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An Investigation into the Theoretical Foundations of Bugental’s Existential-analytic Psychotherapy

Author: WangDong
Tutor: GaoShenChun
School: Jilin University
Course: Philosophy of Science and Technology
Keywords: Bugental Humanistic psychology Existential-analytic psychotherapy Existentialism
CLC: B84-067
Type: PhD thesis
Year: 2013
Downloads: 126
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Abstract

James F. T. Bugental is one of the most influential American psychologists andpsychotherapists in the20th century, especially in psychology and psychotherapy ofthe humanistic approach. He facilitated the humanistic psychology movement withAbraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Rollo May etc. in the middle of the20th centuryand is generally recognized as one of the founders of the humanistic psychology. Onbehalf of the existential approach of the humanistic psychology tradition with RolloMay, Bugental made unique contribution to the theoretical construction and clinicalapplication of the existential-humanistic psychology.Generally speaking, wide attention is paid to the humanistic psychology and itspsychotherapy by the scholar in our nation both in the researches of the fundamentaltheories of psychology and in the practice of psychotherapy. A lot of achievements aremade based on this. In this background, the thoughts of most humanisticpsychologists, such as Maslow, Rogers, and May, has been given abroad attention notonly in the translation of their main works but also in the extensive studies of theirthoughts in philosophy, psychology, psychotherapy and education, which are appliedin the practice of our social life. Compared to these psychologists, Bugental is lessfamiliar to the Chinese researchers and readers. None of his works has been translatedinto Chinese so far. And his thoughts are only mentioned in the introduction of thehistory of western psychology by a few researchers with academic inherits. This baresno proportion to his position in psychology and psychotherapy, which not only isunfair to Bugental himself as a thinker but also restricts our understanding ofhumanistic psychology and its psychotherapy as a whole. Considering thisbackground, this thesis focuses on Bugental’s psychotherapeutic thoughts tocompensate for the missing part of our researches of humanistic psychology.The topic and research of this thesis are conducted under the guiding of mysupervisor. So during my study for the doctor’s degree, I paid special attention to thecollecting and studying of Bugental’s works. I have collected all of Bugental’s monographs and have collected his papers and researches on him as many as possible.This thesis is mainly based on these first-hand resources.Bugental was a clinical psychotherapist in private practice. His vocationalattribute determines the structure of his works, the expression of his thoughts, and thespecial process of the historical generation of his thoughts. The subjects of his worksare on psychotherapy from a direct view in terms of the structure of his works.However, psychotherapy as a human undertaking must be based on the understandingof the nature of human existence. As a result, any kind of psychotherapy must imply awhole set of ontological explanations of human natures. In other words, Bugental’sexplanation of the fundamental principles of humanistic psychology or psychology ingeneral pervades in his discussion of psychotherapy; his existential understanding ofhuman natures determines his basic position of psychology as well as the characterand prescriptive nature of his system of psychotherapy.From the perspective of the development of Bugental’s thoughts, early in hiscareer, namely, in the1950s, the field of psychotherapy was dominated bypsychoanalysis and behaviorism to which he turned an unfavorable attitude. The basisof that attitude is his genuine life experience acquired by his participation in humanlife as an authentic human being. But the ontology of human nature as the theoreticalbasis of the practice of psychotherapy cannot remain at the level of undifferentiatedlife experience but should be explained by systematic theories. So he was in hiselement when he got to know the phenomenology and existentialism from Europe,which he used to express his life experience and construct his psychotherapy system.This brings a great challenge to the research and writing of this dissertation. In aword, Bugental’s thought always lies behind his description of the practice ofpsychotherapy, although with a few exceptions of systematic discussion. So for thepurpose of describing Bugental’s Existential-analytic psychotherapy completely, weshould at first destruct his works to get hold of the whole thoughts behind hispsychotherapeutic practice and then construct it in a way which sticks to its innerlogic. This is the general thought of this thesis.The thesis divides into six parts. Chapter one is an introduction of Bugental’s position and achievements in psychology and psychotherapy and specially reviews theresearch status of Bugental in China to illustrate the background and significance ofthe topic and the basic idea of the thesis.Chapter two reviews the notion of Existential-analytic psychotherapy and itstheory source to state the subject of the thesis. The part that explains the notionillustrates the differences between Bugental’s Existential-analytic psychotherapy andthe Daseinsanalysis movement in psychiatry and psychotherapy of Europe to makeclear the peculiarity of Bugental’s Existential-analytic system. Bugental’s thoughtsstem firstly from his genuine attitude to life and his experiences of psychotherapygathered in this attitude, and then from the influence fromphenomenological-existential movement and Freud’s psychoanalysis, which areinvestigated separately.The theoretical basis of Existential-analytic psychotherapy is studied in chapterthree. The theoretical basis in fact expresses Bugental’s ontological thoughts onhuman nature which consist the base or starting point of his whole thinking andpractice and expressed in the words of existentialism. This is composed of two aspects:Awareness is the prerequisite of human’s existences; Authenticity is the mostimportant value of human’s existences. Bugental completed the existential analysis ofthe living condition of people in real life based on this thinking and revealed theontological and psychopathological significance of anxiety.Chapter four analyzes the psychopathological moder of Existential-analyticpsychotherapy. In fact, Bugental never discussed this question specially, for hisexistentialist standpoint made him tend to refuse the pathological mode of thinking.However, depending on the practical nature of psychotherapy, psychopathology mustconstitute the negative aspect of any therapeutic system. The contents of chapter fourinclude the illustration of the origin of neurosis by the existential analysis of thedenature of anxiety, the clarification of the intrinsic mechanism of neurosis by thepsychodynamic analysis of resistance, and the illustration of the existing mode ofneurosis form the negative aspect based on the ontological idea of human nature. Thispsychopathological mode also indicates the influence of existentialism and psychoanalysis to Bugental.The clinical practice of existential-analytic psychotherapy is studied in chapterfive. Firstly Bugental’s understanding of psychotherapy as a human undertaking andthe position of existential-analytic psychotherapy in the pedigree of psychotherapymade by all kinds of methods are studied. Then the nature of the existential-analyticpsychotherapy is studied by the description of the clinic features of the practice ofexistential-analytic psychotherapy. This chapter focuses on the two-stage theory of theexistential-analytic psychotherapy and the task of each stage, especially the reveal ofthe core and inherent characteristic of Bugental’s thinking. It is this core and inherentcharacteristic that determine the humanistic nature of the existential-analyticpsychotherapy and contribute a great deal to humanistic psychology, and imply thesignificances as a revolution to the theoretical basis of psychology as a science.Chapter six is assessment and conclusion. The contributions and limitations ofBugental’s Existential-analytic psychotherapy is studied. And a general but necessaryreflection of the theoretical basis of psychology is made within the context of theunderstanding of humanistic psychology and its history as an additional explanationof the significance and value of this research.

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