Existential approach to working with terminally ill patients. Existential therapy

You can find or even come up with many definitions of what existential psychotherapy is. The most correct, but completely incomprehensible, would be this:

“ways of practical application of existential philosophy and humanitarian psychology.”

We strive for understanding, so let’s try to understand the essence of the problem. How are neuroses and mental disorders, in particular depression, perceived? intrusive thoughts, phobias or anxiety states by the patients themselves, their loved ones and many psychotherapists? As negative phenomena, if not diseases, then some disease-like complexes of suffering and their consequences. From here an unambiguous conclusion is made that it is necessary to rid a person of them and, in the most optimal time, transfer him to the category of healthy and optimistic fellow citizens.

Existential psychotherapy is a collective concept to denote psychotherapeutic approaches that emphasize the free development of personality

Sometimes it seems that the plot of a film "Analyze this" not so much fiction. Certain psychotherapists will actually help the mafia patient and will even provide a certain moral basis for this. It is quite possible that all people have the right to medical care, including psychotherapeutic care. However, most often it is expressed in attempts to meet the client’s expectations, even if during the manic phase he smoked too much.

So, unfortunately, most psychologists-doctors correct mental disorders within the framework of the formula “the patient feels bad - treatment - healing, obvious or imaginary.” Sometimes patients are indulged in their weaknesses for a reason... It’s very profitable. Until the patient understands that the true cause of his discomfort is his own imperfection, until this understanding turns into a series of practical actions, including reflection on his life, then relief is possible only for a very short period of time. And then the patient, and therefore also the client, will come for a new paid session.

In this regard, the methods of existential psychotherapy constitute a certain exception. They stem from a fairly extensive philosophical base and multifaceted theoretical foundations of humanitarian psychology. All psychological problems are considered as a consequence of the human nature and the complexity of those problems that cannot be solved only in the mind, the solution of which turns into characteristics personality and behavioral factors. The point is not that the existential orientation of therapy implies the presence of unmercenary therapists. Existential psychotherapy turns many things upside down, which is why it is inaccessible to many. We are talking about both the specialists themselves and their patients. Not everyone can do this...

How do representatives of this school view anxiety and depression, social alienation, phobias and other negative phenomena? There are no clear rules, because an existential psychotherapist is not a medical specialization, but an ideological tendency. It is based on the fact that life is complicated, and the main difficulties are expressed in the periodically overwhelming understanding that the individual does not know why, for what and why he lives. Everyone has free will, but it in itself does not become a “medicine”, but in its original form is the source of problems for many. Not only can we choose, but life itself will sooner or later rub our nose into the fact that we will have to choose. And no one, not even Providence itself, seems to care whether we are ready to make this choice. At a certain moment, every person realizes that he is indifferent to all the people around him, but he has no other world, he has to live in this.

Every person subconsciously strives for freedom and isolation from the outside world

He revealed in sufficient detail his view of what issues this direction solves and what he sees as the source of their occurrence. American psychotherapist Irvin Yalom. Existential psychotherapy, from his point of view, should proceed from the fact that different stages life and in different ways, everyone faces four main problems:

• death;
• insulation;
• Liberty;
• a feeling of meaninglessness of everything around and inner emptiness.

Different conditions for personality formation and individual characteristics allow each person to turn the need to solve these problems and the solutions themselves into something of their own. Some become heroes, while others become patients or even prisoners, because out of despair and ignorance they commit real crimes.

The four problems mentioned are not at all considered as symptoms of any disorders. The ability to understand one’s own mortality and the mortality of one’s loved ones, and of all people in general, is inherent in every person. In the same way, everyone is burdened from time to time with freedom, which brings responsibility and is the other side of slavery.

Philosophical foundations

The existential approach in psychotherapy is maximally connected with philosophy. It would be very difficult to indicate another direction that would create such a clear opportunity for the practical application of philosophical research. As philosophical system existentialism arose in the first half of the 20th century. The term was first used by Karl Jaspers, who considered the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard to be the founder of the movement. The philosophical thought of Lev Shestov and Otto Bolnov developed in the same area.

The French writer Jean-Paul Sartre divided existentialism into religious and atheistic. Among the representatives of the latter he included, besides himself, Albert Camus, Simon de Beauvoir and Martin Heidegger. The religious direction is represented more by the ideology of Karl Jaspers and Gabriel Marcel. Although in fact the list of thinkers and the number of varieties of existentialism are much larger. The phenomenology of Husserl and the doctrines set forth in the books of the American philosopher, anthropologist and writer Carlos Castaneda can be attributed to the same trend.

Irwin Yalom - American psychiatrist and psychotherapist who studied existential psychotherapy

In any case, being in existentialism is viewed from an irrational point of view. The basic unit of knowledge is existence, which represents an aspect of existence and is different from essence. Existence as existence coincides with reality. Husserl derived from this a special concept "obviousness". The existence of a person means, first of all, his unique and directly experienced existence.

To know oneself, a person must come face to face with the opposite of his existence. Life is experienced on the verge of death. Therefore any psychological disorder can be considered as a kind of “observation tower”. The true way of cognition cannot be associated with logic, but is intuitive. Marcel called it "existential experience" Heidegger used the term "understanding", and Jaspers spoke about "existential insight". Still the first representatives of the new philosophical direction understood that existentialism could not fit within the formal framework of philosophy, literature, theater or psychology. Moreover, it is impossible to talk about the fact that within the direction itself there may be some kind of dogma limiting researchers.

There are no common methods for all

If someone is interested in existential psychotherapy, then he will still find the basic concepts, but not the recommended, specified and well-tested technique for applying the school’s own methods. Even the conceptual foundations themselves became what they are at the moment only because of their inner truth.

For example, depression is the result of a loss of life values. What to do? Be very happy that the old ones are lost, because anyone can cling to old things, but finding new values ​​is a task for a real hero. Trying to replace this inner search with antidepressants and nonsense like hobbies, even a healthy lifestyle, will lead nowhere. If someone doesn't like it, then they can understand it. How I want to take a couple of pills, do exercises and be cheerful and fresh in the morning. Only if this were possible, there would be no philosophy, literature, painting, psychology and everything that is connected with the life problems of people.

Depression is often the result of a loss of life values ​​and the meaning of life itself.

Please note that the definition of depression is not given on the basis of any special research namely existentialists. It is like this simply for the reason that it is like this. This is, as Husserl would say, obvious.

