Why are there beings at all, and why not rather nothing? … of all beings, only the human being, called upon by the voice of being, experiences the wonder of wonders: that beings are. 

                                                      --Martin Heidegger  

At the center of the sickness of the psyche is a sickness of the spirit.  Contemporary psychoanalysis will have eventually to reckon with this Kierkegaardian point of view.

                                                      --William Barrett

  Existential Psychoanalysis

TICP 4rth Year Elective

Prof. D. Carveth

Note:  Barrett (1962) is a classic introduction to and overview of existentialism that would provide excellent background for this course.

1.      Monday, March 29, 2004 (8:35-10 p.m.):  INTRODUCTION.

             May, R., E. Angel & H.F. Ellenberger (1958).  Existence: A NewDimension in  

                    Psychiatry and Psychology.  New York: Simon & Schuster. 

 Chapter 1.  “The Origins and Significance of the Existential Movement in

         Psychology.”

 Chapter 2.  “Contributions of Existential Psychotherapy.”

2.     Monday, April 12, 2004 (8:35-10 p.m.):  DEATH.

    Becker, E. (1973).  The Denial of Death.  New York: The Free Press.

             Chapter 1.  "Introduction: Human Nature and the Heroic."
             Chapter 2.  "The Terror of Death."
             Chapter 3.  "The Recasting of Some Basic Psychoanalytic Ideas."
             Chapter 4.  "Human Character as a Vital Lie."
             Chapter 5.  "The Psychoanalyst Kierkegaard."
             Chapter 6.  "The Problem of Freud's Character: Noch Einmal."

As Becker, following Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Otto Rank and Norman O. Brown, offers the most profound existentialist critique of Freudian psychoanalysis extant, the whole book is very worth reading.   A recent documentary based on Becker's work, Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality, is evoking a lot of interest these days. 

 

 

In this light, it is perhaps worthwhile to have another look at Becker's work: The Melancholic Existentialism of Ernest Becker

 

3.     Monday, April 19, 2004 (8:35-10 p.m.):  FREEDOM.

      May, R. (1977).  The Meaning of Anxiety.  Rev. Ed.  New York: W.W. Norton.
            Chapter 2.  "Philosophical Interpreters of Anxiety."      

 

      Yalom, I.D. (1980).  Existential Psychotherapy.  New York: Basic Books.
               Chapter 6.  "Responsibility."  Chapter 7.  "Will."

Suggested Reading  

Barnes, H.E. (1956).  Translator's Introduction.  J.-P. Sartre (1943).  Being and Nothingness:

     An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology.  New York: Washington Square Press.

-----. (1959).  Humanistic Existentialism: The Literature of Possibility. Lincoln, Nebraska:

        University of Nebraska Press.  Part Three: A Psychology of Freedom.

Barrett, Wm. (1962).  Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy. Garden City, NY:

    Doubleday.

Becker, E. (1973).  The Denial of Death.  New York: The Free Press.
Binswanger, L. (1963).  Being-in-the-World.  Selected Papers.  Trans. J. Needleman.  New

    York: Basic Books.

Boss, M. (1963).  Psychoanalysis and Daseinsanalysis.  Trans. L.B. Lefebre. New York &

    London: Basic Books. Reprint. New York: Dacapo Press, 1982.  

Carveth, D.L. (1996).  Psychoanalytic Conceptions of the Passions.  In Freud and the Passions.

    J. O'Neill (Ed.).  University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Chapter 2, pp. 25-52.  Online: http://www.yorku.ca/dcarveth/PASSIONS

Cohn, Hans W. (2002).  Heidegger and the Roots of Existential Therapy.  London &

    NewYork: Continuum.

-----. (1997).  Existential Thought and Therapeutic Practice.  London: Sage.

Friedman, M. (1964).  Three Worlds of Existentialism: A Critical Reader.  New Jersey &

    London: Humanities Press International.

Heidegger, M. (1996). Being and Time.  Trans. J. Stambaugh.  Albany: State University of

    New York Press.

Hoffman, I.Z. (1998).  Ritual and Spontaneity in the Psychoanalytic Process: A

    Dialectical-Constructivist View. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.  Chapter 1, "The

    Dialectic of Meaning and Mortality in the Psychoanalytic Process;" Chapter 2, "Death

    Anxiety and Adaptation to Mortality in Psychoanalytic Theory."

Izenberg, G.N. (1976).  The Existentialist Critique of Freud: The Crisis of Autonomy.

    Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Laing, R.D. (1959).  The Divided Self.  Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Kierkegaard, S. (1944).  The Concept of Dread.  Introduction by W. Lowrie.  Princeton:

    Princeton University Press.

-----. ((1954).  Fear and Trembling and Sickness Unto Death.  Trans. With Introductions

    and Notes by W. Lowrie.  New York: Doubleday   Anchor.

May, R., E. Angel & H.F. Ellenberger (1958).  Existence: A New Dimension in Psychiatry

    and Psychology.  New York: Simon & Schuster.

-----. (1977).  The Meaning of Anxiety.  Rev. Ed.  New York: W.W. Norton.  

-----. (1967).  Psychology and the Human Dilemma.  Princeton, NJ, Toronto & London:

    D. Van Nostrand.

Sartre, J.-P. (1958).  Being and Nothingness.  Trans. H. Barnes.  London: Methuen.

Yalom, I.D. (1980).  Existential Psychotherapy.  New York: Basic Books.

Prof. Donald L. Carveth, Ph.D.

Glendon College, York University

Department of Sociology

2275 Bayview Ave.

Toronto, Ontario

M4N3M6

Email: dcarveth@yorku.ca

Web:   http://www.yorku.ca/dcarveth

Phone: 416-489-6260

Fax:     416-487-6850  

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