About this event
INTO THE WILD WOODS: EXISTENTIAL RESPONSES TO TURBULENT TIMES
Annual Conference of the worldwide EXISTENTIAL MOVEMENT
With Onlinevents, on Friday 27 & 28 September 2024
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Each of us is currently confronted with the very serious existential challenges of the climate emergency, social division and unrest, and the pervasive threat of global war. This crisis reverberates in our personal lives in many profound ways, and it can feel a bit like being lost in the Wild Woods as we are confronted with previously hidden threats and fears and lose our usual sources of solace and sanctuary.
This conference will bring together ideas and insights from philosophers and therapists whose work can illuminate our quest for clarity and directionality, to safely get through these turbulent times.
Four keynote speakers and four invited speakers, as well as many other presenters from all over the world, will dazzle you with new ideas, sizzling discussions and debates and many wise thoughts that will light your way.
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INTO THE WILD WOODS
The phrase ‘the Wild Woods’ is likely to resonate with many of you. It will be familiar if you were introduced as a child to ‘The Wind in the Willows’, the classic novel by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908 and based on bedtime stories Grahame told his son Alastair. In this book we meet four woodland characters, Mole, Ratty, Toad and Badger, who are confronted by the perils and challenges of what we existential therapists would today term ‘problems of living’. Ostensibly a children’s book, the reason why it has endured and has appealed to a wider audience for more than a century is largely because, like all great literature, its central concern – conveyed anthropomorphically – is what it means to be human.
You are probably aware of the phrase littérature engagée, coined by Sartre after the Second World War to describe literature intended to promote social and political change through direct engagement with contemporary issues. ‘The Wind in the Willows’ conveys our own struggles and search for meaning indirectly, but no less powerfully, through the travails and experiences of its small cast of animal friends. We may empathise with Mole’s introversion, Ratty’s pragmatism, Toad’s pursuit of novelty and technological innovation, or Badger’s hermit-like but hospitable self-sufficiency, and we come to understand how each strategy enables them to create meaningful lives.
While these individual worlds appear bucolic and idyllic, they are boundaried and overshadowed by the ominously named ‘the Wild Wood’ and its malevolent denizens, the weasels, stoats and ferrets, who pose a constant threat. Only by collaborating with each other can the friends find the strength and courage to resist and prevail. Viewed through an existential lens, we might say that the lessons of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ are as relevant to us today than they have ever been. The early years of the twentieth century were marked by cultural insecurity and political turmoil which led to the First World War. Now, in the foothills of the twenty-first century, we are beset by numerous challenges, including climate emergency, social division and unrest, and the pervasive threat of global war.
We might wonder whether literature can provide any comfort or guidance at such a time; I want to suggest that ‘The Wind in the Willows’ does offer an interesting perspective on how we can respond to these turbulent times. The operative term in our conference title is ‘Into’: the band of animal friends make the difficult decision to go into the Wild Wood. It is in making this active choice that they discover their courage and their resilience. Existence precedes essence – they create themselves, as we existentialists term it, in action.
Choosing to act can, though, feel daunting. This is particularly the case when we despair or feel overwhelmed. It often seems easier to deny our freedom to choose ourselves. Instead we can ‘choose not to choose’, we can follow the herd. How, then, inspired by this novel, can we confront rather than attempt to evade these turbulent times – how can we venture into the Wild Woods?
Each of us is currently confronted with the very serious existential challenges of the climate emergency, social division and unrest, and the pervasive threat of global war. This crisis reverberates in our personal lives in many profound ways, and it can feel a bit like being lost in the Wild Woods as we are confronted with previously hidden threats and fears and lose our usual sources of solace and sanctuary.
This conference will bring together ideas and insights from philosophers and therapists whose work can illuminate our quest for clarity and directionality, to safely get through these turbulent times.
Four keynote speakers and four invited speakers, as well as many other presenters from all over the world, will dazzle you with new ideas, sizzling discussions and debates and many wise thoughts that will light your way.