In his work “Existential Psychotherapy,” Yalom makes extensive reference to other schools and a variety of scientific studies. Direct instructions to psychotherapists are that at some stage they must “merge” with their patient. At the same time, the psychologist not only brings something into the life of his interlocutor, but also enriches himself from him.

Transformation of psychological problems

One should not think that Irvin Yalom’s book “Existential Psychotherapy,” which is recommended for psychologists and all other people to read, contains any clear rules or standardized methods. You can understand the essence of the presentation by consistently turning over the idea of ​​pressing mental problems.

Fear

It should not be confused with fear. Fear comes without a reason and covers the entire being. It is difficult and even impossible to fight it, because it is not clear what caused it. In this case, it is a very effective reminder that days of life are wasted. There is something to be afraid of - your own inability to manage your life. This means our task is to find a goal for which it is worth going through our own fear. We are free to choose the goal of further movement.

Devastation

It comes because we blindly believe that life can have meaning in itself. We have only one task ahead of us: find a way to express creativity. We create, then we don’t feel empty. We think that it is too complicated and incomprehensible, then we experience frustration and apathy. It’s no one’s fault that a person who doesn’t want to engage in creativity complains of inner emptiness, because it’s no one’s fault that he was born a human and not a cat. If you happen to be human, then you also need to be a creative person.

Depression

It’s very good that antidepressants don’t help. Otherwise we would really turn into cats. The loss of values ​​can be made up, all this will pass if you follow your intuition and do not consider the world as rationally as people have been taught over the past 2-3 centuries.

You need to follow your intuition and sometimes not view the world so rationally

In this way, every myth about mental disorders and even diseases. Existential psychotherapy does not have general schemes only for the reason that they are useless. In each case, you need to work the way you need to do it in this particular case. Even if the patient suddenly finds himself in the meditations of Zen Buddhism, and the psychotherapist himself has never meditated, they will still understand each other if they are both people who are looking for and striving not to cure some disease, but to reveal their creative potential.

This is not given to everyone, therefore the method is not suitable for everyone either. However, we hope that this approach will help someone, becoming an impetus for starting self-improvement.

(unique and inimitable human life) in philosophical and cultural usage. He also drew attention to the turning points in human life, which open up the opportunity to live further in a completely different way than has been lived until now.

Currently whole line very different psychotherapeutic approaches are designated by the same term existential therapy (existential analysis). Among the main ones we can mention:

• Existential analysis of Ludwig Binswanger.
• Dasein analysis by Medard Boss.
• Existential analysis (logotherapy) by Viktor Frankl.
• Existential analysis of Alfried Langle.

Most of them pay attention to the same basic elements of existence: love, death, loneliness, freedom, responsibility, faith, etc. For existentialists, the use of any typologies is fundamentally unacceptable, universal interpretations: it is possible to comprehend anything in relation to each specific person only in the context of his specific life.

Existential therapy helps to cope with many seemingly dead-end life situations:

• depression;
• fears;
• loneliness;
• addictions, workaholism;
• obsessive thoughts and actions;
• emptiness and suicidal behavior;
• grief, the experience of loss and the finitude of existence;
• crises and failures;
• indecision and loss of life guidelines;
• loss of feeling of fullness of life, etc...

Therapeutic factors in existential approaches are: the client’s understanding of the unique essence of his life situation, the choice of attitude towards his present, past and future, the development of the ability to act, accepting responsibility for the consequences of his actions. The existential therapist makes sure that his patient is as open as possible to the opportunities that arise during his life, is able to make choices and actualize them. The goal of therapy is the most fulfilling, rich, meaningful existence.

A person can be whoever he decides to be. His existence is always given as an opportunity to go beyond himself in the form of a decisive throw forward, through his dreams, through his aspirations, through his desires and goals, through his decisions and actions. A throw that always involves risk and uncertainty. Existence is always immediate and unique, as opposed to the universal world of empty, frozen abstractions.

see also

Links

• Journal "Existential Tradition: Philosophy, Psychology"

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See what “Existential therapy” is in other dictionaries:

Existential therapy- (existential therapy) therapy that encourages people to take responsibility for their lives and fill it with greater meaning and values... General psychology: glossary

EXISTENTIAL THERAPY- A form of psychotherapy based on the philosophical doctrine of existentialism. In practice, the existentialist approach is extremely subjective and focuses on the immediate situation (see being in the world and Dasein). She is different from most... ...

- (English existential therapy) grew out of the ideas of existential philosophy and psychology, which are focused not on the study of manifestations of the human psyche, but on his very life in inextricable connection with the world and other people (here being, being in the world ... Wikipedia

Existential therapy- - a variant of psychotherapy that is not aimed at eliminating any specific symptoms of the disorder, but has as its primary goal the prevention of their occurrence through awareness of one’s “way of being in the world.” The main one in such therapy... ... encyclopedic Dictionary in psychology and pedagogy

- (German Gestalttherapie) direction of psychotherapy, the main ideas and methods of which were developed by F. Perls, Laura Perls, Paul Goodman. Isedor From, Irven and Maryama Polster also made a great contribution to the development of the methodology and theory of Gestalt therapy,... ... Wikipedia

Schema therapy is a psychotherapy developed by Dr. Jeffrey E. Young for the treatment of personality disorders. This therapy is intended to work with patients who are unable... ... Wikipedia

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT); formerly rational therapy and rational emotional (emotive) therapy) actively directive, educational, structured ... Wikipedia

foreign psychotherapeutic techniques- DEPTH TECHNIQUES Active psychotherapy (Fromm Reichmann). Analysis of Being (Binswanger). Analysis of fate (Sondi). Character analysis (W. Reich). Self Analysis (H. Kohut, E. Erikson). Analytical play therapy (M. Klein). Analytical Family Therapy (Richter).... ... Great psychological encyclopedia

DASEINATYSE- A German term meaning what is now known as existential analysis or existential psychology. See existentialism and existential therapy... Dictionary in psychology

BEING-IN-WORLD- This term is the generally accepted translation of the term Hai degera Dasein. This clumsy, dashed phrase is used primarily within the framework of existentialism, where it represents the central idea of ​​that philosophy, that the integrity of man... ... Explanatory dictionary of psychology

Books

• In search of the present: existential therapy and existential analysis, Letunovsky, Vyacheslav Vladimirovich. What is existential therapy? What are her methods? How does it differ from other areas of psychotherapy? How does existential analysis differ from psychoanalysis? And why is the popularity...
• In search of the real thing. Existential therapy and existential analysis, V. V. Letunovsky. What is existential therapy? What are her methods? How does it differ from other areas of psychotherapy? How does existential analysis differ from psychoanalysis? And why is the popularity...

