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	Exploring Existential Psychology at ZMIP
Publishing date：2008-5-30 17:11:48 Click times ：
Most of us had heard of existentialism, but existential psychology? We know Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Satre, and Camus, but Frankl, May, and Yalom? Yet on the shelves of Zhi Mian there are books by these writers, in both English and Chinese. Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl), Man’s Search for Himself (Rollo May), The Gift of Therapy (Irvin Yalom). Most of the counselors are familiar with Yalom’s Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy. Mark Yang, who flies in from Hong Kong for the weekend to co-lead the workshop, says he has found a home in existential psychology. Though not everyone found it to be a perfect fit, by the end of the weekend quite a few of the rest of us began to have similar feelings. Existential Psychology is a part of Humanistic Psychology, a third branch of psychotherapy that Zhi Mian Psychology also claims. Unlike the Freudian and Neo-Freudian psychoanalysis that has greatly influenced practice of psychotherapy in China, existential psychology emphasizes relationship over analysis, and looks to the present and future rather than the past for meaning and solutions. The relationship between client and counselor is an end in itself, rather than the means to an end, and it’s by facing the present struggle and both our personal limits and meaning that we overcome psychological barriers. According to the definition Yang presented, existential psychology “focuses on concerns that are rooted in the individual’s existence.” Death (or other losses). Anxiety. Isolation. Meaninglessness. These are the givens that we face, and must face, in our struggle to grow, to become full human beings. Coming to terms with our finiteness brings a change in perspective, and a chance for growth. In the will-to-meaning (rather than Freud’s will-to-pleasure or Adler’s will-to-power), we find the ability to live. We find, in a very unique and individual way, freedom and responsibility in our own struggle. Yang, who has Chinese roots but a mostly Western perspective, came not just introducing existential psychology, but looking for how it fits, or even has roots, in Chinese culture. The weekend forum was only the beginning of what he and many of the ZMIP participants hope will be a continued exploration and development of existential psychology in the Chinese context. The participants find similarity to Zhi Mian Psychology, and to Lao Tze’s “Tao” that has widely influenced Chinese culture and thought. The tao is logos is meaning, the search for which is central to existential psychology. There is always meaning; the task is becoming conscious of it. “Only after you’re aware can you use it,” says a Chinese proverb.
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Most of us had heard of existentialism, but existential psychology? We know Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Satre, and Camus, but Frankl, May, and Yalom?

Yet on the shelves of Zhi Mian there are books by these writers, in both English and Chinese. Man’s Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl), Man’s Search for Himself (Rollo May), The Gift of Therapy (Irvin Yalom). Most of the counselors are familiar with Yalom’s Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy.

Mark Yang, who flies in from Hong Kong for the weekend to co-lead the workshop, says he has found a home in existential psychology. Though not everyone found it to be a perfect fit, by the end of the weekend quite a few of the rest of us began to have similar feelings.

Existential Psychology is a part of Humanistic Psychology, a third branch of psychotherapy that Zhi Mian Psychology also claims. Unlike the Freudian and Neo-Freudian psychoanalysis that has greatly influenced practice of psychotherapy in China, existential psychology emphasizes relationship over analysis, and looks to the present and future rather than the past for meaning and solutions. The relationship between client and counselor is an end in itself, rather than the means to an end, and it’s by facing the present struggle and both our personal limits and meaning that we overcome psychological barriers.

According to the definition Yang presented, existential psychology “focuses on concerns that are rooted in the individual’s existence.” Death (or other losses). Anxiety. Isolation. Meaninglessness. These are the givens that we face, and must face, in our struggle to grow, to become full human beings.

Coming to terms with our finiteness brings a change in perspective, and a chance for growth. In the will-to-meaning (rather than Freud’s will-to-pleasure or Adler’s will-to-power), we find the ability to live. We find, in a very unique and individual way, freedom and responsibility in our own struggle.

Yang, who has Chinese roots but a mostly Western perspective, came not just introducing existential psychology, but looking for how it fits, or even has roots, in Chinese culture. The weekend forum was only the beginning of what he and many of the ZMIP participants hope will be a continued exploration and development of existential psychology in the Chinese context.

The participants find similarity to Zhi Mian Psychology, and to Lao Tze’s “Tao” that has widely influenced Chinese culture and thought. The tao is logos is meaning, the search for which is central to existential psychology. There is always meaning; the task is becoming conscious of it. “Only after you’re aware can you use it,” says a Chinese proverb.