Living Your Own Life: Existential Analysis in Action

219 Pages·2016·3.69 MB·English

by  Silvia Längle

LIVING YOUR OWN LIFE

LIVING YOUR OWN LIFE
Existential Analysis in Action
Edited by
Silvia Längle and Christopher Wurm
First published in 2016 by
Karnac Books Ltd
118 Finchley Road
London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 2016 to Silvia Längle and Christopher Wurm for the edited collec-
tion, and to the individual authors for their contributions.
The rights of the contributors to be identified as the authors of this work have
been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978-1-78220-360-5
Typeset by V Publishing Solutions Pvt Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain
www.karnacbooks.com
CONTENTS
ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS ix
FOREWORD xiii
by Christopher Wurm
CHAPTER ONE
Can I rely on my feelings? 1
Alfried Längle
CHAPTER TWO
Meaning and happiness: on the vital significance of meaning 21
Christoph Kolbe
CHAPTER THREE
Spirituality in psychotherapy? The relationship of immanence
and transcendence in existential analysis 35
Alfried Längle
v
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER FOUR
The dimension of time as a challenge to truthful existence 53
Christine Wicki
CHAPTER FIVE
Steps towards meaning: the method of grasping meaning 65
Helene Drexler
CHAPTER SIX
Crisis: threat and opportunity 79
Anton Nindl
CHAPTER SEVEN
Fear: the royal road to existence—what hides
behind fundamental fear and anticipatory anxiety? 89
Silvia Längle
CHAPTER EIGHT
“I am afraid of falling out of this world”: a case study of a
patient with severe mutism and complete social withdrawal 101
Christian Probst
CHAPTER NINE
The path towards inner motion: an existential-analytic
psychotherapy on depression 111
Karin Steinert
CHAPTER TEN
“… And after a suicide attempt I have to keep on living!” 121
Rupert Dinhobl
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“After all, only dumb people can be happy”:
narcissistic personalities 127
Liselotte Tutsch
CHAPTER TWELVE
Anna: the child wounded in her boundaries 145
Michaela Probst
CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Sandplay: therapy with a child of divorced parents 161
Astrid Görtz
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Encountering a disabled person: attitude and
experience of the therapist 181
Karl Rühl
AFTERWORD
Living beginnings 191
Alfried Längle
USEFUL WEBSITES 193
INDEX 195

ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
All authors in this collection are psychotherapists belonging to the
Gesellschaft für Logotherapie und Existenzanalyse (GLE)—Society for
Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, Vienna.
Rupert Dinhobl, Mag.theol. Dr. theol.
Born 1955 in Vienna. Psychotherapist on the Crisis Intervention Ward
of the Christian-Doppler-Klinik of the University of Salzburg and in
private practice, teaching supervisor of the Society for Logotherapy and
Existential Analysis.
Helene Drexler, Dr. phil.
Born 1961. Clinical and health psychologist, existential analyst in pri-
vate practice, supervisor and training therapist of the Austrian Society
for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, lecturer at the University of
Vienna.
ix