Louis Hoffman - Existential Psychology East-West (Volume 2)

Contents

Existential Psychology EastWest

Volume 2

Louis Hoffman, Mark Yang, Monica Mansilla,

Jason Dias, Michael Moats, and Trent Claypool

Editors

www.universityprofessorspress.com

Copyright

Book Copyright 2019

Existential Psychology EastWest (Volume 2)

By Louis Hoffman, Mark Yang, Monica Mansilla, Jason Dias, Michael Moats, and Trent Claypool

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced by any process or technique without the express written consent of the publishers.

First published in 2019. University Professors Press. United States.

ebook ISBN: 978-1-939686-41-1

Print ISBN: 978-1-939686-24-4

University Professors Press

Colorado Springs, CO

www.universityprofessorspress.com

Cover Design by Laura Ross

Acknowledgments

Existential Psychology EastWest (Volume 2) has been nearly nine years in the making. We wish to thank the contributors to this volume for their persistence and patience in seeing this project to completion. We owe special gratitude to Fudan University, particularly Drs. Sun Shijin and Chen Kan. This volume began in 2012 at the Second International Conference on Existential Psychology, which was hosted by Fudan University, located in Shanghai, China. Drs. Sun Shijin and Chen Kan were instrumental in the planning of the conference as well as identifying and communicating with collaborators. We also owe special thanks to Xuefu Wang, who also helped identify and communicate with contributors to this volume.

We would like to extend special appreciation to our families. Writing takes commitment, dedication, and time, and all of these require sacrifice. Our families sacrificed, too, through giving up precious family time for us to devote to writing, editing, and communicating about the book.

Finally, we want to thank all those who have been part of the dialogues on existential psychology that have been held in Southeast Asia over the past 11 years. These friendships and conversations are the primary inspiration for this book.

Introduction from the West

Louis Hoffman, Mark Yang, Monica Mansilla, Jason Dias, Michael Moats, & Trent Claypool

The Second International Conference on Existential Psychology in Shanghai, China not only was the birthplace of this volume but an inspiring success. The conference was filled to capacity, drawing in many influential scholars from China, the United States, and other parts of the world (see Hsu, Broom, Mansilla, Phoo, Dias, Moats, Hoffman, & Yang, 2019, for an overview of the ICEP conferences).

Our intent was to build upon the success of Existential Psychology EastWest (Volume 1). In Volume 2, we followed a similar format of three parts with a few modifications. The first section of Volume 1 comprised an introduction and overview of existentialhumanistic psychology along with a case study to illustrate key aspects of the theory and practice, and the second section focused on the development of existential theory. In Volume 2, the theory and application section has been moved to the first section of the book, followed by a section on applications and case illustrations. The third section of Volume 2 continues with the myth theme of Volume 1. The addition of the application and case illustration section is significant in that it helps readers get a deeper understanding of the various ways existential psychology can be applied.

Existential Psychology EastWest (Volume 2) is being published concurrently with Existential Psychology EastWest (Volume 1 Revised & Expanded Edition). The update of Volume 1 includes five new chapters and several updated chapters, including an important update of Chapter 1, which is the overview of existentialhumanistic psychology. The two volumes are designed to fit together, so it is our hope that most readers will read this volume in conjunction with the new version of Volume 1.

In the revised version of Volume 1 and in Volume 2, we have intentionally sought to expand the focus beyond China and the United States. This includes authors from Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Ghana. We believe this expanded international content is important in recognizing the growing international perspectives on existentialhumanistic psychology.

Introducing Chinese Approaches to Existential Psychology in the West

The foundation of both volumes of Existential Psychology EastWest is exchange. In Volume 1, our intent was to provide an overview of existentialhumanistic psychology that could serve as a foundation for dialogue. However, as discussed in Chapter 4, there are always limitations in attempts to apply an approach to therapy developed in one culture in a different cultural context. While it is important to recognize this limitation, there is also much to learn from cross-cultural exchange (see Moats, Claypool, & Saxon, 2011). In these two volumes, we hoped to balance the exchange of ideas. Too often, Western psychologists focus on exporting their ideas to other cultures without recognizing the value of the ideas, practices, and scholarship from the culture with which they are engaging. We strove to intentionally avoiding this in these volumes. In Volume 2, there are also a number of chapters by individuals who have lived in more than one culture.

While the labels existential and existential psychology emerged in the West, the ideas and values they represent do not belong exclusively to the West (Hoffman, 2010). Indigenous existential psychologies from many cultures around the world can be identified that share values such as facing life directly, being honest about the human condition, valuing genuineness and authenticity, and recognizing the importance of personal and collective meaning. While there is agreement on these values, the way they are understood and applied may still vary. Dialogues across the different cultural approaches to existential psychology are vitally important for the advancement of existentialhumanistic psychology. In 2019, it is increasingly possible to recognize how various different approaches to existential psychology from around the world are influencing existentialhumanistic psychology in the West.

One of the more important Chinese existential psychologies is zhi mian therapy developed by Xuefu Wang. Zhi mian can be translated as face-to-face or to face directly (Wang, 2011). At the first ICEP, Wang expressed his hope that the idea of zhi mian would become known in the Western psychological literature. This has begun to occur through the writings of Wang (2011, 2012, 2019) as well as other scholars who have begun to incorporate the idea of zhi mian into their scholarship (Dallas, Georganda, Harisiadis, & Zymnis-Georgaolos, 2012; Hoffman, Lopez, & Moats, 2013; Rohde-Brown & Frain, 2013). The first three chapters of Volume 2 provide the most comprehensive introduction to zhi mian psychology in English to date. In Chapter 1, Wang provides an overview drawing from the story (or myth) of the iron house, which illustrates the primacy of facing life directly in zhi mian therapy. In Chapter 2, Dueck and Wei provide an in-depth examination of Lu Xun and Wang. Lu Xun was a primary influence on Wang in his development of zhi mian therapy. In Chapter 3, Mark Yang provides a more personal account of engagement with zhi mian.

Zhi mian is one of many Chinese concepts and approaches that fit well with existential psychology. Mark Yang (2017), for example, has been working to introduce the existential writings of Zhuangzi to the West. In Section 2, chapters also introduce the Chinese concepts of Sui Wu Fu Xing, sunyata, and savoring.

Future Directions

The development of existentialhumanistic psychology in Southeast Asia has expanded greatly in recent years, particularly with the development of a number of new programs through the International Institute for ExistentialHumanistic Psychology (IIEHP) and the Zhi Mian Institute for Psychotherapy. In recent years, conferences have been held in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia, which have helped to further expand interest. As of this writing, a two-year systematic certificate course in existentialhumanistic psychology is being offered in China through IIEHP in which the majority of the instruction and group facilitation is conducted by local instructors who have found their home in existentialhumanistic psychology. In addition, preparations are being made to offer similar types of systematic training in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. The work is indeed rippling on and becoming indigenized.