Heidegger's Philosophy and Its Application to Psychotherapy - Essay Example

Heideggers philosophy and its application to psychotherapy By 03, May Heideggers philosophy and its application to psychotherapy In order to understand the major objectives encapsulated in Heideggers philosophy, there is need to analyse how some of Heidegger’s philosophical concepts apply to the field of psychotherapy. It is noteworthy that Heidegger’s philosophical teachings have gained immense popularity due to their numerous relations and affinities with the field of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. In order to form a precise vantage point for understanding the contribution of the philosophy to psychotherapy, this paper aims at elucidating a hermeneutic perspective from which Heidegger’s philosophy can be approached from a theoretical and clinical domain in the field of psychotherapy. Firstly, it is clear that Heidegger’s methodology was formed from two disciplines; the first one is hermeneutics, which entails the study of models of interpretation and practices or utterances that are amenable to understanding. The second discipline is phenomenology that involves the study of an individual’s immediate experiences and perceptions. Heidegger’s early principle work was the foundation for a diverse project that was aimed at introducing a general theory of being. It began with an exploration of the particular nature of the existence of human beings (Stolorow, 2011).The fundamental importance of Heidegger’s philosophy to the field of psychotherapy is his idea of being-towards-death. This particular idea enriches the level of understanding of the therapeutic process. In fact, the distinction that Heidegger forms between two of his most crucial terms, being-a-whole and being-ahead-of-itself, is essential to the understanding of authentic being-towards-death. It is plausible that the signal result of addressing individuals’ being-towards-death in relation to being-a-whole is the realization of freedom towards death, and this is a valuable endeavour in the field of psychotherapy. The most direct statement that Heidegger makes in expressing his position on death contains several phenomenological insights on how anticipation reveals an individual’s lostness in their individuality. This feeling is largely unsupported by a state of solicitude (Heidegger, 1994). This expression can be understood in the sense that if individuals could stop trying to escape from their human existence as persons, and accept that many possibilities face them, they could be able to free themselves from living in ways that have forced them to conform to the norms by which they live (Stolorow, 2007). It is only at such a point that individuals can engage with claiming responsibility for their lives and their very being, a state that Heidegger refers to as being authentic in individuals’ being-towards-death. This kind of freedom, however, means that individuals have to be authentic in being-towards-death. There are several topics, areas, and themes in which Heidegger’s philosophy and understanding of death can influence the understanding of existential psychotherapy (Michelman, 2010). Firstly, one may consider the existential query of the meaning of life. In the practice of psychotherapy, individuals can be made to confront the powerful distinction between ‘having a life’ and ‘living’. Both of these terms have a formidable relation to temporality, although in a distinctively different manner. On one hand, living entails going about daily affairs, sometimes encountering challenges and difficulties, and pursuing desires and interests. The focus here lies more on the various aspects and unconnected features of the universe. On the other hand, having a life entails grasping the fact that life is a whole, and ‘owning it’ (being authentic) requires that individuals must take responsibility for how they engage with and possess that life (Stolorow, 2011).This disposition is what might be discerned from Heidegger’s distinction of Dasein’s being-a-whole and being-ahead-of-itself, and it effectively invites the consideration of the meaning of life (Heidegger, 1994). It is noteworthy that individuals’ engagement with the existing practices in the world allows them to note the tensions and disharmonies that inevitably emerge from the questioning of such practices. In this regard, individuals tend to articulate new methods of disclosing themselves in response to these disharmonies. It is clear that people may be at risk of disagreement and opposition. However, their stance with this approach influences their identities towards the fulfilment of a potentially more compelling future than the current one that may be living. The introduction of distinctions in Heidegger’s philosophical postulations presents a transcendental element to his work. This means that, in elaborating the authentic/inauthentic, the being-a-whole and being-ahead-of-itself, practitioners in psychotherapy are provided with a rich set of distinctions for furnishing clients with the possibility of confronting the depth to which they ‘own up’ (Heidegger, 1994). Indeed, the transition from a defensive stance to one that supersedes this position intensifies the experience of living and brings the vision of life to an integral totality (Michelman, 2010). In the field of psychotherapy, individuals may be caught up in the day-to-day aspects of living and, hence, could be trying to make sense of their existence. To a large extent, this scenario is cashed out on the basis of the anxiety that may