The Psychology Book

IN CONTEXT

APPROACH

Existential psychotherapy

BEFORE

1841 Søren Kierkegaard claims that people misinterpret Christian ideology and misuse science to falsely defend against the anxiety inherent in existence.

1942 Swiss physician Ludwig Binswanger combines existential philosophy with psychotherapy in his Basic Forms and the Realization of Human “Being-in-the-World.”

1942 Carl Rogers, a pioneer of humanistic psychology, publishes Counseling and Psychotherapy.

AFTER

1980 Irvin Yalom discusses in Existential Psychotherapy the four ultimate concerns of life: death, freedom, existential isolation, and meaninglessness.

In the mid-19th century, philosophers such ...