Existential Psychotherapy: How can Hermeneutics and Phenomenology be of Help in the Clinic?

Beskrivning

Usually hermeneutics, the science of interpretation, is connected to the study of texts but the term was broadened within phenomenology by Heidegger and Gadamer in a way that is highly relevant to psychotherapeutic work. However, this broader aspect of hermeneutics often seems to be neglected. The purpose of this presentation is thus to deepen the discussion about the dialectics between an interpretative I and the Other and to put into the context of existential psychotherapy. The focus of this presentation is on the specific existential way of understanding the human in her being in the world, the latter understood as a source of both meaning and suffering. The question that will be further elucidated is how the ontological hermeneutics, as it was first elaborated by Heidegger (2019) and then further developed by Gadamer (1997), can be of help in the existential psychotherapeutic practice. The ‘ontological hermeneutics’ as Heidegger defined it, the psychiatrist and researcher Chessik describes as a hermeneutics with specific interest in the fundamental question about the human existence (Chessik, 1990).

Period	2022 juli 6
Vid	World Association for Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counseling (WAPCEPC), Österrike
Omfattning	Internationell