Humanistic-existential approach

The humanistic existential theory is one that promotes better self-awareness. It encourages personal
growth by placing a higher level of focus on what the current reality offers each individual. Then,
by looking for specific patterns and finding ways to alter them, it becomes possible to achieve more
than if those patterns were not analyzed. This helps each person find their own meaning to life.

Humanistic and existential approaches share a belief that clients have the capacity for self-
awareness and choice; however, they differ in their theoretical perspectives.

WHAT IS HUMANISM?

History of Humanism

Humanism, a paradigm that emerged in the 1960s, focuses on the human freedom, dignity, and
potential. A central assumption of humanism, according to Huitt (2001), is that people act with
intentionality and values. This is in contrast to the behaviorist notion of operant conditioning (which
argues that all behavior is the result of the application of consequences) and the cognitive
psychologist belief that the discovering knowledge or constructing meaning is central to learning.
Humanists also believe that it is necessary to study the person as a whole, especially as an
individual grows and develops over the lifespan. It follows that the study of the self, motivation,
and goals are areas of particular interest.

Key proponents of humanism include Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. A primary purpose of
humanism could be described as the development of self-actualized, autonomous people[2]. In
humanism, learning is student centered and personalized, and the educator’s role is that of a
facilitator. Affective and cognitive needs are key, and the goal is to develop self-actualized people in
a cooperative, supportive environment

16th and 17th Centuries combined humanism with elements of Christian and classical cultures
(Christian humanism)

18th Century- Enlightenment began to detach human perfection from religion

20th Century- moral philosophies that abandon theological dogma in favor of purely human
concerns.

The humanistic approach was introduced in the 1940’s in the United States. It can be traced to Abraham
Maslow as the founding father, but through time has become closely associated with Carl Rogers.
A brief description of Humanism. Humanism is a philosophy that believes in human effort and ingenuity
rather than religion based on divine intervention. Humanists think that this life and this world is all we
have. Like everything else that exists we are the product of natural processes. There are no supernatural
powers or sacred texts to guide us, so we have to think for ourselves and make our own rules and take
responsibility for our own lives and actions and for the world we live in. Ethical decisions should be based
on reason and experience and compassion. Everyone has a right to seek happiness and to avoid pain, and
the best way to achieve this is to help other people to do the same.

The humanistic perspective views human nature as basically good, with a potential to maintain
healthy, meaningful relationships and to make choices that are in the best interest of oneself and
others. The humanistic therapist accompanies/guides clients to free themselves from assumptions
and positions that might be blocking them from living fuller lives. The psychologist encourages and
highlights growth and self-actualization, while maintains that clients have an innate capacity for
responsible self-direction. For the humanistic psychologist, not being one’s true self is the source of
problems.

Humanism is a philosophy of life which seeks to establish sound ethical and moral principles by
considering human needs and the innate desire of civilized people to live together in a harmonious
society. It does so without recourse to systems of thought requiring a belief in non-human guiding
principles. Humanists seek a tolerant world of mutual care and concern, free of cruelty and its
consequences, where differences are resolved cooperatively without violence.

In discussing how this philosophy might be applied to the real world, humanists take the view that men
and women are an integral part of nature, the result of natural evolutionary change. We recognise that
nature is self-existing and we aim to distinguish things as they are from things as people might wish them
to be.

Humanists make good use of rational argument and scientific method in working out a sound progressive
philosophy. They also recognise the great importance of artistic, emotional, and intuitiveelements in the
working of the human mind. Thus, all facets of the complex human consciousness are called upon in
endeavouring to understand human nature at this stage in its evolution.

Human values are derived from human needs and the dogma of religion should play no part in
formulating the best possible codes of human behaviour. History has so often seen a total breakdown of
society while one faction’s request for respect from others simply cannot be met owing to insurmountable
sectarian barriers. Humanists subscribe to an open secular society and remain tolerant towards all people
who subscribe to sound moral codes.

