Existential Psychotherapy

Данная статья продолжает разговор об экзистенциальном мировоззрении. Авторами проводится различение между эмпирическим «малым я» и глубинным «большим Я» в человеке. Обнаружить свое «большое Я», согласно авторам, помогает экзистенциальная редукция. У первых экзистенциальных философов редукция произошла во время мировой войны. Человек обнаруживает, что он не только тело, носитель психики и сознания, не только исполнитель социальных функций ролей. До всех усвоенных мнений, идеологий и норм человек обнаруживает глубинный слой своей субъективности, свою экзистенцию. В отличие от Сартра, авторы не отождествляют экзистенцию с «подлинным Я». Так как будучи не осознана, она находит выход лишь в слепых произвольных порывах. Авторы ставят вопрос: как трансцендировать рамки своего «малого я», и при этом избежать произвола, индивидуалистического бунта экзистенции? Для ответа на этот вопрос, авторы, вслед за Минковским, обращаются к концепту «второго рождения».
Ключевые слова: экзистенция; экзистенциальная редукция; экзистенциальное мировоззрение; экзистенциальная установка; большое Я.

In this article authors continue the dialogue on existential worldview. Authors distinguish empirical “small self” and profound “substantial self”. Authors claim that “substantial me” can be discovered with a help of existential reduction. For the first existential philosophers such reduction occurred during world war. Person discovers, that he is not just a body, barrier of psyche and consciousness, performer of social functions or roles. Before all assimilated opinions, ideological convictions, views and norms person discovers a deep layer of human subjectivity, the layer of existence (“existentia”). Unlike Sartre, authors do not identify existence with the “true self”. Since being unaware, it expresses itself in blind arbitrary impulses. The authors are posing the question: how to transcend the limits of the “small I”, in the same time avoiding individualistic rebellion of existence? To answer this question, the authors, following E. Minkowski, turn to the concept of the “second birth”.
Keywords: existential; existential reduction; existential worldview; existential
attitude; small self; substantial self.

Dialogues on multiculturalism and diversity in the public sphere have been increasingly polarized in recent years. Engagement on these topics often leads to individuals becoming more entrenched in their own perspective, which impedes the development of empathy and understanding. It is apparent that new ways of communicating are needed. While no one approach will work across all contexts and with all people, poetry can be an effective medium to creating healthier dialogues. Additionally, poetry can serve as a model for other forms of communication.
Poetry and narrative ways of communicating have the potential to transform multicultural dialogues in several ways. First, poetry can be considered a healing art. Long before the development of psychotherapy, poetry was used as an aid in individual and collective healing rituals. When utilized as a healing art, poetry can assist individuals and groups in moving through the healing process to advocating for change.
Second, poetry can facilitate the development of cultural empathy. As poetry tells one’s story at an emotional and experiential level, it assists the reader or listener in developing a deeper understanding of the experience of the poet. When applied in a cultural context, poetry can assist in deepening one’s understanding of the experience of a particular cultural group. This shifts conversations rooted in ideology, theory, and politics to conversations focused on listening to each other’s stories and emotions.
Third, poetry encourages the reader or listener to slow down and reflect. In conflicted dialogues and debates, the focus often is more on one’s response than understanding the other person’s perspective. Poetry encourages the listener to slow down and focus on taking in the story, which can aid in transforming a debate or conflicted conversation into one that is promoting a deeper understanding.

"International psychology is receiving increased attention over the past several years. In postmodern times, advancements in communication technologies and increased mobility have made international collaborations a more commonplace reality in the lives of many, including mental health professionals. Additionally, this has opened up “international markets” not just for material products, but also for various social products, such as psychotherapy and mental health ideologies. As an illustration, following the Sichuan earthquakes in China, a significant number of mental health professionals swarmed to China offering training for the relief workers. These approaches were Western approaches that typically made little effort to adapt to the culture or explore culture-based approaches to providing support and healing to the earthquake victims. In a now often referenced presentation, Ren Zheng Jia responded to this with a presentation titled, “Psychology as Dog Shit” (see Moats, Claypool, & Saxon, 2011). In essence, Ren recognized the potential value of many of these approaches, yet maintained they were useless without some cultural adaptation and sensitivity.

The focus on this of paper is to provide a model for international psychology that is rooted in existential and zhi mian psychology. Existential psychology is a Western approach to psychology. Zhi mian is an approach to therapy developed by Xuefu Wang (2011) rooted in the philosophical and literary writings of Lu Xun. Although Wang maintains there is no direct translation of zhi mian to English, zhi mian could be translated as “to face directly” in the context of facing life, oneself, and one’s relationships directly. It has been proposed that zhi mian could rightly be considered an indigenous Chinese existential psychology, and that existential therapy could rightly be considered an indigenous Western form of zhi mian therapy (Hoffman, in press).

The existential/zhi mian approach to international psychology that we are proposing emerged from dialogues, trainings, and other collaborations between United States and Chinese psychologists and therapists. A number of principles provide the foundation of this model:

1. Relationship: International work is best conducted in the context of relationships. In instances where there is merely the exchange of ideas or training, as is common practice, there is minimal benefit or true advancement. The relationships provide a context that allows for deeper forms of exchange and learning. 

2. Mutuality: International psychology should always be a mutual process. Even in contexts where there is involvement between countries in which psychology is more advanced in one country, there are always opportunities for to learn from each other. In cultures where formal psychology has not been developed, there are indigenous approaches to understanding people and engaging in healing that can contribute to dialogue and exchange. Mutuality, in essence, is an attitude in which one remains curious about and open to the other culture.

3. Adaptation: An existential/zhi mian approach recognizes that no psychology can be transported to another culture and applied in the same manner as it was applied in the culture in which it was developed. Effective psychotherapy always considers the cultural context.

4. Universality and Particularity: An existential/zhi mian approach recognizes the universality of the existential givens, which represent challenges that all people must face, and the need for a culturally and individually specific answer to these challenges (Hoffman, 2009). Such consideration considers the needs of the individual as well as the needs for connection and affiliation beyond oneself.

5. Reflection: Engagement in international psychology requires one to move out of their comfort zone. This provides important opportunities to learn about oneself and one’s culture; however, it also brings possibility of one’s own unresolved issues emerging. Given this, self-reflection is an important part of internationally psychology. In many situations, it is important for groups to have opportunities to process what emerges from the cross-cultural experiences.
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