. This knowledge creates five major existential concerns: death, isolation, identity, freedom, and meaning. The role of these concerns in human affairs has traditionally been the purview of philosophy. However, recent methodological and conceptual advances have led to the emergence of an experimental existential psychology directed toward empirically investigating the roles that these concerns play in psychological functioning. This new domain of psychological science has revealed the pervasive influence of deep existential concerns on diverse aspects of human thought and behavior.     

ECO‐ANXIETY,TRAGEDY, AND HOPE: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SPIRITUAL DIMENSIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

This article addresses the problem of “eco‐anxiety” by integrating results from numerous fields of inquiry. Although climate change may cause direct psychological and existential impacts, vast numbers of people already experience indirect impacts in the form of depression, socio‐ethical paralysis, and loss of well‐being. This is not always evident, because people have developed psychological and social defenses in response, including “socially constructed silence.” I argue that this situation causes the need to frame climate change narratives as emphasizing hope in the midst of tragedy. Framing the situation simply as a threat or a possibility does not work. Religious communities and the use of methods which include spirituality have an important role in enabling people to process their deep emotions and existential questions. I draw also from my experiences from Finland in enabling cooperation between natural scientists and theologians in order to address climate issues.     

John S. Harding,Victor Sōgren Hori,and Alexander Souci,eds. Wild geese: Buddhism in Canada

Both Buddhism and Marxism have strengths and weaknesses in helping us to understand human experiences and social problems. Rather than trying to create a synthesis of the two perspectives, I attempt to discern the elements in each which can help us experience better lives and be more effective political activists. Buddhism identifies those understandings and practices which lead to greater happiness and less suffering in response to existential challenges that we all must face as mortal human beings, irrespective of the particular family, society, or historical era that we live in. But while Buddhism captures certain basic aspects of universal human experience, it does not take account of the interaction or dialectic between humans qua social beings and the relatively permanent social structures that humans both reinforce and challenge in the course of history. The latter is the province of a radical social theory, such as Marxism. At the same time, however, Marxism does not address the ways in which, at an experiential level, life causes suffering and anguish irrespective of the social context.     

A New Kantian Solution to the Third Antinomy of Pure Reason and to the Free Will Problem

The goal of this paper is to articulate a new solution to Kant's third antinomy of pure reason, one that establishes the possibility of incompatibilist freedom—the freedom presupposed by our traditional conceptions of moral responsibility, moral worth, and justice—without relying on the doctrine of transcendental idealism (TI). A discussion of Henry Allison's “two‐aspect” interpretation of Kant's TI allows me both to criticize one of the best defenses of TI today and to advance my own TI‐free solution to the third antinomy by appeal to a thesis of epistemic modesty based on Paul Guyer's realist interpretation of Kant's theory of experience. According to this interpretation, the a priori forms of our sensibility and understanding are not forms that the mind imposes on a material whose real properties are unknowable to us but are instead forms that limit or filter the kinds of things we can experience and know. In particular, being causally determined is a real feature of things as they are in themselves, but the necessity and universality of our deterministic claims are relative, restricted to the objects of possible experience. Consequently, though a causally determined event cannot be free, the necessity and universality of determinism does not entail that free events (choices) cannot exist but that they cannot constitute objects of possible experience. After arguing that freedom is possible, I outline an argument for the reality of freedom, based on the requirements of morality. Finally, I argue that my view, though opposed to metaphysical naturalism, is consistent with scientific realism and methodological naturalism.     

Why Adoptees Search: An Existential Treatment Perspective

This article frames the adult adoptee's search for his or her biological roots in an existential treatment perspective. This context offers depth of understanding of the adoptee's dilemma while allowing the counselor an expanded foundation from which to understand an adopted client's desire for personal historical information. An existential view of adoption allows the counselor to view the adoptee's struggle as a variation on the nearly universal human concerns of death, isolation, meaninglessness, being, anxiety, and freedom. Treatment approaches are suggested and discussed.     

Marcel's “availability” in existential psychotherapy with couples and families

Gabriel Marcel was a French, Catholic, existential philosopher who first presented the concept of human availability as a central way of strengthening the self and facilitating the experience of human freedom. In this article Marcel's ideas about availability are described, reviewed, and examined for their implications for the practice of existential psychotherapy with couples and families.     

The weight of being: Psychological perspectives on the existential moment

As the prefrontal cortex expanded in human evolution, so too did the capacity for nesting basic biological goals within more complex systems of behavioral organization. This increased ability for abstraction brought with it the challenge of deciding how to interpret the personal significance of any given experience. The human brain appears to manage this increased complexity by defining meaning in relation to one's currently adopted goals. When encountering goal-related information, arousal and exploratory systems become engaged, such that information is processed more thoroughly. As a consequence of this enhanced attention and arousal, neural plasticity is facilitated, allowing motivationally relevant experiences to have a stronger influence on an individual's neural organization. To borrow a gravitational metaphor, the existential weight, or significance, of a particular moment will determine the strength of that moment's influence on an individual's life. Human experience thus appears to be curved around fluctuations in the existential weight of being.     

