Being and Remembering

Author

Alexander Pannett

Publication Date

10th Sep 2021

Award

MSc in Psychotherapy Studies

Abstract

The overall purpose of this research project is to explore how British and American existential psychotherapists apply existential theories about the relationship between memory and Self when working with adult clients aged 18 years and older. This project has considered that current British and American existential psychotherapists potentially prefer to work with the present relationships of adult clients, over their past relationships. This project suggests that this way of working with clients may overlook important contributions of their memories to forming a sense of Self. This project aims to show that existential theory instead encourages a deeper working with past relationships that current British and American existential psychotherapists currently do not favour.

This project has applied a systematic literature review to identify and critically appraise 18 works of major figures of modern British and American existential psychotherapy since 1980, that address the themes of memory and Self when working with adult clients. Research themes have then been identified that reinforce the existential understanding of memory as a constructed framework for clients and corroborates an existential understanding of the Self as a fluid process. This project also finds that there is a bias by British and American psychotherapists towards working with the present relationships of clients, and this deviates from existential theory which advocates for a more holistic understanding of the Self’s relationship with past, present, and future. This project recommends that British and American existential psychotherapists re-orient their therapeutic practice with clients towards a deeper work with the client’s past relationships with the world and has suggested a new technique of Temporal Existential Analysis that wider therapeutic practice can use for this purpose.