Reflective psychotherapy : an extrapolation from Jean-Paul Sartre's existential philosophy
Abstract
The final form that this essay has taken arises from an initial impetus to investigate the role of imagery in psychotherapy.Three recent articles (Singer, 1970; Singer, 1971; Cordner, 1970) reviewed the recent upsurge of interest in the use of imagery in psychotherapy. These authors did not find any systematic account capable of integrating the various uses of imagery in psychotherapy; nor did they provide any useful theoretical integration themselves.
The use of imagery in psychotherapy varies from the traditional psychoanalytic use of "free associated" fantasy to Assagioli's (1965) extensive system of psychotherapy
called Psychosynthesis which relies solely on image visualization and on to Gendlin's (1970) technique of Experiential Focusing and Wolpe's (1958)procedure of Systematic Desensitization. In attempting to integrate these diversified theoretical framework into a meaningful conceptual system, I am struck by the lack of reference to the role of the activity of imagining on the part of the patient in psychotherapy. Most psychotherapists have put the emphasis
on the content of imagery in accounting for their therapeutic effectiveness. This led to an exploration into the process of imagining. Subjectively, when I engage in an act of imagining I find myself changing the focus of consciousness. In other words there is an alteration in what I am conscious of This brought me back to the issue of consciousness which is the topic of the present essay - the implication of the concept of Consciousness and its component element of Reflection in psychotherapy. Specifically, it is an examination of one particular conceptual system of conscious ness- Jean-Paul Sartre's Existential Philosophy of Conscious ness - for its implication in the practice of psychotherapy.
I hope to show that what has commonly been referred to as "the mysticism of Existentialism" can be understood
in practical psychotherapeutic terms. Most important of all, I hope to show that the process of psychotherapy can be better understood using the concept of reflection in terms of the change in level of consciousness. It is thus an attempt towards providing a general theory of psychotherapy based upon Sartre's version of Existentialism. Chapter I takes a quick look at the concept of consciousness in general psychotherapeutic literature. In this chapter, the purpose of this essay will be further elaborated, Chapter II introduces Sartre's conceptua system of consciousness and reflection which will be applied in a general discussion of psychopathology in
Chapter III. In the next two chapters the focus is specifically on the process of psychotherapy, with Chapter IV attempting to relate the concept of reflection to the general process of psychotherapy and Chapter V to further illustrate this through a discussion of some specific techniques of psychotherapy. This is followed by the conclusion to the essay in Chapter VI.