PSYC 308 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Ludwig Binswanger, Existence Precedes Essence, Otto Binswanger

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 308
• Professor: Timothy Racine

Document Summary

Psyc 308 - lecture 11 - the humanistic approach. Emphasized human strengths & positive goals, conscious experience, free will, fulfilment of human potential, belief in wholeness of human beings. Had more influence outside the field than within. Roots in phenomenology (unbiased descriptions of immediate experience as it occurs) and existentialism (notion of the free, responsible, self-determining individual) Well e. g. kierkegaard - subjectivity of choice & leap of faith. Neitzsche - god is dead , perspectivism, nihilism. Heidegger - we are thrown into the world , dasein. Camus - rebellion & absurdity of human conditions. Sartre - existence precedes essence & bad faith. De beauvoir - existential ethics - concern for others. Clinical/counselling side influenced a lot by ludwig binswanger. Physician who drew from heidegger"s dense work. Believed therapy should attend to the whole person. I. e. not just the unconscious, but still binswanger & freud were lifelong pals. Some psychologists believed existentialists added important dimensions to the field.