37-6 An Existential-Phenomenological Inquiry on Suffering: A Discussion on the Theoretical Perspectives of Counseling and Psychotherapy
The suffering of human beings has long been the core concern in the areas of counseling and psychotherapy. This study first reviewed and summarized the perspectives that counseling and psychotherapy have had about the suffering of humans. It was discovered that (a) both conventional counseling and psychotherapy theories have conceptualized the mind as a substance of closure and independent of the outer world. They also assumed the suffering has been resulted from humans' not capable of adapting to the outer world; and (b) postmodern theories tent to regard the reality as a product of individual or social construction, and the suppression of the mainstream culture is a head of stream for humans' suffering. By discovering the discrepancy of the above mentioned orientations in modern and post-modern theories, this study aimed to realize human suffering from view of existential phenomenology. And it can be the based phenomenon to bridge up the discrepancies from different theoretical orientations. This study conducted textual analysis on the suffering of three respondents by using the methodology of existential phenomenology. It was found that the suffering of the respondents resulted from the denial of their existed situations and the disappointment toward the expected ones. Being on the breaking points of both the existed situation and the expected one made the respondents suffer from the feeling of losing the grounds of life ahead. This study applied the situational structure of suffering from the perspective of existential phenomenology to serve as a connection for different theories in both counseling and psychotherapy. Finally, limitations of this study were discussed.
Keywords
counseling and psychotherapy ； existential phenomenology ； phenomenological psychology ； suffering
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