What are existential problems?
Humans are an animal that is very different from all others. One of the most prominent differences is that we are aware of our own existence. While this gives us unique advantages, it is also a source of difficulties - existential problems. Awareness can sometimes get us into trouble. An existential problem is a problem linked to existence or being itself, i.e. anxiety that arises as a result of the human condition. We are all thrown into these conditions and must find ways to relate to them in different ways. The importance of these conditions in our lives varies greatly, but we all have to deal with these inherent dilemmas of human life. For some people, it can be difficult to find helpful ways of responding to these givens of life.
Common issues that create existential angst
For example, it can be about understanding and making use of the great freedom available to us. All the choices we face and the high risk of making the 'wrong' decision can leave us paralyzed. There is an inherent uncertainty that we can never have all the facts we need to make our decisions. Another example is the awareness of our own mortality. We don't know when or how, but we know that one day the world will go on without us. This may affect us to different degrees at different times of our lives, but we all need to come to terms with the fact that one day we will die.
Another issue that is part of the human contract is the question of the meaning of life. Feeling a lack of meaning can be unbearable; it can stop the forward momentum that otherwise drives life. People need to feel that what they do matters, otherwise our otherwise characteristic motivation and will disappear.
There is nothing in the world, I dare say, that could so effectively help someone survive even the worst of circumstances as the knowledge that there is a purpose to life.
- Viktor Frankl
Existential psychotherapy in Gothenburg
Existential problems can be addressed in many different ways, but one of these is through existential psychotherapy. It has focused specifically on these issues by incorporating the philosophy of existence as a foundation of therapy. It is based on certain basic existential assumptions:
The inevitability of anxiety
The human need for meaning and purpose
That we possess a capacity for freedom and decision-making about our lives and that we are most alive when we are allowed to tap into this potential for responsibility
Human life contains limitations and suffering, and we function best when we face this truth rather than run away from it
The individual human experience - positive and negative - is the key to human being and the central component of psychotherapy
Human experience is fundamentally linked to our relationship with other people and the world around us
Through conversations, it is possible to work with these issues. Please contact us if you want to know more about existential work in psychotherapy or if you want to book a conversation at the reception in Gothenburg.