result from their experience of distantiality from several norms and practices. It may also be caused by a prevailing palpable ease in fully understanding their individuality as mortal beings. It is notable that Heidegger’s revolution serves to broaden out or re-situate individuals’ notions of understanding and interpretation beyond them being just some procedures of critical reflection. Rather, understanding and interpretation turn into modes of being; meaning the pre-reflective and universal way through which individuals conduct themselves in the world is of a hermeneutic nature (Heidegger, 1994). The world is familiar to people through basic and intuitive ways of doing things, whereby intuitive and tacit approaches, coupled with pragmatic ideals of know-how, predominate. Initially, Heidegger argues that people do not start by understanding their world by just acquiring the objective facts, representational knowledge, or algorithms from which they can derive or establish universal laws, propositions, or judgments that to some extent correspond to the world. When this concept is related to the dynamics of psychotherapy, it becomes evident that the hermeneutic circle of interpretation, as presented by Heidegger, encompasses the interplay that exists between an individual’s self-understanding and their understanding of the world (Michelman, 2010). Thus, psychotherapists can perceive hermeneutics as a concept that deals with the limits, meaning, and lack of meaning in individuals’ lives. Of course, this should begin with individuals and their specific situations. Heidegger’s exploration of the idea of existential limit and the notion of self-estrangement is critical to the understanding of selfhood for psychotherapy practitioners. This understanding has a bearing on how people think about dimensions of self that are implied in ideas such as the unconscious. It also has a significant bearing on how individuals can think about the concrete and real elements of existence as involved in the rich spectrum of their interpersonal, affective,, as well as embodied experiences. Indeed, Heidegger re-affirms that all these elements that underlie human existence are intrinsically temporal and, thus, their understanding requires a deep exploration of his idea of Being and Time. Heidegger’s concept denotes how individuals sense themselves in their situations (Leteri, 2009). While feeling is often thought of as an inward thing, Heidegger refers to it as something that is both inward and outward, but only before a split between outward and inward has been made. It is noteworthy that individuals always find themselves in different situations, living in a certain way with other people while trying to avoid several things. In this regard, a concept such as mood is not just internal, it is something that the ‘living’ in the world. People sense how they find themselves in different situations. Another Heidegger’s basic parameter of human existence revolves around the concept of understanding. He argues that people may not always discern what the prevailing mood could be all about (Gendlin, 2015). In fact, they may not even be aware of their spirit. However, there is always an understanding of the individual’s living in that mood. The mood, in this context, cannot be perceived as a mere reaction or internal state. People have lived and acted in several ways for specific purposes, and all may be going on well or badly, but it is certainly happening in some intricate manner. How individuals fare in such intricacies is in their mood. The individuals may not know that cognitively at all, but it is in their mood nevertheless, though implicitly. It is clear that even though Heidegger talks about the ordinary experience of affects, feelings, or moods, he has accorded that experience a unique structure (Gendlin, 2015). People sense themselves living in situations with other people, with an implicit comprehension of what they are doing and with clear communication between them always already involved. In conclusion, it is plausible that the essence of psychotherapy is phenomenological, not just in the therapist’s conception of theory, but in the process of the individual concerned. As shown in the numerous concepts that form the basic premise for Heidegger’s philosophy, any interpretations and statements in psychotherapy sessions become effective only when they bring out something from the pre-verbally understood and directly sensed complexity. When one looks at a concept such as mood, it is clear that even very complicated statements by therapists and their patients influence nothing in the patient’s way of living, unless there is a distinct effect of lifting something out. This may explain why some patients may consult a psychotherapist for many years without much positive outcome. References Gendlin, E., 2015.Befindlichkeit: Heidegger and the Philosophy of Psychology. [Online] Available at < http://www.focusing.org/gendlin/docs/gol_2147.html> [Accessed 03 May 2015]. Heidegger, M., 1994. Basic Questions of Philosophy: Selected "Problems" of "Logic". Indiana: Indiana University Press Leteri, M., 2009. Heidegger and the Question of Psychology: Zollikon and Beyond. New York: Rodopi Michelman, S., 2010. The A to Z of Existentialism. Plymouth: Rowman& Littlefield, Stolorow, R. 2007. Trauma and Human Existence: Autobiographical, Psychoanalytic, and Philosophical reflections. New York, NY: Routledge. Stolorow, R., 2011. World, Affectivity, Trauma: Heidegger and post-Cartesian psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge. Read More