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Major Theories Paper
Major Theories Paper
Miles W. Shane
College of Education, Wayne State University
CED 6025, Loubna Alkhayat-Hatahet
Due December 12, 2022
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Major Theories Paper
Abstract
Existentialism therapy and Adlerian therapy are two major theories that have some
amount of crossover in their assumptions and applications but they came to be from very
different circumstances. Friederich Nietzsche is considered to be one of the founders of
existentialism and his experiences and reactions to nihilism heavily shaped his ideas concerning
existentialism. This contrasts with Alfred Adler, the founder of Adlerian therapy, who
developed his ideas from a psychoanalytic perspective. In this paper, we will examine the paths
that led to the creation of these two theories as well as their similarities and differences in
worldview and implementation of treatment for clients.
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Major Theories Paper
Existential Therapy vs Adlerian Therapy
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born on October 15th, 1844 to Karl Ludwig, a Lutheran
minister and Franziska Nietzsche. Karl Ludwig passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage when
when Friederich was five years old, leaving behind Franziska, Friederich and his two other
siblings. Afterwards, Nietzsche’s family moved to Naumburg, Saxony, where Nietzsche
attended Schulpforta, a prestigious boarding school. It was here that Nietzsche started upon his
path towards philosophy.
There were several important influences on Nietzsche, especially during his earlier years.
As his father was a pastor, Christianity had a huge role in Nietzsche’s childhood. He grew up in
a strict religious home, causing young Nietzsche to fantasize about an escape and ways to make
his life meaningful and fulfilling. Nietzsche read the works of the German romantics and the
ancient Greeks, though he was most influenced by Richard Wagner and Arthur Schopenhauer.
Wagner shared Nietzsche’s initial love on Schopenhauer and had impressed the young
man with his attempts to revitalize culture through art. In his first work, Nietzsche praised
Schopenhauer as the savior of the “earnestness of existence” (Nietzsche, 1872). However, it was
this same earnestness that led Nietzsche to distance himself from Wagner in later years as he
grew disappointed in the baseness and banality of popular culture.
While studying in Liepzig, Nietzsche encountered the works of Arthur Schopenhaur for
the first time. Immediately, Nietzsche was taken in by his writing; it would not be an
exaggeration to say that Nietzsche idolized the man. There were several key points where their
philosophies differed. Nietzsche rejected Schopenhauer’s advocacy of separating oneself from
will and desires, calling it passive nihilism (Nietzsche, 1887). In Nietzsche’s eyes, nihilism is
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Major Theories Paper
not at the destination of human existence, but an obstacle or crisis to overcome. Through this
crisis, would lead humanity to true strength (Nietzsche, 1974).
Existential therapy centers on the individual rather than their symptoms and emphasizes
free choice, self-determination, and the search for meaning. The method stresses a person's
ability to make intelligent decisions and reach their full potential. Existential therapy is not seen
as a specific technique by some practitioners, but rather as a perspective toward treatment.
Patients who feel an existential danger or dread when their security and identity are threatened
benefit greatly from this form of therapy (Terao & Satoh, 2021).
Nietzsche described human nature as something unique to each individual. He argued
that humans are at a stage of progress, not the pinnacle, in terms of human nature. Because of
this, it is dangerous for people to celebrate their accomplishments and be happy with their station
in life, as that would lead to stagnation and jeopardizing their claims to be human. If they wish
to avoid regressing to a lower level of humanity, they must always try to outperform themselves
to pave the way for what he refers to as "the superman," or "overman" (Lemm, 2018).
According to Nietzsche, people experience issues because they lose sight of who they
are. Certain members of our society are brought up in a rigidly organized, life-delegating
environment. This idea plagues a lot of people, and it often leads to internal problems later in
life when they are adults. Because of the mold that their environment has created, people
experience conflict as they age regarding their objectives, purpose in life, and self-development.
According to Nietzsche, the ideal human being must develop his or her own identity via selfrealization and do so independently of anything that transcends this life, like God or a soul.
To assist their clients to reach a new understanding and alternatives, existential therapists
are most interested in comprehending their clients' subjective worlds. Existential therapists are
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Major Theories Paper
extremely concerned when their clients try to avoid taking responsibility; they persistently
encourage them to do so. Traditionally the client complains about their circumstances and places
blame on others. Based on the idea that what matters is life outside of treatment, existential
therapists promote experimentation both within and outside the therapy room (Corey, 2017)
The client can more clearly see their current reality and acknowledge their role in it. The
client is urged to accept accountability for actions and made aware that leading an honest life
necessitates taking a risk. During this time clients are also responsible for self-reflecting and
evaluating potential outcomes from previous actions from their past. Existential therapy is aimed
towards removing roadblocks to beautiful living and helping clients assume responsibility for
their actions.
The overarching goal of existential therapy is to enable clients to be honest, open, and
fully explore their lived experiences. Through this spontaneous and collaborative process of
discovery, clients gain a clearer sense of their experiences and their subjective meaning. This
self-inquiry offers individuals the opportunity to engage and tackle all kinds of profound
philosophical, spiritual, and existential issues, as well as the more mundane challenges of
everyday life. By being fully involved in this supportive, exploratory, and challenging process,
clients can accept themselves as they are and take responsibility for the way they choose to live.