Existential psychotherapy is a direction of psychotherapy that consists of helping people understand the concepts of death, responsibility, isolation using certain techniques. There are a large number of techniques that are selected by the psychotherapist individually, depending on the problem and characteristics of the person. Psychologists who have a basic higher education and have completed training are allowed to work within the framework of existential therapy. professional retraining in this direction.

Existential psychotherapy: description of the direction

Existential psychotherapy (“existentia” - emergence, appearance, existence) - psychotherapeutic approaches that place emphasis on the free development of personality, awareness of a person’s responsibility for the formation inner world and choice of life path. The founder of this method is the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. He believed that the solution to any problem is a difficulty created artificially, which should outweigh the real troubles in importance. Existential psychotherapy arose in Europe in the second half of the 20th century due to the dissatisfaction of psychologists with deterministic views of man and the development of existential philosophy.

The foundation of existential psychotherapy consists of 4 basic concepts that underlie human thinking aimed at realizing a negative attitude towards the environment:

• death;
• Liberty;
• insulation;
• meaninglessness.

Existential psychotherapy is based on the belief that internal conflict a person is formed on the basis of his own attitude to the problem that has arisen, i.e., what for one person can be a huge misfortune, is perceived by others as a minor difficulty and passes him by unnoticed. The main feature of this psychotherapeutic method is its focus on the life of the individual, and not on the personality, therefore many psychotherapists of this direction avoid using this term. The main goal of existential psychotherapy is to help you understand your life, to better understand your capabilities and their limits. There is no provision for restructuring the patient's personality. That is why this direction is associated with philosophy.

The following philosophers influenced its development:

• M. Heidegger;
• M. Buber;
• K. Jaspers;
• P. Tillich;
• J.-P. Sartre;
• V. Rozanov;
• S. Frank;
• N. Berdyaev

Features of this direction

With the development of existential psychotherapy D. Bugental put forward the main postulates of this direction (1963):

1. 1. Man as an integral being is greater than the sum of his parts, that is, man cannot be explained as a result of the scientific study of his partial functions.
2. 2. Human existence unfolds in the context of human relationships, that is, it cannot be explained by its partial functions, which do not take into account interpersonal experience.
3. 3. Man is self-aware.
4. 4. Man has a choice.
5. 5. A person is intentional, that is, he is oriented towards the future.

Another feature of existential therapy is the desire to understand a person through his inner universal characteristics.There are 7 such factors:

• freedom, its limitations and responsibility for it;
• human limb or death;
• existential anxiety;
• existential guilt;
• life in time;
• meaning and meaninglessness.

Representatives

One of the representatives of this psychotherapeutic trend is Viktor Frankl (1905-1997). His teaching is called “logotherapy” - a version of existential analysis, which means a person’s desire for meaning. There is a specific and non-specific scope of application of this method. The first includes neuroses, and the second includes various other diseases.

According to V. Frankl, a person strives for meaning in any situation. There are three basic concepts in this approach:

• free will (people retain basic freedom to make decisions);
• the will to meaning (a person not only has freedom, but he is free in order to achieve certain goals);
• the meaning of life (meaning is objective reality).

Frankl’s teaching highlights such a concept as values, which are the result of generalization typical situations in the history of society. He identifies three groups of values: creativity, experiences and relationships. The values ​​of creativity are realized through work. The values ​​of experience include love.

The main problem of logotherapy is the problem of responsibility. Having found meaning, a person is responsible for its implementation. The individual is required to make a decision: whether to implement this meaning in a given situation or not.

American psychologist R. May formulated the reasons for the development and characteristics this direction. This scientist denied that existential psychotherapy is an independent branch of psychotherapy. J. Bugental sought to combine the principles of humanistic and existential psychotherapy and identified the main provisions of this direction:

1. 1. Behind any human problems lie deeper unconscious existential problems of freedom of choice and responsibility.
2. 2. This approach is to recognize the humanity in each individual and respect his uniqueness.
3. 3. The leading role is given to working with what is relevant at the present time.

Work in the existential direction

Anyone can seek existential therapy. It is important that the patient is actively involved in the process of exploring his life and is open and honest. This direction helps those who find themselves in crisis circumstances, when they do not see the meaning of existence and complain of apathy and depression. This type of psychotherapy is indicated for people who have experienced changes in their lifestyle or loss of loved ones. It helps those who suffer from acute or chronic somatic diseases, mental pathologies, improving understanding and acceptance of changes due to illness.

A psychotherapist, working in this direction, studies behavior, speech, dreams and biography. Existential psychotherapy is carried out individually and in a group of 9-12 participants.

In most cases, work is carried out in a group, as it has a number of advantages over the individual form. Patients and therapists can gain more information about a person by interpersonal communication, see inappropriate actions and correct them. In existential psychotherapy it is important group dynamics, which aims to identify how each group member's behavior is viewed by others, makes them feel, creates an opinion about the person, and influences their self-image. Training in this area is carried out on the basis of basic psychological education.

Specialists do not impose their own thoughts on patients. The work of psychotherapist such as Irvin Yalom mentions the importance of implicit “infusions”. It's about about those moments in a session when the consultant shows not only professional, but also human involvement in the patient’s problems. This turns the psychotherapeutic session into a friendly meeting.

To establish and maintain good relations with the client, the specialist needs full involvement in problematic situation, wisdom and concern, the ability to be involved as much as possible in the psychotherapeutic process. There is a question about the self-disclosure of the psychotherapist. A specialist can do this in two ways.

First, tell your interlocutors about your own attempts to come to terms with problems and preserve the best human qualities. Irvin Yalom says he made a mistake by rarely engaging in self-disclosure. As the author notes in his work “The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy” (2000), every time he shared his experience with patients, the latter benefited for themselves.

Secondly, it is not necessary to focus on the content of the session. Therapists can simply use this time to apply thoughts and feelings that relate to what is currently happening to improve the therapist-patient relationship. Key points are will, acceptance of responsibility, attitude towards the therapist and involvement in life.

