Citation

Shahar G. Psychoanal. Psychol. 2022; 39(1): 5-11.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/pap0000395

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Carlo Strenger was a unique person, for many reasons. One such reason was his ability to integrate the existential (humanistic) and psychoanalytic schools of thought into a seamless whole. Nowhere is this seamless integration more apparent than in Strenger's treatment of inner freedom. In this article, I juxtapose Irvin Yalom's seminal work on the four existential concerns in psychopathology and psychotherapy (death, responsibility, isolation, and meaning) against Strenger's work on the psychodynamics of inner freedom. More specifically, I touch upon Strenger's identification of three psychological processes that enable inner freedom: self-creation (the tendency of some people to create their own personality "from the ashes," in the face of serious traumatic life circumstances), Sosein (active self-acceptance of one's own mistakes through life), and the act of transcending the fear of insignificance (the ability to live life through one's own eyes rather than through the eyes of historical accounts). Strenger's illumination of these processes, I argue, construes inner freedom as a higher-order existential concern that underlies the four concerns discussed by Yalom. I then discuss the way I put these theoretical observations to use in my theoretical and clinical work, focusing on depression and suicidality. © 2022. American Psychological Association

Language: en

Keywords

human; depression; suicide attempt; hospitalization; death; psychoanalysis; psychodynamics; emotion; freedom; Freedom; psychotherapist; psychological theory; day care; Article; theoretical study; emotional abuse; cognitive behavioral therapy; meaning-making; isolation; active self acceptance; Existential psychoanalysis; Four Existential Concern; inner freedom; reformulated object relation theory; self creation; Strenger; Yalom