Existence

by Ernest Angel (editor), Rollo May (Editor), Henri F. Ellenberger (editor)

Since its publication, Existence has been regarded as the most important, complete, and lucid account of the existentialist approach to psychology. From the works of the leading spokesmen of the existential analytic movement, the editors have selected classic case histories and other writings to define the approach that seeks to understand mental illness, in the words of Rollo May, ..".not as deviations from the conceptual yardstick of this or that psychiatrist...but as deviations in the structure of the particular patient's existence, the disruptions of his condition humane."

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, Classics, Counselling

456 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1958

Reviews

[James Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the singular most foundational books I read during my education and training as an existential-phenomenologic therapist. It serves as a magnificent introduction to that field and sends the reader on a path deeper and deeper into the field. In some ways, it was RM's best book.

[Saeed Abdavi]

بالاخره بعد از حدود تقریبا ۵ ماه خواندن این کتاب به پایان رسید. باید اعتراف کنم که کتاب سنگین و دشواری بود.
بر خلاف کارهای قبلی که تو حوزه روان کاوی اگزیست خوانده بودم که اکثرا روان و خوش خوان بودند٬ هستی پیچیده تر و
دیریاب تر بود. شاید اصلا این کتاب مناسب خوانندگان عادی نباشد و شاید مخصوص افرادی که تحصیلات تخصصی در این
حوزه دارند نوشته شده باشد. به هر جهت کتاب به ریشه ها و ابعاد روانکاوی اگزیست نگاهی کامل و جامع دارد و در بخش های پایانی کتاب به مطالعه کیس های کاربردی با رویکرد اگزستنسیال می پردازد.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

In college I became interested in psychotherapeutics, but not as it was taught by most of the psychology department's faculty. Fortunately, the new religion department had several adjuncts with doctorates in the field who taught interdisciplinary courses. 'Existence: A New Dimension in Psychiatry and Psychology', a collection of essays by existential psychologists, was recommended reading for one such course.

Existential Psychology has much more currency in Europe than in the United States and the phrase probably had more currency back when existential philosophy was in vogue in the fifties and sixties than it does now. Basically, it's an attempt to get into the shoes of the subject with minimal imposed preconceptions or value judgments. In a real sense it is like becoming the analysand's best and most sympathetic friend. Ideally, the analyst would move in with the analysand for years, get to know the person as much as is humanly possible and encourage the person to improve in terms the person would recognize and concur with--much as good friends act therapeutically with one another in day to day life. In extreme cases, and some are dealt with here, this exercise can lead to rather extraordinary friendships. I am reminded of C.G. Jung's early paper on what was then called dementia praecox. Working with persons who had been institutionalized/warehoused for so long that their admissions preceded living memory, persons so psychotic that they were incapable of conversation, he simply researched their clinical records, listened, recorded and analyzed, discovering that their behaviors, gross and linguistic, made sense...in their terms.

Such a form of psychotherapy was very attractive to me. Although I've studied psychology for years both in and out of academe, I've never been treated by a psychologist or psychiatrist and I wouldn't want to be treated by anyone in the mainstream unless it was for a condition with a medically certain aetiology. Although I've done plenty of group work and been exposed to a wide variety of methodologies in seminar and workshop settings, I have always felt very uncomfortable with the idea of charging anyone to be what is, in essence, a friend and so have never directly entered the profession despite being trained for it. I do, however, try to be a good friend to those I'm graced to care for and who will allow the, to me, inescapably therapeutic offices of such good friendship to obtain.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the time this book was written it was said that existance was the nuclear bomb of psychology. More powerful than could be understood. When the power was harnessed it would change everything.
Many current books like “the secret”, “the present”, “the power of now” and pretty much anything written by Eckhart Tolle are just starting to tap the power of this philosophical paradigm.
It all started with some turn of the 20th century philosophers that were sick of the world becoming more mechanized and less “human to human.” They had no idea how far we would take technology and how little human contact would come to mean. Veva la email! Reach out and touch someone… Um, by phone. Let Hallmark show them how much you care. It was a warning of what is lost when we forget how to be where we are and live in the moment. The pressure to exist well has been replaced by drives for success. Wow a speech… not a review.

[Masha · Rating 4 out of 5]

First half covers philosophy and history of existentialism in psychology, and second half is case examples. I really enjoyed the first half- it was straightforward and a good supplement to existential texts. The cases were interesting but didn't add too much for me.

[MizzSandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Danish version I have of this book is a translation from what I presume is two chapters of this book (that it refers to), "the origins and significance of the Existential Movement in Psychology" and "contributions of Existential Psychotherapy" - which is why I've only 'partly read' this.
But I LOVED what I read!
It is very much in line with my own thinking on existence as well as psychotherapy.

[Alfredo J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتابی پرمحتوایی بود. بررسی اگزیستانسیالیسم و پدیدارشناسی در کنار روانکاوی فرویدی. برای خواننده‌ی عادی با اطلاعات پایه‌ای در مورد روانکاوی، یک‌سوم اول کتاب خیلی خوبه. دو‌سوم بعدی کتاب ، بالینی میشه و برای روانکاوان خوبه.

[Ameneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب جالبی بود. ولی اواخر که ماجرای بررسی اشخاص به صورت موردی شروع میشه مثل الن وست واقعا تخصصی هست. و چندان کارامد نیست برای غیر متخصصین این رشته.
من مقاله رولو می دوست داشتم.

[Dylan]

Super cool, and a delight to discover a weird philosophical niche from like 70 years ago that constellates some of the same ideas and questions I am trying to work through in 2020: how can we frame subjectivity + experience in a non-dualist/non-rationalist way, but still possess a vocabulary to talk about neuropathology/psychopathology.

