Existential Isolation

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Throughout these phases the use of various techniques can assist in helping a patient separate from and adjust attitudes towards their circumstance. Mainly, socratic dialogue, dereflection, and paradoxical intention. Socratic dialogue is a method whereby the counselor asks guiding questions, based on patient's remarks, to facilitate the patient's internal exploration. The goal of internal exploration is to find personal meanings and to recognize available choices to how they may be actualized (Schulenberg 2008). Dereflection is useful particularly in the case of anticipatory anxiety. When someone becomes preoccupied with the possibility of difficulties or worsening symptoms, the resulting anxiety could manifest worsening symptoms, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Dereflection aims to shift focus away form preoccupying problems towards more constructive tasks. For example, an older patient or terminally ill patient may be hyper …show more content…

We are unquestionably individual. No matter how well we come to know another person, no matter how extensively we attempt to understand them or explain ourselves, there remains a perpetual gap (Yalom 1989). The individuals lived experience is so specific it is without question impossible to every fully grasp another. Existential isolation is not something to be solved but rather something to be aware of and to find strength in. Often people attempt to solve their isolation with self-sabotaging solutions. The most common of these is fusion. Fusion is the melting away of self to fuse with another. In doing so a person sheds their self-awareness and dissolves into a collective "we" mindset (Yalom 1989) Adopting the "we" allows one to relive their anxiety and shed responsibility for the self. If we shed our self, we shed our ability to find our personal meanings. Yalom Suggests we must preserve our uniqueness and coexist rather than tie ourselves to groups or

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