Abstract

In this article, I will try to illustrate some ways in which an existential ontology, based on a phenomenological elaboration of the basic structures or themes of human existence, may prove useful to us in psychotherapeutic theory and practice. A number of philosophers as well as a number of theorists and practitioners of psychotherapy have weighed in on the topic of whether ontology and psychology can or should influence each other and how. In many cases, these discussions have hinged upon the ontological/ontic distinction, particularly as articulated in Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time. In brief, I characterize that distinction by saying that the ontological discussion falls clearly within the..