Existential psychology emerged as a coherent, holistic approach to understanding and influencing human behavior.
Despite the fact that existential psychology is usually referred to as a humanistic tradition, it has pronounced distinctive features that allow it to declare its independence. Humanistic approaches select qualities of functioning that look positive, so to speak, at their face value, and use them to understand the achievement of perfection in life through constant deepening of consciousness and development. Existential psychology also contains unique elements that can be understood by finer classification of models of actualization and achievement.
Actualization theories proceed from the fact that if in the process of interaction with significant others a person systematically receives an unconditional positive reward, then the potentials inherent in him from birth will be expressed in his behavior, under the influence of innate tendencies to actualization. Actualization of innate potentials leads to lifelong development, identity formation and excellence, and — with the support and approval of others — is an automatic, teleological and relatively easy process. A person’s development stops or is misdirected only when the support of the people with whom he considers can be recognized as more conditioned by their own (selfish) interests than unconditional and disinterested.
In contrast, excellence theories (of which existential psychology is the paradigmatic model) make assumptions that distance them from actualization theories. According to excellence theories, a person develops throughout his life, regardless of whether he receives unconditional support from others or not. For existentialists, development is determined more by a person’s personal decision than by the potentials bestowed on him by nature. Although existentialists agree that both a deep mind and a well-formed personality are important, their understanding of the processes by which both are achieved differs from the actualization theorists’ understanding of these processes.
Existential psychology proceeds from the fact that a person’s tendency to symbolically comprehend, imagine and evaluate the continuous flow of his social, biological and physical experience is an innate, purely human ability. The use of this cognitive ability gives individualized (Subjective) meaning to the experience and deepens the awareness that the character and direction of life is made up of the many decisions made by the individual. Each decision leads in the future either to a new experience or to a repetition of the same experience that the person already had in the past. Existential psychology does not emphasize anything as teleologically specific and directive as innate potentials. For existentialists, whatever the consistent movement and development that takes place in specific people, it is built on a current basis, replenished by their individual decisions.
From the point of view of existential psychology, it is preferable to choose the future rather than the past in the process of development, since the acquisition of new experience can lead — through the stimulation of symbolization, imagination and evaluation — to a deeper understanding of meaning than simply repeating what is already familiar. However, contemplating or actually choosing the future at the point of decision usually brings with it ontological anxiety (fear of uncertainty) about what exactly this future will bring. The alternative choice, i.e. the choice in favor of the past, is also emotionally painful, since it brings with it an ontological feeling of guilt about the missed opportunity to gain new experience. People who get used to making a choice in favor of the past have to deal with the accumulation of ontological guilt, which takes the form of despair caused by the meaninglessness of what is happening. The foregoing confirms that the view of existential psychologists on development differs from the view of supporters of the theory of actualization: according to existential psychologists, development, due to its nature, is a very difficult and painful process.
As for the question of specific stages of development leading to assimilated lifestyles, existential psychology answers it somewhat vaguely. However, she draws a clear line between early and further (later) development. The main task of the early development of the child is to learn to perceive himself as a hardy and courageous person. To make it easier for a child to learn in this way, parents and significant others should ideally embrace the child’s self-expression and create an environment that offers the child variety, support, and opportunities to strive for success, as well as certain limits. In such an environment, the child will learn to perceive himself as a person who is able to keep his word, control himself, and ready to accept the challenge, which will lead to the development of courage. Further development is more independent, as adolescents, gradually moving away from their parents, begin to rely more on their own decisions and interpretation of their consequences. They pass through stages of aestheticism and idealism as they free themselves from parental tutelage and uphold the values that should define their own lives. Having been taught not to be afraid of difficulties, they are more likely to be able to learn from their failures, and this forms the basis of the ideal of further development. Having learned the limits of aestheticism and idealism, such people enter the time of maturity, or the time of an authentic lifestyle.
Individuals living an authentic (genuine) life show their purely personal, unique qualities in their definitions:
- themselves as people who are able — through decision-making and interpretation of their consequences — to influence their own social and biological experience;
- society, as created by the actions of individuals and, therefore, amenable to change by the efforts of these people.
The authentic lifestyle is characterized by harmony and innovation. The biological and social experiences of people whose lives are authentic are marked by refinement, taste, intimacy, and love. Courage helps them to perceive doubts as inevitable “companions” of developing their own opinion, and they do not allow doubts to influence their decision-making. Although authentic people may be wrong about themselves, they have a tendency to correct themselves quickly, thanks to their close attention to themselves and general reflectivity. That is why they do not accumulate ontological guilt for missed opportunities or for their own seeming superficiality.
On the contrary, young people whose early development took place in less than ideal conditions never gain courage and, literally, remain dependent and amorphous to the end of their days. When making decisions, they are not able to rely on their own strengths and cannot use their cognitive abilities to form authenticity based on their own life experiences. What has been said above all refers to their inability to learn from mistakes; such people are in a hurry to disown them, instead of understanding what they did wrong. Instead of entering a genuine period of late development, they copy the behavior of the people around them, displaying a conformist, immature lifestyle.
People with a conformist lifestyle define themselves solely as performers of social roles. The expression of symbolization, imagination and evaluation is inhibited in them, which leads to stereotypical, fragmented functioning. Their biological and social experience is far from subtle and more like a contractual relationship than a relationship based on feelings. The accumulation of ontological guilt resulting from conformists’ preference for the past over the future leads them to feel insecure and worthless. Their worldview is dominated by materialism and pragmatism.