Book Review: Existential Therapy: Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue

Existential Therapy: Legacy, Vibrancy and Dialogue

Laura Barnett & Greg Madison (eds.) (2012). London: Routledge.

Laura Barnett and Greg Madison have edited a book that is more than just another book on existential therapy. It aspires to be a landmark. It delineates an international state of the art of existential therapy a decade within the 21st century.

The book aspires to making a new mark in our therapeutic landscape well over 50 years after the seminal classic Existence by Rollo May, Ernst Angel and Henri Ellenberger. And although the present book does not reach the outstanding heights of its fore-runner, it does however make a significant contribution, that deserves to be read widely and also to be enrolled in various reading lists at our training institutes.

We now have two books giving us an up to date picture of what existential therapy is like today: The book of Mick Cooper giving an overview seen from the outside and this book giving 15 engaged expositions seen from the inside perspective of practicing psychotherapists.

The book consists of 15 chapters written by Erik Craig, Roger Frie, Alice Holzhey-Kunz, Tamas Fazekas, Laura Barnett, Les Todres, Greg Madison and Eugene Gendlin, Betty Cannon, Michael Guy Thompson, John M. Heaton, Keith Hoeller, Mick Cooper and Ernesto Spinelli, Alfred Längle, Emmy van Deurzen, Linda Finlay, Kirk J. Schneider and Simon du Plock, Maurice Friedman, Havi Carel, Judith Hassan and Donna Orange.

There are many fine texts in the book. Either whole chapters or often just sections of chapters. It is not possible here to comment on every chapter, so I have singled out three themes of existential therapy that run through some of the chapters.

One of the themes that shine through some of the chapters is a theme that is seldomly treated explicitly in books on existential therapy: The crucial role of therapeutic love in existential therapy (or if you wish: caring, caritas or compassion). In our foundational writings on existential therapy this important quality of the therapist and the therapeutic process is very discernible in the writings of as different authors as Rollo May, Irvin Yalom and Medard Boss (very clearly in his main work Existential Foundations but unfortunately much more in the German original, it has been partially lost in the English translation).

In the present book this quality of therapeutic love is present in the extraordinary well-written and beautiful opening chapter by Erik Craig. Therapeutic love is here explained as a function of the differentiation between the ontological and the ontical level and the therapist's ability to maintain his 'ontological eye' upon the client. Craig gives a very clear exposition of the importance of this ontological eye for existential therapy.

Other chapters enter in a Buber-inspired and respectful dialogue between two authors, especially the chapter by Ernesto Spinelli and Mick Cooper and the one by Kirk Scheider and Simon du Plock. Although the term 'therapeutic love' is not mentioned in these chapters the dialogue that is demonstrated constitutes a very nice example of the kind of relationship we want to see between the therapist and the client in our existential therapies.

A second pervading theme in several chapters is the historical and contemporary relation between existential therapy and psychoanalysis. Are the two closely related like siblings or cousins? Or are they actually in opposition to each other? This theme is especially interesting when seen in a special light as it is done in the very interesting chapters of Roger Frie and Alice Holzhey-Kunz/Tamas Fazekas: Is our existential therapy mainly to be understood as derived from Medard Boss (and thereby indirectly from Martin Heidegger) or do we in fact owe more to Ludwig Binswanger? The consequences of understanding our enterprise in one or the other way is clearly exposed here.

A third theme dealt with in a number of chapters is the role of the body and our bodily processes in existential therapy. This is without doubt a very important theme although very little treated in our literature on existential therapy. With some clients at least we have a problem of involving the bodily processes in the therapy. And if the therapeutic process does not access the body besides thoughts, feelings, world views and relations, there is a risk of relapse or non-success.

There are three chapters dealing explicitly with bodily processes, by Les Todres, Greg Madison/Eugene Gendlin and Betty Cannon. Two of these are dealing with the work of Eugene Gendlin. It is interesting to see that Eugene Gendlin with full right is placed within the existential tradition. Gendlin with his method of focusing is often conceived as a body therapist. But he is in fact very Heideggerian and it is nice to see him represented in this collection.

I am a little amazed however that the exposition of existentially accessing the body is restricted to Gendlin. In the last decades Peter Levines method of 'somatic experiencing' is spreading all over the world. I guess that many of us by now integrate the fruitful ways of questioning the body that has been developed by Peter Levine in our existential therapies. It seems very fair to see Eugene Gendlin as a fore-runner of somatic experiencing since there are obvious similarities and his concept of 'felt sense' is apparently being used in the same way by Peter Levine.

On the whole the present book (except for the discussion of psychoanalysis) is silent about the question on the many present exciting developments in psychotherapy and the possibilities of integrating elements of these in our existential therapies. But our colleagues are experimenting with integrating not only SE, but also mindfulness, elements of ACT and other newer developments into a basic, truthful and consistent version of existential therapy. This is also an interesting aspect of present day existential therapy.

I have read the manuscript of this book some time ago and was at that time very impressed. Now after a second reading I find some serious limitations:

The book represents an Anglocentric narrowness which this reviewer does not find appropriate for the 21st Century and the idea of Existential Therapy as a truly international endeavour with a forthcoming world conference. The editors write 'after much deliberation we took the editorial decision to confine ourselves to UK and US therapists, with the exception of Daseinsanalysts and Logotherapists. This has meant excluding contributors from important centres across the world…' Here the reader wonders what this thorough editorial deliberation was based upon. Practical considerations? Book market considerations? That the Anglo-American authors are simply the best? All three could be fine arguments if they are the case but why do the editors hide their arguments? Why not be open and transparent about the truth which I believe we adhere to as existentialist therapists? An openness and transparency that I hope and believe the editors practice when being therapists. Were Canadians and Australians excluded too? Or were they not good enough and could not reach the high level of the selected UK and US authors?

Another issue: even if the authors are often outstanding colleagues, what is printed here from their hand are not always the best pieces we have seen from these authors. A reprint of some of their best texts would have been preferable to mark a milestone. In addition some of the authors are building on many many years of original work. That is in itself excellent. But with it follows a certain inclination to look back on past achievements rather than to look out into the future with the open and curious eyes that these authors also possess and which we take to be a crucial virtue in existential therapy. So in many ways the book represents a retrospective look on the past fifty years rather than a curious appetite for the next fifty years.

The book is a landmark. But with limitations. Next time somebody writes a book to symbolise a landmark in the development of existential therapy, what more would we want? First of all we would want to find a more true internationalism with authors from all over the globe representing different national and cultural tappings of our common therapeutical and theoretical heritage. Secondly we could need a more cogent and well-defined theoretical background for our therapies. And thirdly Existential Therapy's proper, unique and – at the present moment not yet found – solution to the riddle of how to convincingly justify and 'evidence-base' our work. Until then take pleasure in this significant volume.

Bo Jacobsen