Methods and techniques

There are a large number of techniques for applying the concepts of this area. Their selection is made by a specialist based on their effectiveness, the client’s problem and individual characteristics. If some problems are not resolved by the psychotherapist himself, then he is incompetent in solving them and it is necessary to refer the patient to another.

There are techniques for working with existential anxieties: death, responsibility and freedom, isolation and meaninglessness. Sometimes other techniques are recommended. Their use can increase the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

Death

The technique of “giving permission to endure” is to make patients understand that discussing issues related to death is highly valued in counseling. This can be done by showing interest in self-disclosure in this area and by encouraging it.

The therapist does not need to encourage clients to deny death. It is necessary that these issues remain “in sight”.

The technique of working with defense mechanisms is that the psychotherapist tries to help patients recognize that they will not live forever. Such psychologists need to have persistence and the ability to choose the right time to help clients deal with and transform their childish and naive views on death.

Dream work is carried out by patients telling stories about their dreams. In dreams (especially in nightmares) they may unconsciously manifest themselves in an unsuppressed form. different topics, they often contain the motive of death. In this way, dreams are analyzed and discussed.

Technique of use aids consists of asking the patient to write his own obituary or fill out a questionnaire with questions on the topic of death. The consultant may suggest that they fantasize about their death, imagining where, how and when they will meet it and how their funeral will take place. Close to the previous one is the technique of reducing sensitivity (sensitivity) to death, according to which the psychotherapist helps to cope with the horror of death, repeatedly forcing one to experience this fear.

Responsibility and freedom

The technique for identifying types of defense and ways to evade responsibility is that the psychotherapist helps the client understand the functions of his behavior in the form of evading responsibility for choice. Sometimes the consultant, together with the patient, analyzes the responsibility for his own misfortunes and brings him face to face with it. This method involves when a person complains about a negative situation that has happened in his life, the therapist asks how he created it, and also focuses on the ways in which the interlocutor uses the language of avoiding responsibility (i.e., often says “I can’t” instead of “I don’t want to”).

The next technique focuses on the relationship between therapist and patient (identifying avoidance of responsibility). It consists in the fact that specialists bring clients face to face with their attempts to transfer responsibility for what happens within and outside of psychotherapy to the consultant. That is, many patients who seek help from a psychologist expect the therapist to do everything necessary work for them, sometimes treat him as a friend. By influencing the consultant's feelings in this way, the client shifts responsibility to the consultant.

The technique of facing the limitations of reality is that the therapist helps to identify areas of life that the patient can influence, despite difficulties. The specialist changes the setting to those restrictions that cannot be changed. It enables the interlocutor to accept the existing injustice.

Isolation and meaninglessness

Using the technique of working with isolation, a psychologist helps to understand that every person is born, develops and dies alone. Awareness of this concept affects changes in the quality of life and relationships in society. The psychotherapist invites the interlocutor to isolate himself from the outside world for a while and stay in isolation. As a result, clients become aware of loneliness and their hidden capabilities.

The problem redefinition technique is used when patients complain that life has no meaning. What they really mean is that life has meaning, but they can't find it. The therapist’s task in this case is to explain: there is no objective meaning in life, but man is responsible for creating it. The technique for identifying types of defense against anxiety and meaninglessness is that a specialist helps you become more aware of them. It is precisely these concepts that are often associated with the fact that patients do not take their lives seriously and create problems that have to be avoided.

Existential psychotherapy

existentialism neurosis phobia dereflection

One of the common (especially among the creative intelligentsia) types of humanistic psychotherapy is existential psychotherapy. As the name suggests, this therapy arose on the basis of the ideas of a much more well-known corresponding philosophical movement - existentialism.

Existentialism arose from the creative combination of ideas from many prominent figures science and culture (Kierkegaard, Husserl, Sartre, Camus, Jaspers, Heidegger, etc.). The name of this movement arose from the term existence (that is, essence, existence), constantly used in the works of Kierkegaard, which served as the first impetus for the formation of existentialism as an independent philosophical movement. Another source of development of existentialism is considered to be Husserl’s phenomenology. Because central place in the philosophy of existentialism is the study of man as a subject and his subjective experiences of his existence, this could not but attract the attention of psychologists to this teaching, who later themselves made a significant psychological contribution to existential philosophy, and also applied and developed the ideas of existentialism in psychology and psychotherapy.

In the design of existential psychology as an independent psychological direction First of all, it is worth noting the role of such psychologists and philosophers as W. Dilthey, E. Fromm, W. Frankl, F. Perls and others. Thus, F. Perls always believed that the direction of Gestalt therapy he developed is one of the types (directions) existential psychotherapy. Currently, existential psychotherapy has many subtypes, schools and modifications that cannot be considered in one work. Therefore, we will limit ourselves to acquaintance with the theoretical and practical approaches one of the most typical representatives and founders of existential psychotherapy - Viktor Frankl. According to V. Frankl, the main desire of a person is to find or understand the meaning of his existence. If this cannot be done, then the person feels frustration, or an existential vacuum (emptiness, meaninglessness of existence). V. Frankl believes that it is not a person who poses the question about the meaning of life, but life poses this question to a person, and he has to constantly answer it not with words, but with deeds. Proponents of existential therapy argue that finding the meaning of existence is available to every normal person, regardless of gender, age, intelligence, character, environment, religious and ideological beliefs. At the same time, existentialists emphasize that this cannot be taught, since the meaning of existence is always individual, and each person must find or understand it himself and not shy away from the responsibility for understanding his life to himself and to others in any way. life circumstances. What allows a person to independently find his own meaning in life? Existentialists believe that such a guide is conscience, which V. Frankl calls the organ of meaning, and the ability to independently find this meaning is human self-transcendence. According to existentialists, a person can find the meaning of his existence only by going beyond his personal Self, switching attention from the internal experiences of his own person to reality, to active cooperation, to practical help to others. The more a person comes out of the passive experience of his problems (into active useful activities, helping others), the more complete and psychologically healthy he becomes.

There are many historical examples where people with high life goals, faith, ideological conviction, etc., were much easier to bear extremely difficult conditions and deprivation. These are Archpriest Avvakum, Ernst Thälmann, and numerous prisoners of fascist and Stalinist concentration camps. This is V. Frankl himself, who courageously survived Auschwitz and Dachau. He believed that in these conditions, unbearable for many people, those who concentrated their thoughts and feelings not on longing for the past and not on today’s personal experiences, but on the future, on the practical implementation of the meaning of their existence for the sake of higher goals, deeds and to help others. It is the existential vacuum (the feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness of life) that does not allow an individual to withstand life’s cataclysms with dignity.

