RE: Psychology Addict # 23 | Existential Psychotherapy – When Psychology & Philosophy get together.
So, as much as a human being may be free per se, I don't think we really are as a member of a society or in relationship to others ...You could not have experessed this more clearly! Absolutely, and this is what psychoanalisys suggests, further elaborating the existential phylosophical proposal. Because we now live in a civilized world, which imposes rules that go against our instincts we all have become intrinsically ill. You see, while we are naturally free, we live in a world that sets several kinds of boundaries.
I do believe that personality traits are a result of both the environment and genetic factors. In certain cases I believe the environment plays a much more ifluential role (I could dig out some studies to back this up :)).
As for your final point, the way I see it, it is the following: in the big picture (according to this approach) one has not chosen this world; still, the more one feels one lives through their own decisions (the excercise of freddom) the less anxious and sad one becomes. In fact, this is something largely explored in research conducted on anxiety and mood disorders. One of the commom aspects in the lives of those afflicted by such kinds of distress is precisely what psychologists call entrapment - the very feeling of lack of choices, or control over one’s life!
@reinhard-schmid, thank you so much for your incredibly insightful comment. I trully appreciate you taking the time to read, write and debate this topic. All the very best to you.
Again thank you for taking the time to deal with my comment... not so sure its insightful. Rather my longing to understand, which has always been a driving force.
Spent the evening with my parents yesterday and when I woke up this morning, I thought about them in admiration and how they have made some really good choices in their lives. I had these thoughts independent of our discussion here, but now they come back again... ok, I guess that's a different story, but it really got me thinking.
Interesting, what you say about entrapment. Found myself in such an unhappy situation for many years, long ago. Although I ended up there "by choice" (or was it through manipulation?), it turned out to be a dead end street... thank god I found the strength eventually to turn my life around. Or maybe I just got lucky... sometimes I really think a higher force had mercy and gave me a helping had.
Wonder what psychologists suggest to get out of the entrapment. Or if there even is a general way to approach that...
Dear @reinhard-schmid, how great to hear you have managed to overcome the time in your life when you felt 'entrapped', which inevitably prompts my interest in how you managed to do it. You see, some people never do and succumb to major depression and turn to medication. But, as for your question. Yes, in psychology, cognitive-behavioural therapy has successfully treated individuals in not only a state of entrapment, but also of co-morbid disorders (such as depression and anxiety). The empirical evidence for such outcome is aplenty. Maybe this should be a topic for a future post! :)
Best.
Hahaha... not so sure, I want to tell too much about myself here in the broad public ;-)
To satisfy just a bit of your curiosity, I'll make a very long story very short: in the end, I think it was the first conscious and well reasoned decision I ever made. In my early 40s there was a lot of junk piled up and I thought by myself... chances are, that I'll live another 40 years. And I simply didn't want to spend them like that. Was hard though...
Not sure, I understand much of cognitive-behavioural therapy, so maybe that would make a good post indeed!