Bright And Dark

Existential Psychology was born in the 20s of the the last century in Europe. As an important perspective in the system of human science psychology, it is equipped with the Phenomenological methods, and has been making numerous efforts to explore the experiences exclusively belong to human being as a complete whole, especially the destined Existential Themes like anxiety, love, meaningfulness, choice-making, and death and so on, which are so important in our daily life. At the practice level, Existential Psychology is deeply rooted in the psychotherapy and psychological counseling areas, and thus facilitated the birth of the Existential therapeutic schools such as the Daseinsanalysis, Logotherapy, Existential-Humanistic Psychology, and the British School. The founders and their followers of these schools contributed a lot to the field of psychotherapy and psychiatry.Based on the historical-documentary analysis, the theoretical-logical analysis and the analysis of the clinical cases, furthermore, combined with the firs-hand personal interviews with founders and the representatives of these schools, this dissertation will comprehensively elucidate the primary theory and practice of the four Existential Schools and their representatives. Via this research, we are attempting to change the current situation of "focusing on the American while ignoring the European traditions" and the lack of clinical investigation in the research of Existential Psychology in China. In the last chapter, based on the writer’s personal insights gained from 8-years’ study and practice as an Existential therapist, we made an original evaluation on the Existential Psychology as a whole, namely, its contributions and limitations, and of course, the outlook of this classic approach.