TICKETS
You can choose your ticket price £25.00 / £37.50 / £50.00 – Early bird Prices
All tickets include access to the recording to stream in your own time
RECORDING
All tickets will give you access to recordings from the conference.
ZOOM
This workshop will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.
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All the colleagues at ONLINEVENTS and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a manner consistent with the BACP Ethical Framework, which can be accessed on the link below. When registering for this event you are agreeing to be present and interact in a manner that is consistent with this Framework.
KEYNOTES SPEAKERS
Defying the Dying of the Light – Prof Emmy van Deurzen
One way in which existential therapy has always stood out from other forms of therapy is by breaking the taboo on mortality and directly addressing finitude and death.
The Athenian philosophers, especially Socrates and Plato spoke clearly about death and how important it was to face our fears in relation to death. Stoics, especially the Roman branch, exemplified by Marcus Aurelius provided many concrete ways of dealing with the dread of death.
From Kierkegaard and Nietzsche onwards existential philosophers returned to this challenge, and Heidegger’s and Sartre’s work was groundbreaking in speaking so centrally about death and nothingness. When Becker wrote his book ‘the denial of death’ he addressed the deep-seated human tendency to fear death. Frankl’s work grew directly from his personal confrontation with death. Yalom’s ‘Existential Psychotherapy’ argued that death anxiety was at the root of most emotional problems.
Faced with new threats and darkness in the world it has become vital for existential therapists to give a clear lead in addressing life and death issues, especially in relation to wars, violence, the threat of climate emergency and the depletion of biodiversity. How can we work with atavistic fears, when they present themselves to us in new guises? How can we face these challenges and refuse to give in to the banality of evil that Hannah Arendt spoke of. Sinking into nihilism and wiping away the entire horizon, as Nietzsche put it so poetically in his Zarathustra is not the way to tame the dangers of the wild woods. This talk will consider how existential therapists can help human beings around the world in being more brave and more aware in the way we address our contemporary predicaments.
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Aggression: How We Defend Ourselves – Prof Alfried Längle
In a phenomenological view aggression is not understood as a drive that needs to be abreacted and searches for objects. Instead, aggression is seen as a psychodynamic capacity to defend oneself if needed, i.e. when a situation is overdemanding oneself and cannot be resolved or regulated by decided acts to remove the cause. Aggression appears as a reaction to a stimulus which has the quality of bringing me/you into the danger of destruction of something existentially important. According to the four dimensions of existence the aggressive reactions have different aims and are therefore different in structure. This will be exposed in this presentation which should help to understand and accept aggression better, as well as to deal with it accordingly to the specific existential theme involved and detectable by the type of aggression.
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Beauvoir, Camus, and Authentic Rebellion – Skye C. Cleary, PhD. MBA
Politically tumultuous times call for rebellion against injustices. But how might we rebel in authentic ways? Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus are two philosophers who grappled with this question during the turbulence of mid-twentieth century Europe. This session unpacks some of the philosophical ideas underpinning authentic rebellion from Beauvoir and Camus’s perspectives and explores some practical takeaways that can be gleaned from their work. Whereas Camus points to art, nonviolence, and moderation as strategies of authentic rebellion, Beauvoir focuses on raising awareness to tyrannical situations, oppressive mystifications, and complicity, including self-sabotage.
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Playing at the End of the World – Betty Cannon, PhD
My title makes me uneasy. The physical and socio-political disturbances we are experiencing in the wake of climate change seem to portend at least the end of the world as we know it. What to do? I suggest we adopt a perspective I see as counter to Sartre’s “spirit of seriousness,” which is the perspective of mechanistic objectivist determinism. I call it the “spirit of play.” I do not mean to suggest that we fiddle while the world burns or adopt a Pollyanna attitude. But I do think we need to become more open to possibilities, including the possibility that all we can do is change our perspective. As a therapist, I am aware that traumatized people have trouble playing. The intuitive response to disaster is retreat. But we can learn to play again, as my traumatized clients have taught me. If we do it right, perhaps the literal “wild woods” will endure––and so will we. And if not, we will have found ourselves playing at the literal end of the world––which is better than not playing at all.
