Fundamentos filosóficos de la psicoterapia existencial

Resumen

ABSTRACT This thesis aims to analyse the philosophical foundations of Existential Psychotherapy, a psychological paradigm built on the grounds of philosophies of existence and phenomenology. In order to do so, it also aims to stand out two fundamental ideas: on the one side, the fact that no psychology can escape from philosophy, since any psychological paradigm is built on an image of the human being and, therefore, it accepts a philosophical anthropology; on the other side, the need of recovering the therapeutic conception of philosophy, that ancient philosophy tradition understood as wisdom for life. Once these ideas have been defended, the present investigation analyses the paradigm of Existential Psychotherapy by studying its aims, its mental health conception, the method it proposes as well as its representatives, paying special attention to the philosophical ideas that arise in regard to the analysis of the four fundamental concerns of human being according to Existential Psychotherapy: death, freedom and responsibility, meaning of life and existential isolation. This thesis aims as well to be a defence of this way of understanding psychology, which escapes from the prevailing medical-pathological model, mainly focused on the eagerness to diagnose and prescribe treatments to patients. Through the description of the current outlook of Existential Psychotherapy in the world (which is growing, albeit slowly) and through the voice of some professionals in psychology and psychiatry who have been interviewed for this research, it is aimed to encourage the study and reconciliation between these two fields of human knowledge (philosophy and psychology) that were artificially separate. This separation gave as a result a dehumanized psychology, which only validates the biomedical model and the positivist scientific method and which is at the service of diagnosis rather than at the service of the flesh and blood human being. Keywords: existential psychotherapy, philosophies of existence, phenomenology, existential concerns, mental health, medicalisation.