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Article Title:
EXISTENTIALISM BEYOND PHILOSOPHY: ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY
| Abstract: Existentialism is incontestably one of the most acclaimed and influential philosophical movements of thought in the twentieth century. It is on record that immediately after the Second World War, existentialism actually became the most fashionable philosophy in Europe and its importance and contributions could not longer be limited to Philosophy only. Consequently, many sister disciplines such as psychology, sociology, economics, political science to mention a few, found their modern inspiration and concepts in existentialism. Besides, Western culture was in crisis; for that reason many psychologists and psychiatrists became worried about the serious gasps that existed in their understanding human beings. They unanimously turned to existentialism which was seen by them as offering a basis for a humanistically oriented psychology. The main thrust of this paper therefore, is to see how far existentialism has been useful to psychology and psyhotherapy. In other words, on what grounds has existentialism, as a philosophical movement of thought, contributed to psychological and psychotherapeutic researches.So this paper is limited to the study of the correlation and interplay between existentialism, psychology and psyhotherapy. Its significance is predicated on the fact under the influence of Martin Heidegger, also known as the creator of the twentieth century existential philosophy coupled with the help of phenomenology ,existentialism has been able to rescue psychology from being drowned in a sea of theories that have lost contact with the everyday world and with the ‘givens’ of experience. More so, existentialism has succeeded in helping to revitalize a science (psychology) that many feel today that has become moribund. This paper therefore, draws the attention of psychologists and psychiatrists alike to the indispensability of existentialism in their fields of study despite its strong philosophical roots. Any serious psychologist and psychiatrist would admit that this actually constitutes an immense and original contribution of existentialism to psychology as we shall see throughout this paper. |
| Keywords: Existentialism, Phenomenology, Philosophy, Psychology and Psychotherapy |
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