Speaker
Edwin L. Hersch
Title
What an Existential Ontology has to offer Psychotherapists
Abstract
This talk will illustrate how an existential ontology has a great deal to offer psychotherapists. Because this complex interaction may often be difficult to see, three ways in which such philosophical work has been applicable and enriching in the context of a particular psychotherapy practice will be presented. These include a) the use of existential themes and concepts in psychotherapy, including the notions of existential guilt, existential anxiety, and bad faith, b) the argument that an existential ontology provides a more suitable philosophical grounding for psychotherapeutic theories and practices, one which better describes the life-world, experiential phenomena in question, and c) the idea that an existential version of the mental status examination, centered around six key dimensions of human experience (derived from an existential ontology) can provide us with a more in-depth understanding of, and better description of, an individual’s experiential world.
Bio
Edwin L. Hersch B.A., M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P.(C) is a psychiatrist with a full-time psychotherapy practice in Toronto, Canada in which he practices his own blend of “insight-oriented” and “phenomenological-existential” approach. He studied Philosophy and Psychology, Phenomenological Psychology, Medicine, and Psychiatry at a variety of universities including the University of Toronto, Duquesne University, and the University of California, San Francisco. He has published articles in professional journals since the 1970’s, has written chapters for books such as Phillips and Morley’s Imagination and Its Pathologies (MIT Press, 2003) and Charland and Zachar’s Fact and Value in Emotion, (John Benjamins, 2008) and has presented numerous papers at various professional meetings dealing with such topics as the philosophical underpinnings of psychological theories. His major work is the book: From Philosophy to Psychotherapy: A Phenomenological Model for Psychology, Psychiatry, and Psychoanalysis, published by the University of Toronto Press in 2003.
He has practiced clinically in Psychology and Psychiatry for over thirty years now, and has conducted extensive research into the interface areas among the fields of Philosophy, Psychology, and Psychiatry as an independent scholar. He is actively involved in such interdisciplinary organizations as the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry (AAPP), the International Network for Philosophy and Psychiatry (INPP), and the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (American Psychological Association - division #24). He is also an Adjunct Professor with the graduate program in History and Theory of Psychology at York University, in Toronto, Canada.