Psychotherapy and human experience
pp. 193-213
in: Ronald Valle, Steen Halling (eds), Existential-phenomenological perspectives in psychology, Berlin, Springer, 1989Abstract
Each human being entering the psychotherapist's office reveals a unique experience of the world, of self, and of other persons. In 1958, the landmark volume Existence (May, Angel, & Ellenberger, 1958) introduced the existential and phenomenological perspectives to American psychotherapists. Since then, the meaning of the patient's experience has been at the heart of new developments in the science and practice of psychotherapy. The present chapter takes as its theme psychotherapy and human experience, including but also reaching beyond the specific schools of existential and phenomenological psychotherapy, to encompass the broader family of experientially oriented psychotherapies. The chapter provides an integrative synthesis, from the standpoint of the psychotherapist, of the most useful strands within this broad psychotherapeutic tradition.