Even in objectively comfortable living conditions, people who have not found the meaning of their existence outside of self-examination and hypertrophied perception of intrapersonal problems begin to suffer from worsening neuroses and become more susceptible to alcohol and drug addictions. V. Frankl claims that 90% of alcoholics and 100% of drug addicts became such because they did not find or lost the meaning of life. These dependencies arise from the need to fill this vacuum with the illusion of satisfaction and self-sufficiency. That is, having not received real satisfaction, a person replaces it with an illusory one, due to chemical exposure on your nervous system. But the problems remain unresolved, and the continuation of the illusion of satisfaction requires continued exposure to alcohol or drugs. A vicious vicious circle is formed. But even if a person who has not found the meaning of life outside of himself does not become a drug addict, then he goes into neuroses of inactive intrapersonal experiences and in search of some temporary pleasures that relieve him of the oppressive feeling of the meaninglessness of his existence. At the same time, a paradoxical process occurs - reflection - concentrating attention on one’s own person in search of happiness (or at least avoiding unhappiness) leads away from the possibility of finding this happiness further and further. Based on this hypothesis, Frankl developed an original type of psychotherapy, which he called in a broad sense logotherapy, and its specific methods dereflection (that is, opposition to reflection as useless soul-searching), paradoxical intention (paradoxical intention), etc.

So, let's consider the two above-mentioned and, perhaps, main methods of logotherapy: paradoxical intention and dereflection in overcoming obsessive-compulsive neuroses and phobias (obsessive, exaggerated fears). It is believed that classic characteristics the mechanisms of formation of phobias and obsessive-compulsive neuroses were given by Freud. Frankl's approach does not contradict them, but quite clearly complements them. Frankl describes the mechanism of formation of phobias according to the following scheme: fear generates fear. That is this individual Having experienced some kind of fear, one begins to fear that this fear may repeat itself. He is no longer afraid of the root cause of fear, but of the fear itself caused by this cause. He is afraid to experience this state again, he thinks about it so often that this very fear (an abnormality, the painfulness of which he is not aware of) becomes the cause of his constant worries. In severe cases, such a person may generally refuse to leave the house, enter enclosed spaces, or look from above. Less dangerous and easier to overcome fears of public speaking, upcoming exams, competitions, and others are more common. However, even here there are barriers that are difficult to overcome. Thus, there are a large number of athletes who, for many years in competitions, cannot even come close to the results that they have long and easily shown in training. At some stage, such people come to terms with the fact that under certain conditions they will definitely have fear and anxiety that will prevent them from acting as they should, and they must fail. To avoid this, they refuse competitions, exams, searches better work, life partner and in general - better life. In a broad sense (illustrating the main idea of ​​Frank), we can say that a person very often becomes unhappy, sick, lonely, unemployed, poor precisely from the fear of becoming unhappy, sick, lonely, etc. That is, without yet becoming what whoever he is afraid to become, he already lives with his emotions, fears and suffering, enters into his image and ultimately becomes so. (In the “counter-step” of this process, imagotherapy (from image - image) is built, when an individual gets used to the image of his best self - the kind of person (healthy, happy, self-confident, etc.) that he would like to see himself.) However, a paradoxical reaction occurs here - the more an individual suppresses an obsessive state in himself and tries to reject it, the more pressure it puts on him. Frankl proposes to use this paradoxical mechanism in opposite direction. That is, the individual must try to convince himself that he really wants to experience as vividly as possible that feeling that he previously tried at all costs to suppress, forget, destroy. Another, no less popular method of Frank's logotherapy is dereflection, that is, overcoming reflection - painful soul-searching, obsessive-compulsive neuroses. This method is often used in the treatment of neuroses associated with various sexual disorders and problems or with the fear of such disorders and problems. As a rule, these are problems of potency and orgasm (or fears of impotence, frigidity, etc.). Frankl argues that most obsessive-compulsive neuroses in sexual disorders are associated with the client's desire for sexual pleasure and the fear that he will not be able to get it. That is, Frankl’s main idea is again illustrated - it is in the pursuit of happiness (pleasure) that a person loses it. The individual goes into reflection, and instead of completely surrendering to sexual contact, he constantly observes himself from the outside, analyzes his feelings with the fear that nothing will work out for him. From here Frankl concludes that getting rid of such neurosis lies through overcoming reflection (dereflection), complete self-forgetfulness and dedication.

It must be said that the attribution various types psychotherapy to the humanistic direction is interpreted ambiguously by different authors. Some of them quite rightly include both Gestalt therapy and transactional analysis here. Let's not argue. The main thing is the very essence of humanistic psychology and psychotherapy, which puts the holistic, unique personality of each individual in the center of attention.