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The Light in the Middle of the Tunnel – Dr Julian Baggini
Existential philosophy has from the outset prided itself on an unblinking view of reality at it is, without illusions. As such, it is unable to provide the kind of reassurance, hope and comfort that many feel they need in our turbulent times. It can nonetheless, give us resources to cope with adversity, affirm life and uphold values. This talk will explore ways I which we can use such resources without what Sartre called the false hope in belief that we will prevail and the end of the tunnel will come.
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Into the Wild Mind: Life-Enhancing Anxiety and the Experiential Democracy Dialogue – Kirk J. Schneider, PhD
Drawing on the 2024 film “Conclave” and related examples as background, I will describe life-enhancing anxiety and its implications for the bridge-building dialogue process I call the Experiential Democracy Dialogue. Life-Enhancing anxiety is the capacity to live with and make the best of the depth and mystery of existence; it’s also a capacity to live more on the edge of wonder and discovery than terror and overwhelm; and third, it is a profoundly needed skill in this era of anxiety-driven polarization and certitude. In the balance of the talk I will describe a one-on-one format that aims at humanizing starkly contrasting cultural and political positions. I will elaborate the structure of this format, including the six phases that comprise it, my experience facilitating it, and research that backs it. I will conclude my talk with a plea for integrating experiential democracy principles into peoples’ day-to-day lives, thus expanding and deepening our encounters with differences, “otherness,” and the radically unknown. Viewing of the film “Conclave” is highly recommended.
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WORKSHOPS:
A Walk on the Wild Side – Prof Simon du Plock
Attitudes to ‘the Wild’ have evolved to the extent that the malignant ‘Wild Wood’ found in literature in which we can be lost has been superseded by more benign notions such as ‘Forest Bathing’ in which we find ourselves. How has our attitude to the wild changed; what might the therapeutic gains of walking in untamed nature be now?
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The Joy of Making – Dr Martin Adams
What is our relationship with the material world? Can we meet the challenges it presents us with? This presentation will examine the existential meaning of how do we grow to understand our place in the material world and how we can engage with it to enrich how we are, how we can be and how we can effect change.
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New Challenges of Our Times: Possible Relations between Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and Existential Therapy – Dr Yaqui Martinez-Robles
The topic of psychedelics is increasingly present in social, scientific, and therapeutic conversations. More and more therapists hear from people who have had, or are planning to attend, an experience with psychedelics, whether recreationally, ceremonially, therapeutic or simply by curiosity. References to these substances appear more and more in journals and various publications, including the field of existential therapy. What we can observe as well, is that most of our colleagues feel confused about how to approach these kinds of experiences. After all, many of us were trained under the idea that drugs (regardless of what type of drugs they are referring to) are the devil himself. There are several perspectives where Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and phenomenological Existential Therapy share fundamental aspects and can learn from each other. And there are also certain challenges that each perspective places on the other. During this presentation, I would like to share some reflections about this emergent field.
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Modern Racism’s Roots in the Enlightenment and the Opposition of Emmanuel Levinas – Dr Peter Donders
As long as our society is dominated by the ideas of Enlightenment, it will inevitably by inherently racist and antisemitic. As long as western philosophy rules our way of thinking – from the ideas of Plato until and including Heidegger’s ontology – we will be committing violence unto the other – and ourselves. Emmanuel Levinas suggest that the only way to exist, is to submit to the Other. What does he mean by that?
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Little Red Riding Hood – Dr Evgenia Georganda
My favorite fairy tale as a child is a prime example of existential courage. This presentation will explore the possible roots of existential courage and will power so vital for facing life’s challenges. It is based on an existential-developmental understanding of human existence.
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Secret Worlding: A Workshop on Surviving the Ontological Apocalypse – Dr Chris Cleave & Dr Stella Duffy
As the end game of late stage capitalism brings us increasing poverty and war, the global rise of the far right, the catastrophes of climate change and mass extinction, and AI’s appropriation of everything we have ever created, it is easy to carry a sense of doom, with emotional exhaustion contributing to existential despair.
