opathology. Most commonly utilised is the medical model which is limited in many respects, criticised for reducing patients problems to a list of pathological symptoms that have a primarily biological base and which are to be treated behaviourally or ph

macologically (Schwartz & Wiggins 1999). Such reductionistic positivist ways of viewing the individual maintain the medical discourse of ‘borderline personality’, schizoid’, ‘paranoid’ or ‘clinically depressed’, often failing to address the wider socio-

ltural environment of the individual. Pilgrim (1992) suggests that such diagnostic pidgeon-holing does not enhance humanity, nor aid those who are dealing with the distressed individual to find meaning. It also neglects to consider life beyond the physi

l, failing to address the more philosophical questions that abound from our very existence.

Existential psychiatry and psychology arose in Europe in the 1940’s and 1950’s as a direct response to the d

Existentialism may not offer a ‘how to’ approach to the problems of living but rather a lens through which to consider each person in their world. Existential views on pathology may not give evidence of a scientific paradigm but it can offer the science

f psychopathlogy roots much deeper and more significant to the human dilemma than other paradigms that seek mere quantification of mental illnesses. It offers a phenomenological approach to pathology, not a separation of id and ego, a reduction to pharm

Laing (1960) observes that some individuals do actually make the choice of withdrawing from the world of relatedness completely into their own self-made worlds. This he observed with schizophrenics when the environment, often the family, was experienced

Satre, J. P. (1951). Being and Nothingness. (Trans. H. Barnes) Methuen: London

an inner dead-lock. This case is likened to the general stupor of an apathetic society in which individuals have chosen to allow others to make their decisions, relinquishing the responsibility for their destinies, unable to make the decisions that mig

ilosophical ideas that emphasise the existence of the human being, the lack of meaning and purpose in life and the solitude of human existence. Existentialism stresses the jeopardy of life, the voidness of human reality and admits that the human being

l itself as neurotic anxiety (May & Yalom 1984), paralysing the individual. The common notion of mental health being an existence free from anxiety is thus considered absurd. Mental health is attributed to those who are able to live, as much as possibl

Some topics in this essay:
Britain Ironically, Schwartz Wiggins, Davison Neale, , Medard Boss, World War, Jean-Paul Satre, Peacock Owen, Martin Heidegger, University Press, university press, existential anxiety, yalom 1984, laing 1960, 1984 existential, deurzen-smith 1996, existential psychotherapy, owen 1994, frankl 1963, bugental 1978, existential therapy dryden, buckingham university press, trans lowrie princeton, discontents buckingham university, therapy dryden ed,