The concept of responsibility includes the idea of ​​duty, obligation. Human duty, however, can only be understood in the context of the category of “meaning” of the specific thought of human life. The question of meaning is of paramount interest to the doctor when he is faced with a mental patient who is tormented by mental conflicts. However, it is not the doctor who raises this question; it is the patient himself who puts it before him. Whether explicit or implicit, this question is inherent in human nature itself. Doubts about the meaning of life, therefore, can never be considered as manifestations of mental pathology, which doubts are significantly to a greater extent reflect truly human experiences, they are a sign of the most humane in a person. Thus, it is quite possible to imagine highly organized animals, even among insects - say, bees or ants - that in many ways surpassed humans in organizing their communities. But it is impossible to imagine that such creatures would think about the meaning of their own eternal existence, thus doubting it. Only man is given the ability to discover the problematic nature of his existence and feel all the ambiguity of existence. This ability to doubt the significance of one’s own existence distinguishes man from animals much more than such achievements as walking upright, speaking or conceptual thinking. The problem of the meaning of life in its extreme version can literally take over a person. It becomes especially urgent, for example, in adolescence, when growing young people in their spiritual quests suddenly discover i) the ambiguity of human existence. Somehow a teacher natural sciences in high school I explained to a high school student that the life of any organism, including a person, is ultimately nothing more than a process of oxidation and combustion. Suddenly one of his students jumped up and asked the teacher a question full of excitement. If this is so, then what is the point? This young man has already clearly realized the truth that a person exists on a different plane of existence than, say, a candle that stands on the table and burns until it goes out completely. The existence of a candle can be explained as a process of combustion. A fundamentally different form of existence is inherent in a person. Humanity existence takes shape historical existence, which - unlike the life of animals - always includes historical space ("structured" space, according to L. Biiswanger) and is inseparable from the system of laws and relations that underlie this space. And this system of relationships is always governed by meaning, although it may not be explicitly expressed, and perhaps not at all amenable to expression! The life activity of an anthill can be considered purposeful, but in no way meaningful. And where there is no meaning, historical process impossible. The ant "community" has no history. Erwin Strauss, in his book Chance and Event, showed that the reality of human life (what he calls becoming reality) cannot be understood in isolation from the historical time context. This is especially true in the case of neurosis, when a person himself distorts this reality. One way of such distortion is to try to escape from the original human form of being. Strauss calls such an attempt “the existence of the present moment,” meaning a complete renunciation of any direction in life, other than by you - behavior that is not controlled by reliance on the past, nor by aspiration to the future, but is associated only with the “pure” outside. historical present. Thus, many neurotic patients say that they would prefer to live “away from the struggle for existence,” somewhere on a secluded sunny island, idleness and idleness. This can only be suitable for animals, but not for humans. Only to such a patient in deep oblivion can it seem acceptable and ultimately worthy of a Man live, like Dionysus, away from everything that happens. A "normal" person (in the sense of "average" and in the sense of "appropriate" ethical standards") can only sometimes allow himself to disconnect from everything except the moment he is experiencing, and then only to a certain extent. The time and situation for this is a matter of conscious choice. You can, for example, “take a vacation” from your daily obligations and consciously seek oblivion in alcohol During such arbitrarily and artificially caused attacks of uncontrollability, a person from time to time consciously throws off the burden of his actual responsibility. But in essence and ultimately, a person, at least a person of Western civilization, is constantly subject to the dictates of values, which he must creatively implement. This does not mean that he cannot direct his creative potential to lose himself in intoxication and drown his own sense of responsibility. None of us is guaranteed against this danger, which Scheler characterized as such a passion for the means of realizing values. forgotten final goal- these values ​​themselves. You should also add here huge variety Those who, having worked hard throughout the week, find themselves overwhelmed on Sunday by a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness in their own lives - a day free from work makes them aware of this feeling. Such people, victims of "weekend neurosis", get drunk in order to escape the horror inner emptiness. Although questions about the meaning of life are most frequent and especially pressing in youth, they can also arise at a more mature age - for example, as a result of deep mental shock. And just as a teenager’s preoccupation with this issue is in no way a painful symptom, the mental suffering and crises of an adult, already established person, struggling in search of the content of his own life, have nothing to do with pathology. Logotherapy and existential analysis try to deal mainly with those mental disorders that are not classified as illnesses in the clinical sense, since the main purpose of our “psychotherapy in the spiritual sense” is to cope with the suffering that is caused by philosophical problems posed to a person by life. However, even in the presence of clinical symptoms of certain disorders, logotherapy can help the patient, since it can give him that strong mental support that a normal person does not need, but which is extremely necessary for a mentally unprotected person to compensate for this insecurity. In no case; A person's spiritual problems cannot be described as "symptoms." In any case, they are a “dignity” expressing the level of meaningfulness achieved by the patient, or the level of it that he should achieve with our help. This especially applies to those who have lost their mental balance not due to internal reasons (such as neurosis), but under the influence of purely external factors. Among such people, it is worth highlighting those who, say, have lost a loved one to whom they would devote their entire lives, and are now tormented by the question of whether their own meaning makes sense. future life. A person whose faith in the meaningfulness of his own existence is undermined by such a crisis evokes special pity. He loses that spiritual core, which can only be revived by an infinitely life-affirming worldview. Without such a core (which does not necessarily have to be clearly understood and definitely formulated in order to fulfill its function), a person is unable to gather his strength in difficult periods of life to withstand the blows of fate. How decisive is a life-affirming attitude and how organic is it? biological nature person, can be shown in the following example. Large scale statistical research longevity showed that all centenarians adhered to a calm and confident life-affirming position. A person's philosophical position cannot but manifest itself sooner or later. For example, melancholic people, although they try to hide their fundamental denial of life, never completely succeed. Their hidden melancholy can be easily detected with the right method of psychiatric research. If we suspect that the melancholic is only pretending that he is free from the urge to commit suicide, it is not at all difficult to verify this, for example, using the following procedure. We first ask the patient whether he is thinking about suicide and whether he still harbors desires to end his life that he has expressed in the past. He will always answer this question negatively - and this denial will be more persistent the more he pretends. Then we ask him a question, the answer to which allows us to judge whether he is really getting rid of his depression or is just trying to hide it. We ask (no matter how cruel this question may sound) why he does not think (or no longer thinks) about suicide. A melancholic person who does not actually have suicidal intentions or who has overcome them will answer without hesitation that he should think about his family or his work or something like that. However, anyone who tries to deceive the doctor will immediately become embarrassed. He will be confused, not finding arguments to support his “false” statement of life. As a rule, such a patient will try to change the topic of conversation and express his open demand to be released from the hospital. People are psychologically incapable of coming up with false arguments in favor of life in general and in favor of continuing their own life in particular, when thoughts of suicide take possession of them more and more. If such arguments really existed, they would always be ready, and in this case patients would no longer be driven by urges to commit suicide. If, finally, it is asserted that the eternal, highest ideals of humanity are often used unworthily - as means of achieving business or political goals, satisfying personal egoistic interests or one's own vanity - this can be answered in such a way that everything said only testifies to the enduring power of these ideals; and shows their universal effectiveness. For if someone, in order to achieve his goals, is forced to cover his behavior with morality, this proves that morality really is a force and, like nothing else, is capable of influencing those people who value it highly. Thus, every person has his own goal in life, which he is able to achieve. Accordingly, existential analysis is designed to help a person realize the responsibility for the realization of all his goals. The more he sees life as the fulfillment of the tasks assigned to him, the more full of meaning she seems to him. And if a person who is not aware of his responsibility simply accepts life as something given, existential analysis teaches people to perceive life as a “mission”. Here it is necessary to make the following addition: there are people who go even further, who experience life in another dimension. They live by the experiences of the one who sends us tasks - the Almighty, who gives them to people; "missions". We believe that this primarily distinguishes a religious person: for him, his own existence is not only a responsibility for fulfilling his tasks, but also a responsibility to the Almighty. The search for specific, personal tasks is especially difficult for people suffering from neuroses, since patients, as a rule, falsely define their tasks. For example, one woman suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder avoided studying as much as she could. scientific psychology, for which she clearly had a calling; At the same time, she carefully exaggerated her maternal responsibilities. Using her everyday psychological intuition, she developed a theory according to which the study of psychology for her turned out to be a “secondary activity,” an idle game of a painful consciousness. And only after, as a result of this woman's existential-analytic work, she decisively abandoned her erroneous self-analysis, only then was she able to “know herself by doing” and fulfill her “everyday obligations.” By taking this position, she found that she was able to take care of both the child and what turned out to be her calling. A neurotic patient usually strives to perform one life task to the detriment of all others. A typical neurotic is also distinguished by other types of erroneous behavior. For example, he may decide to live “step by step following the planned program,” as one patient suffering from obsessive neurosis said. In reality, we cannot live according to Baedeker, because in this case we would miss all the opportunities that arise only once, we would pass by situational values ​​instead of realizing them. From the point of view of existential analysis life task“in general” does not exist, the very question about the task “in general” or about the meaning of life “in general” is meaningless. It is similar to the question of a reporter who asked a grandmaster: “Now, maestro, tell me, what is the best move in chess?” None of these questions can be answered in general view, we must always take into account the specific situation and the specific person. If the grandmaster had taken the journalist's question seriously, he should have answered as follows: "The chess player must try, to the best of his ability and as far as his opponent allows, to make the best move in any this moment time." Here it is important to highlight two provisions. Firstly, "as far as it is in his power" - that is, it is necessary to take into account the internal capabilities of a person, what we call character. And secondly, the player can only "try" to do the best in given a specific situation of the game, the move - that is, the best move for a certain arrangement of pieces on the board. If a chess player began the game with the intention of making the best move - in the absolute sense of the word, he would be overcome by eternal doubts, he would be carried away by endless self-criticism and best case scenario would lose if he did not meet the allotted time. In a similar situation there is a person who is tormented by the question of the meaning of life. For him, such a question also makes sense only in relation to any specific situation and in relation to him personally.. It would be unlawful p. It is morally and psychologically abnormal to persist in the intention of performing an action that would correspond to the “highest” value - “instead of modestly trying to do the best one can do in the given situation. Striving for the best is simply necessary for a person, otherwise all his efforts will come to naught. But at the same time, he must be able to be content with only a gradual process of approaching the goal, never implying its complete achievement. Our remarks on the question of the meaning of life come down to a radical criticism of the question as such, if it is posed in a general form. Asking about the meaning of life in general is a false formulation of the question, since it vaguely appeals to general ideas about life, and not to everyone’s own, concrete, individual existence. Perhaps we should go back and reconstruct the original structure of the experience. In that; In this case, we will have to make something like the Copernican revolution and pose the question of the meaning of life from a fundamentally different perspective. Namely: life itself (and no one else!) asks questions to people. As already noted, it is not for a person to ask about this; moreover, it would be useful for him to realize that it is he (and no one else) who must answer to Life; that he is forced to be responsible to her and, finally, that he can answer to life only by being responsible for life. Perhaps now is the time to take revenge, because developmental psychology also convincingly shows that the process of “comprehension” of meaning characterizes a higher stage of development than the “appropriation” of a meaning already known, “presented” to a person: (Charlotte Bühler). Thus, the arguments that we tried to logically develop above are in full accordance with the direction psychological development: they come down to the paradoxical primacy of the answer in relation to the question. This is probably based on the fact that a person feels himself in the role of “responsible”. The guide that leads a person in his answers to the questions posed by life, in his acceptance of responsibility for his life, is his conscience. The quiet but persistent voice of conscience, with which it “speaks” to us, is an indisputable fact experienced by everyone. And what our conscience tells us becomes our answer every time. WITH psychological point From a religious point of view, a religious person is one who perceives not only what is said In a similar way, but also the speaker himself, that is, his hearing in this sense is sharper than the hearing of an unbeliever. In the dialogue of a believer with his own conscience - in this most intimate of all possible monologues - his God becomes his interlocutor.

