The same things that divide us also unite us. We live in a global human community and come together from different continents and cultural traditions. We are different and disparate, yet each of us can feel disenfranchised and desperate. We compete for the same resources and safety, but when we share there is enough for each of us. We tread on each other’s toes and easily come to fear each other, yet we are capable of love.
The time is ripe to create a wider philosophical perspective so that we can build bridges between us, for a more united future. This is a personal, social, political and spiritual challenge and can only be achieved if we are able and willing to build trust in each other, developing mutual respect and collaboration. This is a daily process and it starts with the realization that we really do have a lot of existential fears and challenges in common. This is good because it means we can learn to work together in handling the very conflicts that seem to divide us, but which actually unite us.
Course Content
Organisation
“Bringing Wisdom to the World”
If you have been wondering where you might be able to find a group of people who want to bring their knowledge and experience to a worldwide movement for a better way of life, you have just found it.
Existential ideas are a powerfully alternative way of looking at human existence. These ideas have been around for many millennia, in the Athenian philosophies, the Eastern philosophical traditions and even, in a sense in pagan philosophies.
They became much more prominent in the 19th century with the writings of Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche and came to fruition with the work of Husserl, when he provided the method of phenomenology.
Most people have heard about existentialism, a mainly French 20th century philosophical movement, that broke the mould of philosophy and made it about human existence, rather than about human knowledge.
Since then existential ideas have been applied vigorously to the practice of psychology and psychotherapy and a movement of existential therapy was generated over the past century, that is now extremely popular. All around the world existential therapists work in this way and every four years they come together for the World Congress of Existential Therapy.
However it has now become vital to broaden the scope of the movement. As the world is in turmoil and going through extremely dangerous times, humanity seems to have lost track of the things that really matter. People have placed consumerism, profitability and competition at the foreground of human existence and have stopped noticing how they are ruining the eco system of the planet as well as the emotional climate in which we all live.
Presenter
Emmy van Deurzen is a professor of Psychology and Psychotherapy with 18 books to her name, several of which have been translated into a dozen languages. She is the Co-Founder and Principal of the Existential Academy, where she also runs post graduate courses through the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling in partnership with Middlesex University and her private practice.
Born and raised in the Netherlands, she lived, studied, and worked in France before settling in the UK in 1977. Emmy has been instrumental in founding or cofounding numerous organizations, including the Society for Existential Analysis, the Federation for Existential Therapy in Europe and the World Confederation of Existential Therapy. She has helped people in facing their life problems and suffering for nearly half a century.
Amongst her books are the bestsellers Existential Psychotherapy and Counselling in Practice (3d edition 2012), Psychotherapy and the Quest for Happiness (Sage, 2009), Everyday Mysteries (2nd edition Routledge, 2010) and Paradox and Passion (2nd edition, Wiley, 2015). Her book Rising from Existential Crisis was published with PCCS books in 2021. She is currently writing a book on Existential Freedom for Penguin.
