Pathology Arises Out Fo The Ex Essay -- essays research papers

Concepts of pathology, as treated by the traditions of clinical psychology and psychiatry, define what is &8216normal&8217 and &8216abnormal&8217 in human behaviour. Various mental paradigms exist today, each emphasising diverse ways of defining and treating psyopathology. Most commonly utilised is the medical model which is limited in many respects, criticised for reducing patients problems to a list of pathological symptoms that have a primarily biological base and which are to be treated behaviourally or pharmacologically (Schwartz & Wiggins 1999). Such reductionistic positivist ways of viewing the individual maintain the medical discourse of &8216borderline personality&8217, schizoid&8217, &8216paranoid&8217 or &8216clinically depressed&8217, often failing to orchestrate the wider socio-ltural environment of the individual. Pilgrim (1992) suggests that such diagnostic pidgeon-holing does not enhance humanity, nor aid those who are dealing with the distressed individual to fin d meaning. It also neglects to consider life beyond the physical, failing to address the more philosophical questions that abound from our very existence. Existential psychiatry and psychology arose in Europe in the 1940&8217s and 1950&8217s as a direct response to the dissatisfaction with prevailing efforts to gain scientific understanding in psychiatry (Binswanger 1963). Existentialism is the title of a set of philosophical ideas that accent the existence of the human being, the lack of meaning and purpose in life and the solitude of human existence. Existentialism stresses the jeopardy of life, the voidness of human reality and admits that the human being thrown into the world, a world in which pain, frustration, sickness, contempt, malaise and death dominates (Barnes 1962). How one positions oneself in that world becomes the focus for existential notions of pathology, a responsibility that is present for either human being, not one confined to the &8216mentally ill&8217. In th is sense the human being is &8216response-able&8217 to the existential predicament that is life and the necessary struggles that fig up through negotiating these conditions in every lived moment. In this essay I will give a brief outline of the history of existential thinkers, then talk over how t... ...Lowrie). Princeton Princton University PressLaing, R. D. (1960). The Divided Self. Harmondsworth PenguinLewis, C. S. (1943). The Abolition of Man. Oxford Oxford University PressMay, R. (1969). do and Will. New York Norton.May, R. & Yalom, I. (1984). Existential Psychotherapy. In Corsini, R. J. (ed.), CurrentPsychotherapies. Itasca Illinois PeacockOwen, I. R. (1994). Introducing an existential-phenomenological approach basic phenomenological theory and research- Part 1. counselling Psychology Quarterly, 7, (3) 261-273Pilgrim, D. (1992). Psychotherapy and Political Evasions. In Dryden, W. & Feltham,C. (Eds.) Psychotherapy and It&8217s Discontents. Buckingham Open University PressSa tre, J. P. (1951). Being and Nothingness. (Trans. H. Barnes) Methuen LondonSchwartz, M. A. & Wiggins, O. P. (1999). The Crisis of Present-Day Psychiatry Regaining the Personal. Psychiatric Times, 16, 9.Yalom, I. (1989). Love&8217s Executioner And Other Tales of Psychotherapy. New York Harper Collins