IN post-war years In European psychotherapy, an existential approach was formed. Subsequently, in the 60s and 70s of the XX century. R. Laing's antipsychiatry also made a certain contribution to this direction. Basics existential approach developed under the influence of the philosophy of existentialism (M. Heidegger, J.-P. Sartre, etc.) and the French school of personalism (E. Mounier, G. Marcel, E. Levinas), and not so much individual provisions, but their ideology and general spirit .

Specifics of the existential approach

Most psychotherapeutic approaches aim to change the client’s life situation, certain aspects or outlook. own problems. In contrast, the existential approach does not set such a goal. Its essence lies in the complete acceptance of the client’s existence (existence), a comprehensive and benevolent understanding of it. Therefore, the existential psychotherapist does not seek any changes, except perhaps his own.

Existential (lat. Existentia - existence) psychotherapy - psychological help, based on mind, respect and active cognition the therapist of all the features and aspects of the individual being (existence) of the client’s personality, without the intention of finding out the pathological or ineffective characteristics of his life, behavior and activities.

A patient, even with serious disorders (intermediate pathology or psychosis), not to mention a neurotic level of disorder, is treated not as sick, affected or inferior, but as someone else who lives in his own special world. Accordingly, he deserves not treatment (therapy) or correction, but interest, understanding and respect. The therapist strives to penetrate the patient’s inner world, respects him and does not intend to correct anything there.

The founders of existential psychotherapy were not just psychotherapists, but psychiatrists (in the West, psychiatry and psychotherapy are still poorly differentiated from each other). This movement challenged traditional "punitive-corrective" psychiatry as well as the everyday view of mental disorder as something to be ashamed of and something to hide. R. Laing's antipsychiatry is also based on this principle.

For existential psychotherapy and psychiatry, treatment of a disease is inseparable from its understanding, and to understand the essence, phenomenon, idea or experience means to communicate with the object of understanding in language. The immediacy and inevitability of the existential situation are present in the analysis of each specific case. The patient with his characteristics and problems for the existential therapist is an adventure of life, a unique encounter, a riddle of riddles.