Existentialism and Humanism: Humanity—Know Thyself!

At times, an individual in modernity can feel dehumanised by work, by administration, by technology, and by political power. This experience of being dehumanised can take the individual to an existential awareness of the priority of existence over essence. But what does this existential experience mean? Are there ways in which this experience can reconnect the individual to her being human, or to her being part of humanity? Any such reconnection is further complicated by the suspicion that universal presuppositions concerning ‘humanity’ or ‘human being’ or ‘humanism’ carry pretensions of imperialist grandeur that must be challenged. How, then, might one proceed to connect existential vertigo with a culture of humanism that, while resisting such pretensions, nevertheless can find meaning for the dehumanised individual? In what follows I argue that a concept of modern metaphysics, with an aporetic (Hegelian) logic of subjective experience, can carry this reconnection of the I and the We, offering meaning not in the resolution of their opposition, but in learning that the meaning of their opposition, and the meaning of humanity, is learning, is our education. I argue that it is only within modern educational metaphysics that humanity and the individual Know Thyself.     

Decision-Making in Mental Healthcare: A Phenomenological Investigation of Service User Perspectives

As Victorian asylums closed down in the United Kingdom, community mental health services were set up to support patients in exercising choice and freedom; in finding a place in society. The success of these services has been questioned, so further policies have been introduced in an effort to protect rights and improve social inclusion. However, capacity to make decisions has been interpreted as no more than a process of rational mental calculation. This article reports on a phenomenological study that explores the decision-making experiences of three men who have endured psychosis. It is not only associated with choice and freedom but also with responsibility, blame, and social exclusion. These men appear to have faced common existential dilemmas, but have sought to express emotional will in conflict with other people and have, perhaps, been placed under more social pressure and become more isolated as individuals, while enduring experiences that are difficult to make meaningful for others. It seems that, paradoxically, efforts have been made to empower these men by controlling them, and medication has been imposed on them so as to regulate thoughts and moods, in attempts to serve their best interests.     

Suicide in the literary work of Cesare Pavese.

On the basis of an existential analysis (Daseinanalyse), the authors consider the suicide, at age 42, of Cesare Pavese, one of the most important Italian poets and writers of the post-World War II period. It is found that in his poems, his novels, and particularly his letters and diary the idea of suicide was present in his consciousness since adolescence; year by year it is possible to follow the development of his ideas and fantasies about suicide. Incapable of establishing authentic communication with others, Pavese narrowed his existential horizon to the point of being less and less capable of living in the world and projecting himself into the future. From these considerations it is concluded that Pavese's acute feeling of incapacity caused him to have lasting experiences of failure that brought him to view suicide as the only way to free himself from his own torment.     

Spinoza and the Feeling of Freedom

We seem to have a direct experience of our freedom when we act. Many philosophers take this feeling of freedom as evidence that we possess libertarian free will. Spinoza denies that we have free will of any sort, although he admits that we nonetheless feel free. Commentators often attribute to him what I call the ‘Negative Account’ of the feeling: it results from the fact that we are conscious of our actions but ignorant of their causes. I argue that the Negative Account is flawed. The feeling of freedom also depends on a vacillation of the mind. When the mind forms too many incompatible associations, it vacillates between them. When we act, the mind vacillates back and forth between the kinds of actions that we associate with our present mental state. We then mistake this subjective vacillation for an objective feature of ourselves—namely, the power to do otherwise.     

Timelessness as a positive and negative experience

We create a sense of time, our understanding of time and subjective time in our minds by experiencing memories, images and chains of events in life as consecutive sequences. We also create timelessness within ourselves. If a person powerfully experiences the present moment, linking this feeling of integration to the self the feeling of timelessness and illusion of eternity is reinforced, making both the past and the future seem less significant than the present moment. A negative experience of timelessness is linked both to the fear that life will end as well as to the fear of disintegration, shattering, the loss of the self and corporeality. By contrast, a positive experience of timelessness enriches and integrates the personality, linking experiences together in a highly personal and authentic way with a great feeling of freedom which is not tied to a specific point in time. The author argues that a creative experience is always based on an inner, timeless dialogue, even when it is manifested in the transference of psychoanalysis. Through his attitude, an analyst can influence both the analysand's creativity and his experience of timelessness by reinforcing the role of the analysand's true self in his experiences of the self as a whole. Further, a mystical experience could be an act of sublimation taking place during psychoanalytic transference, while communing with nature, or while being creative. Deeply experiencing something truly representing a personal truth as a timeless experience, in a mystical experience or a dream, is probably linked to the ability to fully experience a moment in and of itself, without external stimuli, and with the ability to objectify the self. During such moments, a person can look into himself truly and openly, without any other immediate aspirations.     