Existentialist

A philosophical movement centered on individual existence: a philosophical movement begun in

the 19th century that denies that the universe has any intrinsic meaning or purpose. A single
definition of existentialism is inadequate to explain the many different forms it takes in literature
The characteristics described below may be found in varying number and in a variety of different
incantations throughout the works of writers associated with existentialism
During the 18th century reason and nature were given more importance, objectivity was very much
emphasized, leading to industrial and technological developments and science was given utmost
importance. From the scientific viewpoint, man was also regarded as an object. Man became a slave
to machines in developing industrial society. Against this situation existentialism emerged as a
protest against the society and asserted the supremacy of individuality of man.

It emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. It is the view that humans define their own
meaning in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. The
main identifiable common proposition is that existence precedes essence. By this, existentialism
states that man exists and in that existence man defines himself and the world in his own
subjectivity, and wanders between choice, freedom, and existential angst.

The existentialist, on the other hand, is more interested in guiding/accompanying clients to find
philosophical meaning while they face anxiety. This is done by exploring the importance of
choosing to think and act authentically and responsibly. According to existential psychology, the
fundamental problems clients face are rooted in anxiety over isolation, loneliness, despair, and,
eventually, death. The existential psychologist assumes that the clients’ problems are due to not
being able to use their judgment or make choices enough/well enough in order to create meaning in
their lives. When outside influences may play a role in the clients’ limited ability to carry out
choices, the existential psychologist and the clients will confront these influences in order to move
forward.

Chief Exponent of Existentialism

Soren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855) is regarded as the father of modern existentialism and is the
first European Philosopher who bears the existentialist label. In his view, subjectivity and intensity
should be priced as the criteria of truth and genuineness. We touch reality in intense moments of
existence especially moments of painful decision. These moments are characterized by deep
anxiety, and life is known in such moments and cannot be reduced to just system of ideas.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) is regarded as a key figure in the rise of existentialism.
According to him Christianity is to be overcome by putting in its place the doctrine of Superman,
that is, man surpassing himself.
Martin Heidegger (1889 – 1976) in his book Being and Time, gave a very impressive analysis of
human existence, the prominence of the important themes of existentialism like care, anxiety,
guilt and above all death is brought out here.
Jean – Paul Sarte stressed that man‘s existence precedes his essence. Man is nothing else but
what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but
the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is.
Theoretical Rationale of Existentialism
Rather than attempt to define existentialism which existentialists themselves maintain is
futile it might to be better to determine what the task of philosophy is according to the proponents
of this school of thought. First of all, the existentialist does not concern himself with problems
concerning the nature, origin, and destiny of the physical universe. The philosopher should not
even concern himself with the basic assumptions of the physical or biological sciences.