With the exception of Dasein analysis, it is difficult to distinguish separate therapeutic schools in existential psychotherapy. It is rather a system of views, norms and values ​​inherent in certain authors. TO that some theorists did not practice as therapists, and recognized practitioners (except for L. Winswanger) left very few works, among which so-called N. Case predominated - descriptions of clinical cases.

The existential approach is to a certain extent similar to the humanistic approach: the works of R. May, V.-E. Frankl is often called existential-humanistic, but in content they gravitate more towards traditional humanistic theories. Considering modern tendencies Existential psychotherapy has a great future in society.

Dasein analysis

The only clearly defined school of existential psychotherapy is Dasein analysis. The founder of this approach was the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966). Understanding life as an integral concrete phenomenon in the unity of the past, present and future, he described the phenomena under study in their unique and holistic personal sense and internal context. Assuming that the mind constitutes the objects of experience even in the case of deep emotional experience, he tried to explore how a person relates at this moment to the objects that are constituted as follows. In his opinion, sensation is as real an experience as anything else.

The Binswanger model of therapy is very unique; it expands the “semantic horizon” of the individual, which makes it impossible to realize what is repressed and “lost.” Central to this is the concept of “dasein” - the ordering of reality and the way through which being (being) can become accessible to essence. This is a significant difference between dasein analysis and the analytical paradigm based on multiple interpretations and their elaboration. The analyst’s interpretations are accompanied and complemented by the expansion of the patient’s subjective semantic space, so understanding in dasein analysis is often complete, and the therapeutic effect is deeper. In addition, existential-analytical thinking (this is how Binswanger defined his approach) deals with the structure of existence - what the person himself considers real and important.

Dasein analysis (German Da-sein - here being, being-in-the-world) is a psychotherapeutic direction based on the analysis of a person’s individual existence, which the therapist views as a terminal value.

The main methods in Dasein therapy are hearing (delving into a feeling), empathetic attention and an interested attitude towards both healthy and pathological individual manifestations, far from assessment and nosological classifications.

A specific feature of the existential approach is the categorical scheme of analysis and reconstruction psychological phenomena. Representative of this direction Henry

Elenberger (1905-1993), along with the classical psychological triad of the division of the psyche into affect, intellect and will, also identified categorical phenomenology - individual measurement system life world, within which it is possible to reconstruct the inner world of clients. The main categories of phenomenology are:

1) “temporality” - the feeling of how life happens, the actual experience of “now”, the integrity of being in the unity of the past, present and future;

2) “spatiality” - a field of events, things, conditions or qualities oriented in accordance with the desires and ideas of a person. Equipped space, according to Binswanger, corresponds to certain modes vital activity personality: recreation, knowledge, love, consumption and the like. This is not just the territory in which a person lives and works, but also the emotional and value dimension of the main areas of his life activity (for example, a favorite sofa is different from any bed, and sleeping or making love on it is more pleasant than anywhere else);

3) “causality” - the conditioning of some phenomena by others. The sphere of causality in consciousness contains three basic principles: determinism (predetermination), randomness and intentionality (direction of actions and actions), by which the subject explains his actions;

4) “materiality” - objectivity, concrete embodiment in a certain thought. Binswanger insisted that this dimension is oriented individual system classifications of the client: he can divide the world and things into pale and bright, hard and soft, clear and amorphous, living and inanimate, and the like. The therapist must act within the framework of the classification proposed by the patient, no matter how exotic it may seem to him.

According to these categories, reconstruction of the patient’s inner world occurs in the process of psychotherapy. A successful reconstruction not only reproduces his existence, but also gives the therapist the opportunity to enter this world, understand it, that is, see the plane of the client’s life as meaningful, full of meaning - even if strange and very different from the usual. This is precisely the main task of a dasein analyst.

Dasein analysis is intended to study the personality and his world even before the distribution of his illness and health. What the Dasein analyst wants is impossible in psychoanalysis: to present the phenomena of human life without any explanations or classification schemes, but simply as parts of existence, pointing to those essential modes in which Dasein perceives, transforms and constitutes the world. From this point of view, mental disorder arises as a modification of the basic or essential structure, as one of the many metamorphoses of being-in-the-world.

L. Binswanger's main works concern what psychiatry classifies as pathological. Bean used the concept of “existential a priori” (Latin Арriori - from the previous one) - the primacy, the intrinsic value of the individual perception of the world. What a person experiences is, first and foremost, not the impression of taste, sound, smell or touch, not things or objects, but the meaning, the meanings that make existence and experience. In the matrix sense within which phenomena arise and relate to dasein and self and world are constituted, in extreme cases only one theme predominates. In this context mental illness or the disorder is the pervasive monotony of experience, the homogeneity of symbolic response. This means that all experience, all perceptions, knowledge are impoverished, and existence goes into a state of neglect.

The main Dasein analytical criterion of mental disorder is the degree of subordination of freedom to the Dasein power of something else. In the neurotic, such subordination is partial: although his being-in-the-world is subject to one or more categories, he constantly struggles to adhere to his own self-determination. This struggle takes the form of a daseinu that gives up some of its capabilities to protect itself from destruction. own world. But since such a refusal itself means the beginning of the disintegration (reduction, narrowing, emptying) of the Self, all efforts deny themselves, and the neurotic feels trapped. Trying to solve problems leads to them becoming even deeper.

The psychotic goes further and completely submits himself to the power of the unknown. The price he pays for reducing the experience of anxiety is the loss of his own self-determination. In the case of psychosis, dasein is completely subject to one principle of the universe: it no longer extends into the future, does not get ahead of itself, rotates according to to a narrow circle, into which he was “thrown”, repeating himself fruitlessly again and again. Modification of the essential structure - mental illness - arises due to the fact that dasein ceases to freely relate to its own essence, that is, being loses its spontaneity, it is forced to compare itself with how it should be, how normal (or correct), and feels not as it should be - bad, insignificant, abnormal and the like. Dasein as an understanding becomes subordinate to the mode of neglect of being-in-the-world, which Binswanger called “self-assembled unfreedom.”

Binswanger's model of therapy is quite radical in psychiatry. His most known descriptions clinical cases (Lola Foss, Helen West) constitute the golden fund of existential therapy. However, in everyday psychotherapeutic practice this approach is used very rarely. Perhaps because most modern people there is not enough patience necessary for the reconstruction of the life world and its full understanding “from themselves, and not from any of their own ideas or theories.”