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Being There and Showing Up: Part 4
Mood as Movement: A New Way of Understanding
Feelings
The New England Center for Existential Therapy is continuing
for the fourth year to emphasize core concepts which illuminate the
specifically existential way of approaching therapy. Heidegger said that objects can be analyzed in terms of
their "essential properties", but human beings can only be understood in terms
of their "core existential structures".
Too often theories of psychology and psychiatry see human beings as
vital objects and try to categorize them in terms of properties. At NECET we want to emphasize some of
these core existential structures, and show how life and therapy can reflect
those structures.
Three years ago we emphasized the core structures "Being-there" and "Showing Up".
Two years ago we discussed the core structure "Relatedness". Last year we explored the notion of
what we called "the Deal" - dealing with
the nothingness which lurks in the heart of being; or the death that is always
there as a positive life
enhancing phenomenon.
This year we are concentrating on one major existential
structure - one that has struck many people as profound, paradigm shifting, and
practically useful. That structure
comes from a term that Heidegger made up in Being and Time. He called it Befindlichkeit. We
will not translate this term now - but suffice it to say at this point that it
leads to a radically new way of understanding human feeling and the
relationship between feeling and understanding.
The program will orient itself around an important paper
written by Eugene Gendlin in 1978 , entitled simply Befindlichkeit. This
paper introduces the fundamentals of Gendlin's philosophical thinking as well
as laying an important groundwork for his approach to psychotherapy. It is also a remarkably vivid
introduction to Heidegger's thinking; and will be useful to both the neophyte
and the experienced Heidegger reader.
We are encouraging attendees to read this paper before the first meeting
in late September.
The four meetings will introduce the concept
of Befindlichkeit and Gendlin's elaboration
of it; apply it to working with people with neurotic difficulties; apply it to
working with people suffering from severe trauma; and finally compare it to the
idea of mindfulness. As always, we will discuss philosophy,
clinical theory, and provide case discussions to light up the core concepts.
Recommended reading for the
Mood as Movement: A New Way of Understanding Feelings is Eugene Gendlin's 1978 article "Befindlichkeit:
Heidegger and the Philosophy of Psychology."
September 25, 2011. Why Feeling Matters and How Feelings Work:
Benfindlichkeit.
Presenter: Bob Fox
December 4, 2011. When We Can't Feel Who We
Are: Neurosis and the Constricted
Self.
Presenter: Liz Barragato
March 18, 2012. When
Feelings Are Too Dangerous: Trauma and the Fragmented Self.
Presenter: Robin
Chalfin
April 29, 2012. When Theory Is Grounded In Felt Meaning:
Befindlichkeit and Mindfulness.
Presenter: Francis
Guerriero
Three
continuing education credits are available for LMHC and LICSW for
each presentation.
Registration: 11:45
a.m.
Presentation: 12:00
noon - 3:30 p.m.
Location:
Andover-Newton Theological School Peck Faculty Lounge in Stoddard
Hall
210 Herrick Road
Newton Centre, Massachusetts
Please
complete and return this form with your check, payable to NECET
Mail
to Margaret Crummey, NECET Coordinator
45
School Street, Hingham, MA 02043
Registrations
are also accepted at the door on the day of the presentation.
If you are new to
NECET, the first meeting is free.
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