And yet these dark times are also our call to courage, solidarity and a particular kind of existential skill. We know from the lives of First Nation peoples in every continent, that while the ontological apocalypse of colonialisation steals and brutalises bodies and land, spirit can still be held in secret places, codes, hidden songs, and ways of being that might appear on the surface to conform, but in reality hold space for possibility.
From the caves at Lascaux to te reo Māori – rising after decades as a banned indigenous language – we suggest that each of us might have our own subterranean, immaterial world in which we can hold space for the unknown, the unknowable, the uncorruptible, and the unappropriable.In this workshop you will assemble a quiverful of secrets: your own hiding place for human being.We ask: what are you keeping safe? Where are you keeping it? Who is holding space for it? Who are we holding this space for? Who or what are we keeping it safe from? Whose other worlds are you keeping safe?
You bring pens, paper, colouring pencils, crayons, magic markers, precious things, secrets words and worlds – whatever appeals to you today – we’ll bring useful thinking from Lévinas, Weil, Kierkegaard, and Ortega, and let’s see what seeds we might grow individually and collectively. Vive la résistance!
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About Ukraine, from the Perspective of Those Who Remained and Those Who Sought Refuge Elsewhere – Anna Lelyk & Nataliia Gladka
We are Nataliia and Anna—colleagues and friends from Ukraine. We have had a different life experience: one of us left Ukraine when the war began as a refugee, while the other stayed at home.This experience has not created any problems either in everyday communication or professional sphere between us. More than that, it has offered us a great opportunity to phenomenologically examine different complex challenges and choices, we are facing at the moment.
Our experience has made us think it over, analyze every single detail and reflect on the idea that the phenomenon itself and the experience of the phenomenon are not the same thing.We want to share our personal reflections and thoughts on what a home itself means and what the feeling of home means for people in the context of the war. We’d like to discuss what it means to have “my place” in this world, what the safety is and what the meaning of feeling safe is, as well as the concept of freedom, loneliness, absurdity—both as phenomena and experiences of these phenomena.
Our presentation does not offer scientific discoveries but instead presents a deep exploration of personal experiences and the experiences of other people: our friends, relatives, colleagues.
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Emotional Intimacy with Waters of our Body and the Body of Earth – Dr Alja Lah, MSc, DcPsych
This will be a phenomenological exploration of embodiment of nature within us as well as embodiment of us within nature. Already Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger were hinting at the experiential embodied intertwining between ourselves, others and the world.
When we not only understand and realise but also feel and embody the intimate connection with nature, water, Earth, breath and fire we start to connect and care about nature from a place of integrity, vulnerability and power. This can be a part of our multidimensional embodiment that has a rippling effect on all life, on how we interact with ourselves, others and nature.
This is a workshop of tuning into the consciousness of water, the waters of the Earth and the waters of our bodies. I will lead an embodied exploration of the intelligence of water and how reconnecting with it can open us up to the flow of our emotions, sensations, passions, dreams and bring more clarity about how we can be a part of the greater flow of the changing times.
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Stoats and Weasels – Prof Digby Tantam
Kenneth Graeme was secretary of the Bank of England. He resigned from this post when only 49 and immediately published ‘Wind the Willows’ The title of this conference is taken from the title of one of the chapters in this book although it might be supposed that ‘Into the Wild Wood’ stands for ‘Into the Wide World’. Grahame had a difficult life and this is reflected in the anthropomorphised characters in the book. I focus in my talk on the Stoats and Weasels who are its villains, contributing much to the dangers of the Wild Wood. In the book, they are vanquished by larger members of the Mustelid family, ‘Otter’ and ‘Badger’, but in talk I consider what attitude we should take in the wide world to stoats and weasels with particular emphasis on what attitude we should take as psychotherapists.