Or, to put that in a more straightforward way: how might we construct a model of mind that is not based on abstract categorical systems which preserve "objective reality" at the expense of lived experience, and still have the tools required to help treat somebody with schizophrenia or depression? This problem emerges in part because phenomenology's valorization of subjective experience might seem to suggest that no one person's reality is more valid than anyone else's, so who is the physician to say which perceptions are right and which are wrong? That particular line of thinking can make the whole philosophical endeavor seem dangerously removed from reality. Like, "are you seriously going to strip the psychiatrist of their toolbox in the name of having the right theoretical foundation?"

I have been feeling a little bit stuck on that point for a couple of months now. Like, what is the real utility of posthumanism or, god forbid, of object oriented ontology besides having a self-congratulatory framework that is the least vulnerable to criticism along anthropocentric/ableist/what-have-you lines. The existential psychiatry movement in the mid-20th century seems to have been doing some hard work trying to put some of these principles into quite literal practice, and this volume offers some really valuable insights into what that looked like. And also, the amount of hand-wringing about the impact of the history of Western Philosophy™ on the basic assumptions of medicine/psychiatry is really revealing. It's remarkable to see these practicing therapists take shots at centuries-old assumptions about how knowledge works, pointing out the shortcomings of any model which expects reality to align with the categories we construct to understand it.

Much more to say, but I can see this becoming a touchpoint as I continue to think through questions of materialism and experience and intersubjectivity.

[Thaísa Malbar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really looked forward to reading and liking this book, as it is a foundational book for existential psychiatry and existential analysis.

The book is divided into two sections. The first half is composed by one introduction on the subject written by Rollo May and one by Henri Ellenberger. The second half is the first translation to English of general texts and clinical cases and their analysis written by great names in existential psychiatry, including Minkowski (a schizophrenic depression case) and Binswanger (the famous Ellen West case).

The first half of the book is amazing, with a great introduction and elucidation of the field written by Rollo May and Henri Ellenberger. It stands on its own as a well-written and essencial text.

For the second part, I can understand the relevance and originality of it for its time, but I didn’t have the patience to go through all of it. The analysis of the cases are unnecessarily verbose in my point of view. Also, the conclusions seem quite arbitrary and not so helpful for treating the patients themselves in comparison with other forms of analysis.

[S h a y a N · Rating 4 out of 5]

نصفه خوندم چون بیشتر اون مقاله های اگزیستانسیالیستی و مقدمه رولو می برام جذاب بود و بقیه ش سرگذشت دو سه تا بیمار روان‌نژند رو روایت کرده بود که از حوصله من خارج بود. خیلی پر باره این کتاب و یک مرجع عالی واسه روانشناسان و روانپزشکانی هست که به رویکرد اگزیستانسیال علاقه‌مندن. بر خلاف توضیحات کتاب که گفته برای خواننده معمولی هم میتونه جذاب باشه به نظرم اینطوری نیست و مقالات خیلی پیچیده و سنگینه، مطالعه این کتاب احتیاج به تمرکز و انرژی زیادی داره و باید خیلی آروم جلو رفت. میشه گفت این همون روان‌درمانی اگزیستانسیال اروین یالومه ولی به زبان تخصصی و عمیق تر

[Aaron Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Existence—ex-sistere: to stand out, to emerge.

“To grasp what it means to exist, one needs to grasp the fact that he may not exist. … Perhaps the most ubiquitous and ever-present form of the failure to confront non-being in our day is in conformism, the tendency of the individual to let himself be absorbed in the sea of collective responses and attitudes, to become swallowed up in das Man, with the corresponding loss of his own awareness, potentialities, and whatever characterizes him as a unique and original being. The individual temporarily escapes the anxiety of non-being by this means, but at the price of forfeiting his own powers and sense of existence.”

[Yaseroesky · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتابی فوق العاده آموزنده و روشنگر
اصلا نمیدونم از چیش بگم
واقعن دم تموم نویسنده های مقاله های این کتاب گرم
ترجمه خانم حبیبی هم فوق العاده بود
اینم بگم
کتاب دارای اصطلاحات تخصصی و سنگینینه
برای من که با آمادگی سراغش رفته بودم هم سنگین بود و به کندی پیش میرفت
به نظر باید هر فصل حداقل دومرتبه خونده شه
ارتباط فلسفه روانشناسی روانپزشکی و .... رو به بهترین شکل نشون میده و مطالب مفیدی رو آموزش میده
اگه ۵میدم به دلیل این حجم اطلاعات مفید و درک کردن تلاش هاییه که در این راه انجام شده...

[Elvalo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was totally great.

[David Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indispensable for all who want/need to understand the origins of existential psychology (EP). This book introduced EP to an American readership. Rollo May, who went on to a brilliant career in American psychotherapy, teaching, and writing provides an clear, deep overview of the founding principles of EP and of its early history. The justly famous (or, depending on one's viewpoint, infamous) case of "Ellen West" is included in this volume, as presented by Ellen's final psychiatrist, Ludwig Binswanger. This case, particularly when companioned by May's introduction, is well worth the time of anyone concerned with end-of-life options and ethics. To be clear, I actually read this book over a number of years: I could only take in so much before needing a rest-and-reflection holiday. And I've returned on more than several occasions to a few chapters of the book. Back with it again, now, for a new creative undertaking.

[Kevin Tole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I look to my notebook..... and see that I have managed to write over 60 pages of notes whilst reading this enthralling and quite gripping exposition of Existential thought in regard to psychoanalysis. To say it made me think would be an understatement.