As a result, it can also encourage them to choose a present and future ways of being that they
find deeply satisfying, meaningful, and authentic.
With all theories, there come some challenges when implementing the theory across all
demographics and walks of life. What may be successful with one group may not work with
another. When counseling, there are many aspects to consider when working with different
clients. . Existential therapy is uniquely suited to work with clients of different cultures because
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Major Theories Paper
it relies on universal experiences. The topics the theory touches on transcend barriers and touch
bases with experiences that everyone goes through. From love, to pain, disappointment,
mistakes, anxiety, and death. Though we may be different, this theory is great to help dissect the
similarities and differences between one another. There are no barriers when it comes to this
theory with the human experience. It is up to the counselor and their skill set how they would
like to utilize this theory to their benefit.
While existential therapy is extremely effective at relating topics to the client, there are
some possible difficulties that can arise when working with diverse groups. The goal and driving
point of existential therapy is to self-reflect and make decisions to improve one's life. This is
possible for many but hard for some. Many cultures have a more collectivist slant to them than
the western-style organization of society that we are accustomed to in the United States. In these
places, individualistic actions could be frowned upon or interpreted as selfish - displaying and a
lack of care about what is best for the community. Following through the steps in existential
therapy might be difficult for these individuals, so special care needs to be taken when following
this course of action. Even in the United States, it is important for the counselor to tread
carefully when talking through a course of action. Simply telling a client to “just make better
decisions to get out of poverty” can come off as patronizing and insensitive which will lead to a
loss of trust and distance from the client. It is important to differentiate between the things that
the client is and is not responsible for. In fact, it is this very differentiation that separated
Nietzche’s philosophy on the matter from Schopenhauer. Instead of succumbing to a passive
nihilism and acceptance of a situation, the existentialist instead identifies the things that they are
in control of and works towards the destiny that they choose for themselves (Nietzsche, 1887).
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Major Theories Paper
Alfred Adler was a physician, and psychotherapist, who was born outside of Vienna on
February 7, 1870, and passed away on May 28, 1937 (Cherry, 2020) Adler attended the
University of Vienna in Australia where he would receive his Medical Degree in ophthalmology.
He soon began his career as an ophthalmologist, but soon switched to general practice in a less
affluent area of Vienna near an amusement park and circus. Adler had a very kind heart, was
confident, and was driven by giving back to the community through creating solidarity and
suppoorting the people. While treating workers at the circus, Adler was exposed to people from
many different walks of life and thus began to empathize with them and recognize the need for
therapeutic help that some of them showed.
Adler regularly met with his contemporaries Sigmund Freud, Rudolf Reitler and
Wilhelm Stekel to discuss their philosophical methods. These meeting would eventually serve as
the breeding ground for the burgeoning psychoanalytic movement. TAB2 After some time,
Adler broke with Freud due to conflicts between the two regarding Freud’s sexuality. From there
Adler went on to develop his own ideology which eventually became the Adlerian Theory.
Adler believed that it is in human nature to strive for perfection and superiority, and to be
motivated through goal-setting and purposeful actions. “This teleology, this striving for a goal, is
innate in the concept of adaptation. We can only imagine a psychic life with a goal towards
which the movements which exist in the psychic life, are directed. The psychic life of man is
determined by his goal. No human being can think, feel, will, dream, without all these activities
being determined, continued, modified and directed, toward an ever-present objective” (Adler,
1952a) Without personal motivation and self-accountability, society crumbles. The miasma of
apathy will not only haunt the individuals, but linger and wound their family and those close to
them. Only through addressing these root issues can the generational and societal wounds begin
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Major Theories Paper
to heal. Adler believes that every action, no matter how seemingly insignificant has deep
reaching consequences. The first few years of life are integral in shaping one’s self and in turn
are shaped by the social context and environment that they are experienced in. Family values,
gender roles, even birth order are factors that play a huge role in developing the challenges that
individuals will face later on in their adult years. Troubles are not inherent to the individual, but
are inherited through their upbringing (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2015)
There is a misconception among clients regarding therapy. People have this idea of
therapy in that it’s the counselor is the only one who has any work and responsibility during
counseling sessions. Though people seek a counselor's help, the client has responsibilities as well
to contribute to their own development and growth. The relationship for the client's growth is a
collaborative effort. The client's responsibility in Adlerian theory is to be receptive to change and
willing to acknowledge psychopathology. Insight, lifestyle, and community can help clients find
themselves. The therapeutic relationship's function is founded on respect, care, good listening,
and trust (Adler, 1932). Goals, encouragement, childhood memories, and societal context are all
part of the trip that the client and therapist encounter on an equal footing. "Clients are urged to
participate actively in treatment" (Horner, Pilar, et al, 2012)
The counselor's job is to interact with the client in a way that inspires trust, empathy, and
encourages them to remove their individual biases. The counselor administers a questionnaire
about the family constellation and performs an evaluation of the client’s home life and family
dynamic. This helps the counselor learn more about the context of the client’s childhood and
upbringing, as well as establish their therapeutic objective. The therapist assists the patient in
understanding their psychopathology and learning how to better oneself. The therapist uses an
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Major Theories Paper
idiographic approach to treatment, which considers things from the client’s perspective rather
than treating them as a diagnosis.
