I'll Take a New Look at my Old Brain

I learned online today about existential therapy. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/existential-therapy) I don't know that it's anything new, but it is a new term to add to my psychotherapeutic vocabulary.

Existential therapy can be described as an emphasis on free will and self-determination, centering on the individual instead of on the symptom. The approach emphasizes one's capacity to make rational decisions. It stresses that:

• All people have the capacity for self-awareness;
• Each person has a unique identity that can be known only through relationships with others;
• People must continually re-create themselves because life's meaning constantly changes;
• Anxiety is a fact of life.

Existential therapy is useful in dealing with "psychological problems" like substance abuse. The approach deals with people's inability to make choices about how to live, alleviating gunk such as anxiety, apathy, alienation, shame, addiction, despair, depression, guilt, anger, rage, resentment, embitterment, purposelessness, psychosis, and violence.

That pretty well describes current and past lives of everyone at any A.A. meeting.

Life-enhancing experiences that can replace those shortcomings include relationships, love, caring, commitment, courage, creativity, power, spirituality, individuation, self-actualization, authenticity, acceptance, transcendance, and awe.

This doesn't sound like anything really new to me, but it does collect a bunch of thoughts and lays them out in a helpful, head-scratching pattern. I'm going to meditate on both my inner-life shortcomings and my life-enhancing experiences listed. Then I'll decide what priorities I need to focus on, replacing the bad stuff with the good.