Theoretical Rationale

Metaphysical Position
Concept of God -Frederic Nietzsche’s statement, “God is dead,” succinctly expresses the
atheistic existentialist’s view on the issue of the existence of a supernatural realm.
Concept of Self-Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle
of existentialism.” Jean Paul Sartre. Man is not alone in the world. He is connected to other men; he
communicates with others; therefore, he cannot live in a state of anarchy. Life is seen as a gift,
which, in part is a mystery. Man is free to choose commitments in life, in his choice, he becomes
himself. He is the product of his choices. He is, therefore, an individual who is different from other
persons.
Epistemological position-The existentialist approach to knowledge is known as the
phenomenological method. The atheistic existentialists inherited this method from Husserl. It was
adapted further by Heidegger and Sartre to suit their philosophy of “will and action,” especially as it
concerns the individual...The phenomenological method consists in the expression of the
experiences of consciousness through the media of ordinary language Existentialists have given
little attention to inductive reasoning. Science, they believe, has been one of the major
dehumanizing forces in the modern world. In opposition to this cold impersonal approach to
knowledge, the existentialist argues that true knowledge is “choosing, actions, living, and dying.
Axiological position
Existential ethics-Kierkegaard reacted to this way of thinking by saying that it was up to the
individual to find his or her own moral perfection and his or her own way there. “I must find the
truth that is the truth for me... the idea for which I can live or die” he wrote.
Authenticity & human freedom-Existentialists have a special connotation of the Authentic man
According to the existentialists, becoming authentic allows one to determine how things are to
count towards one’s situation and how one is to act in relation to them.
Generally the existentialists consider authentic individuals to take responsibility for
determining and choosing possibilities and not to simply become a determined product of a cultural
moment. One can choose one’s own identity and possibilities rather than have these dictated by
the crowd.
Characteristics of Existentialism
I. Existence Before Essence
insistence that human life is understandable only in terms of an individual man’s existence, his
particular experience of life .
a man lives (has existence) rather than is (has being or essence), and that every man’s experience is
unique, radically different from everyone else’s and can be understood truly only in terms of his
involvement in life or commitment to it.
shuns the view which assumes an ideal of man or Mankind, a universal of human nature of which
each man is only one example.
eschews the question of Greek philosophy, “What is mankind?” asks instead the question of Job and
St. Augustine, “Who am I?” with its suggestion of the uniqueness and mystery of each human life
and its emphasis upon the subjective or impersonal

II. Reason is impotent to deal with the depths of human life

human reason is relatively weak and imperfect there are dark places in human life which are
“nonreason” and to which reason scarcely penetrates.
Existentialists in our time, and this is one of its most important characteristics, insist upon reuniting
the “lower” or irrational parts of the psyche with the “higher.” man must be taken in his wholeness
and not in some divided state, that whole man contains not only intellect but also anxiety, guilt, and
the will to power which modify and sometimes overwhelm reason.
A man seen in this light is fundamentally ambiguous, if not mysterious, full of contradictions and
tensions which cannot be dissolved simply by taking thought.

III. Alienation or Estrangement

the main forces of history since the Renaissance have progressively separated man from concrete
earthly existence, have forced him to live at ever higher levels of abstraction, have collectivized
individual man out of existence, have driven God from the heavens, or what is the same thing, from
the hearts of men.
one of modern man’s most urgent dangers is that he builds ever higher the brick and steel walls of
technology which shut him away from a health giving life according to “nature.” protest against any
pattern or force which would stifle the unique and spontaneous in individual life.

IV. “Fear and Trembling,” Anxiety

The theories which held such high hopes died in that sickening and unimaginable butchery of WWI
The Great Depression and World War II deepened the sense of dismay which the loss of these ideals
brought, but only with the atomic bomb did this become an unbearable terror, a threat of instant
annihilation which confronted all men, even those most insulated by the thick crust of material
goods and services. Anxiety about the necessity which is laid upon man to make moral choices on
his own responsibility each of us must make moreal decisions in our own lives which involve the
anguish

V. The Encounter with Nothingness

For the man alienated from God, from nature, from his fellow man and from himself, what is left at
last but Nothingness? modern man now finds himself, not on the highway of upward Progress
toward a radiant Utopia but on the brink of a catastrophic precipice, below which yawns the
absolute void, and uncompromising black Nothingness A strong sense of the void in modern life.
An uneasiness, despite comfort and success, and the subsequent discovery that what was taken for
mere indisposition is more important to man than anything else on earth, that it is death!

VI. Freedom
The themes outlined above describe either some loss of man’s freedom or some threat to it, and all
existentialists of whatever sort are concerned to enlarge the range of human freedom. Precisely
because there is no God to give purpose to the universe, each man must accept individual
responsibility for his own becoming, a burden made heavier by the fact that in choosing for himself
he chooses for all men “the image of man as he ought to be.”
A man is the sum total of the acts that make up his life—no more, no less—and though the coward
has made himself cowardly, it is always possible for him to change and make himself heroic.
Religious existentialists use much of the same language as Sartre, develop the same themes
concerning the predicament of man, but always include God as a radical factor.