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Existential Shattering and Trauma – Louis Hoffman, PhD
Existential shattering refers to the “Existential shattering is the sudden and unexpected dismantling, or shattering, of one’s self-conception and worldview as a consequence of an event or process that the individual has experienced” (Hoffman & Vallejos, p. 847). An existential shattering can emerge suddenly from a single event or result from a gradual process, such as a cumulation of events or questioning over time. Shatterings often occur in connection with a potentially traumatic event. The presence of an existential shattering with a traumatic event may help distinguish it from other types of trauma response. When a shattering is present, it indicates that work with meaning, worldview, and/or personal narratives may be an important aspect of the therapeutic treatment process. This presentation will give a brief introduction to the concept of existential shattering as well as considerations for psychotherapy.
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Gardening and the Art of Dwelling – Dr Rupert King
The therapeutic benefit of gardens and gardening has become well established in recent years. I will argue that gardening is also an opportunity to ‘dwell’. As Heidegger reminds us “Dwelling, however, is the basic character of Being”. In this presentation I will explore dwelling and its relevance to psychotherapy through the lens of gardening.
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Encountering Our Daimonics – Dr Marc Boaz
In order to understand the turbulence of our times, we must first turn to understand our own daimonics. Existential daimonics refers to our human capacity to bring about both great destruction/devastation and construction/creation in our own lives, and the world around us. There is no us and them when it comes to daimonic destructiveness and constructiveness; what divides us is ethical and reflexive. Extending and reformulating the work of Rollo May, and drawing on the reflexions of James Baldwin, I will suggest that understanding and holding the existential tensions that arise from dynamic relationship within our personal and collective daimonics can cultivate the ground for hope, understanding and healing.
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Climate Crisis – Anxiety and Hope: An Existential Emotional Exploration – Dr Claire Arnold Baker
The Climate Crisis has become increasingly present in our lives. Extreme weather events are now more common and the subject has become more prominent in the news. It has been described as an existential threat and of causing an existential crisis for people. It is therefore understandable that many people are experiencing a variety of emotions in relation to the climate crisis. This workshop aims to explore these differing emotional responses. Existential philsophical ideas will be introduced and an existential perspective to understanding emotions will be presented. It is hoped that this will help participants understand their emotional responses in a deeper way, enabling them to find a different perspective to living in these turbulent times.
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It is Truth that Heals – Dr Xuefu Wang
Existentialism came into China in the beginning of the 20th century. It was a time when a galaxy of Chinese reform-minded intellectuals launched New Culture Movement, which was likened to Renaissance by Hu Shi, the leader of this revolution.
Existential philosophers and writers, such as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky became inspiration to this group of Chinese visionaries. They began to reevaluate the Chinese tradition of culture by exposing how Chinese people have been indoctrinated by the feudalistic ideology and tyrannical ruling, which resulted in the Chinese mentality twisted into escapism. Lu Xun, the modern Chinese novelist and thinker, exposed this fact and advocated Zhi Mian as the antedote to mental escapism. The term Zhi Mian resonates deeply with existentialism in terms of facing the truth of reality, reflcting on suffering, and featuring individual.
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Exploring Freedom in a World Torn Between Love and Power – Dr Erik Craig
Of all our possible moods and emotions, those of attraction, affection, affiliation, or love on the one hand, and aversion, animosity, alienation, or aggression, on the other, seem to possess a uniquely preeminent capacity to seize hold of our existence. Whatever you might think of Freud’s dualistic theory of the drives, “Eros and Thanatos,” any familiarity with the natural world, study of art, literature, and the history of civilization, attention to the daily news, or simply attentive observation of our everyday lives offers copious evidence of our ready inclination toward these two particular relational comportments. Furthermore, contemporary affective neuroscience has now firmly established that these two fundamental tendencies are hardwired into our very own biological neurocircuitry. Given these circumstances and contingencies, where does our capacity for freedom lie? How far does it extend within the context of our inescapably finite human existence? This workshop is designed as an opportunity to explore and share our personal experience, understanding, and response to these issues and challenges in our lives, thrown as we are into these uncertain and unpredictable woods of our times.
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