The purpose of Adler therapy is to challenge and promote the client's goals, and
aspirations and inspire the client to strive for perfection and superiority (Rashid, 2021). 4th link.
The Adlerian technicques to accomplishing these goals are: asking questions, acting as if and the
push button technique. In the asking questions technique, the counselor asks variations of the
following questions formulated by Adler: “How would your life be different if this problem were
gone?” This question forces the client to think in terms of the new reality in which the problem
no longer plagues them. Next, in the acting-as-if technique, the counselor asks the client to
pretend like they are just playing a game. For example, the client suggests a task that they should
perform. If the task cannot be completed, the therapist works with the client to find out what
prevented them from experiencing success. Lastly, the push button technique helps the client to
verify their role in maintaining or creating their own and present feelings. In this technique
the counselor asks the client to close their eyes and think of a time in their life when they felt
happy, loved, and successful. They are asked to concentrate on all the details that the emotion
evokes. This is to identify the factors in that moment and to analyze those in the context of
future actions.
Regarding multicultural considerations, the Adlerian Theory has many positive aspects,
but also some detrimental ones as well that can hinder progress. This can be especially
pronounced with clientele from different cultural backgrounds than the normalized western
ideology. Some cultures rather not engage or relive some life-altering events from their past or
speak on their childhood and focus the conversation on the present. Depending on the counselor,
some counselors may not know how to maneuver the theory in the client’s best interest and try to
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Major Theories Paper
impose western ideologies into the counseling session where western ideologies such as birth
order may not have any implications or influence on the client's upbringing.
Speaking from a Thai background and growing up in the culture, family information
stays in the house. It goes against the culture to share familial information with others, since
information exchanged within the house is perceived as sacred. Without an understanding of a
client’s particular cultural background, the counselor may get tunnel-vision and give off a
negative impression from the client's perspective or misdiagnosis from a lack of understanding
and exploration of the client's cultural background.
A benefit with Adlerian theory in multicultural matters is the relatability of with universal
subject matters regarding childhood, upbringing, the past, and birth order. It is important when
discussing these that the counselor, instead of trying to shoehorn the client into predetermined
paradigms, founds the therapeutic process on the client's culture and worldview.
The foundation of Adlerian philosophy is the idea to remove inferiority emotions.
Inferiority emotions are a feature of the human condition and hinder attempts at accomplishment,
mastery, and fulfillment. Additionally, according to Adlerian philosophy, our conduct is
influenced by a combination of genetic, environmental, and human limits and capacities. Only to
the degree that genetics and environment will permit, we are free to choose the lives we desire.
The fundamental ideas of existential theory focus on the concepts of solitude, morality,
freedom, and responsibility. The hardships that the average person endures during their lifetime
are a subject examined in existential theory. Existentialism promotes reflection about existential
thinking to address the troubling ideas that hinder humans in their pursuit of joy. A main
assumption of existential theory is that humans are free and also accountable for their own
decisions and behaviors. The self-awareness capacity goes hand-in-hand with the concept of
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Major Theories Paper
freedom: the more self-aware one is, the more free one is. Humans can only create and mold
their fates because humans have the capacity for freedom and self-awareness.
The intention of every counselor is to help improve the lives of their clients through
therapeutic implementations of practices with their preferred theory. Both the existential and
Adlerian theory has many similarities as well as differences. Both therapies aims include
assisting clients in being aware of their surroundings and reducing concern about trivial things in
life. The client's goals are best served by a combination of the two therapies. The therapies help
the patient manage any anxiety brought on by their current circumstances in life. They support
people in staying in the present rather than dwelling on the uncertain past or future. They both
link the client with a spiritual entity and the psychological, especially living, which is another
similarity between them.
For different goals, various therapies are utilized. Adlerian therapy is frequently utilized
and believed to address an individual's life, from birth order to the causes of familial immaturity,
whereas existential therapy considers the actions one might take in the future. It seeks to address
queries about people's daily lives and focuses more on the purpose of life. While Adlerian
therapy concentrates on utilizing personal psychology to ensure the delivery of services
necessary for advancement, existential therapy emphasizes the path people travel in the growth
process until they attain their maximum levels of self-esteem and self-actualization.
In conclusion, I picked both theories because, in the present, if I were a professional
counselor, I think these two theories would be the greatest fits for my preferences and style of
counseling clients. Of course, given where I am in my master's program and how early in my
college career I am, this may change in the future, but for now, if I had to choose, these two are
suitable. The similarity of these techniques while advising individuals caught me off guard. I had
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Major Theories Paper
no idea how a slight adjustment to a strategy, such as reflecting on one's background and more
recent experiences, might create different results for clients while still achieving the same
objectives. I don't anticipate favoring either over the other. Instead, I would combine the two
approaches into one and apply the client's preferences to both.
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Major Theories Paper
References
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