Significance of nature in a clinical setting and its perceived therapeutic value from patients’ perspective

The effect that nature can have on the development of mental health and the implications for recovery is important for understanding the impact nature has on humans, as well as delineating possible alternative venues for treating psychological problems. The present qualitative study examined how individuals understand the significance of nature in relation to their mental health and treatment. A total of 12 participants in residential treatment for varying nonpsychotic mental health issues were interviewed about previous and present experiences with nature and the meaning these experiences have for them in recovery. Thematic analysis resulted in the creation of two main themes: «being human in nature», which included three sub-themes ‘experience of nature’, ‘effects on focus and attention’ and ‘change and the transformative in nature’, and «nature, the patient and treatment», with two sub-themes ‘nature as therapy’ and ‘nature and therapy’. Participants describe a feeling of coming closer to themselves, to their problems and existential meanings when in nature. In addition, they report being able to make new relational experiences with other patients, and that some experiences in nature can function as symbolic tools in therapy. The study underlines the complex interrelationships between nature and humans and points to new lines for future research.     

庄子与史铁生的自由精神之比较

“乘物以游心”的庄子在乱世以自由逍遥的精神追求探究人生意义,执着的行魂史铁生处盛世思接远古,以个体的自由精神彰显生命本色。前者的自由精神是在时代之匣里对必然人生命运的结果性追求,后者的自由精神是于个体的偶然命运之殇里传递过程的美好。二者穿越时空对自由精神的多向度诉求使得人类的普世价值历久弥新。     

The search for freedom in extreme sports: A phenomenological exploration

Participation in extreme sports is continuing to grow, yet there is still little understanding of participant motivations in such sports. The purpose of this paper is to report on one aspect of motivation in extreme sports, the search for freedom. The study utilized a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology. Fifteen international extreme sport participants who participated in sports such as BASE jumping, big wave surfing, extreme mountaineering, extreme skiing, rope free climbing and waterfall kayaking were interviewed about their experience of participating in an extreme sport. Results reveal six elements of freedom: freedom from constraints, freedom as movement, freedom as letting go of the need for control, freedom as the release of fear, freedom as being at one, and finally freedom as choice and responsibility. The findings reveal that motivations in extreme sport do not simply mirror traditional images of risk taking and adrenaline and that motivations in extreme sports also include an exploration of the ways in which humans seek fundamental human values.     

Heidegger on Existentiality,Constancy, and the Self

In Being and Time, Heidegger develops an account of the self in terms of his existential ontology. He contrasts his view to Cartesian and Kantian accounts, and seems to reject features that we take to be fundamental for a self, such as diachronic unity and being the subject of one's experiences. His positive account is obscured by the difficult vocabulary of authenticity and temporality. This paper traces Heidegger's argument, outlines his existential conception of the self, and shows how it fits the basic criteria for a self.     

Technological Other/Quasi Other: Reflection on Lived Experience

This reflection focuses on lived experience with the Technological Other (Quasi-Other) while pursuing creative video and film activities. In the last decade work in the video and film industries has been transformed through digital manipulation and enhancement brought about by increasingly sophisticated computer technologies. The rules of the craft have not changed but the relationship the artist/editor experiences with these new digital tools has brought about increasingly interesting existential experiences in the creative process. How might this new way of being with technology change the craft and the crafter? Through a phenomenological understanding of Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Don Ihde, and their contributions to the human-technology conversation, this essay moves to reveal the lived experiences of artists/editors who use computers to create by means of film and digital video formats. Exploring notions of lived space, lived body, lived time, and lived relation through the computer interface allows for digging deeper into inhabiting technology and experiencing the Technological Other.     

Career As Life-Style: An Existential View

Many individuals in our society experience degrees of psychological and spiritual deadness. This early-death syndrome is contrasted with a view of life that encompasses the concept of an ongoing prime through growth in psychological and spiritual aliveness. A four-dimensional model of career is presented that incorporates existential concepts and advocates attention to both experiences and personal philosophy as factors in the attainment of a meaningful life-style.     

Free will as relative freedom with conscious component

The general notion of relative freedom is introduced. It is a kind of freedom that is observed everywhere in nature. In biology, incomplete knowledge is defined for all organisms. They cope with the problem by Popper’s trial-and-error processes. One source of their success is the relative freedom of choice from the basic option ranges: mutations, motions and neuron connections. After the conjecture is adopted that communicability can be used as a criterion of consciousness, free will is defined as a conscious version of relative freedom. The resulting notion is logically self-consistent and it describes an observable phenomenon that agrees with our experience.