• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.473-484
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• 2022

Objectives: To report a case of a patient with a mild depressive episode accompanied by physical symptoms such as hyposmia visiting a Korean medicine hospital who was treated with oriental psychotherapy in parallel with existentialism-based psychotherapy showing improvement. Methods: For this patient, Korean medicine Psychotherapy was mainly used for treatment. In parallel, existential Psychotherapy, acupuncture treatment, and self-relaxation training were implemented. For estimating this treatment, changes in results of Beck Depression Index (BDI), Beck Anxiety Index (BAI), Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), Korean Version of Sniffin' Sticks Test (KVSS), Butanol Threshold Test (BTT), Cross-Cultural Smell Identification Test (CC-SIT), and somatic symptoms that the patient subjectively expressed were determined. Results: After the comprehensive treatment, it was confirmed that changes in BDI, BAI, KVSS, BTT, CC-SIT, NRS, and subjective somatic symptoms expressed by the patient all showed improvements. Conclusions: We propose that a comprehensive treatment using Korean medicines Psychotherapy in parallel with existential psychotherapy can be used for patients who complain of physical symptoms accompanied by depression and hyposmia.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.167-171
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• 2020

The finite nature of human existence leads many to search for meaning, which comes into sharper relief for those who are imminently facing death. Therefore, universal existential concerns such as the inevitability of death, existential isolation, loss of meaning, freedom, and dignity are inherent psychological issues in palliative care. Consequently, one of the critical challenges facing palliative care is how to address these issues effectively. This paper provides an overview of common themes of existential concerns and psychotherapeutic interventions to address existential distress among patients in palliative care.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.186-196
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• 2015

This research comprehended the fundamental cause of elderly nursing home residents' negative feelings of loneliness, depression, fear, and loss of self-usefulness as existential issue, since they already went through loss, death of loved ones, geriatric disease and disability. The purpose of this research is to explore how existentialism and existential psychotherapy theory of Irvin D. Yalom can be applied to nursing home environment design, and to suggest design directions. Based on his framework of human's ultimate interest, death, freedom followed by responsibility, isolation, and meaninglessness, interior design suggestions and applicable spaces were presented. Four cases from Australia, Denmark, Japan and Korea were analyzed according to design suggestions to grasp the current situation and to draw further proposition. The conclusions are as follows. (1)Environment should support nursing home residents to resolve existential issues. (2)Death is the least supported issue on all of the cases. Environmental elements that can induce residents to think and discuss on death, hospice program and space for memorial service is necessary. (3)Regarding to freedom, the environment should support resident's disability to maintain independence as much as possible and residents autonomy and decision should be respected. Single/double rooms, motorized bed, free and safe usage of kitchen and garden are necessary. (4)For isolation, Space and time for meditation should be provided. (5)To find meaning of life, environment should support residents in both physical and cognitive aspect so that they can contribute to others. Space for hobby is necessary for continued creativity and self-realization.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.135-143
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• 2021

End-of-life patients experience physical, mental, social, and existential distress. While medical personnel provide medication and care to alleviate patients' distress, listening to and interacting with patients remains essential for understanding their psychological condition. The most important tool, though difficult to implement in practice, is end-of-life discussion (EOLD). EOLD has been shown to have positive effects on end-of-life treatment choices, achievement of patients' life goals, improvements in the quality of life of patients and their families, and the prevention of depression and complicated grief among bereaved family members. EOLD is not often undertaken in clinical practice, however, due to hesitancy among medical personnel and patients for various reasons. In order to conduct an EOLD, the patient's judgment, psychiatric illnesses such as delirium and depression, and psychological issues such as the side effects of psychotropic drugs, denial, and collusion must be evaluated. Open and honest conversation, treatment goal setting, the doctor's familiarity with the patient's background, and attentiveness when providing information are important elements for any dialogue. Meaning-centered psychotherapy was developed to alleviate the existential distress of cancer patients, and its application may promote EOLD. The future development of meaning-centered psychotherapy in practice and in research is expected to further promote EOLD.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.130
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• pp.135-159
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• 2014

This article has the purpose of clarifying that Rollo May's existential psychotherapy is based on Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety in philosophical aspects. May makes use of Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety to establish his own existential psychotherapy. May points out that Freud's concept of anxiety is too technical in comparison with Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety. Freudian theory accepting anxiety as the cause of repression overlooks the importance of human relationship which brings about repression. May mentions the presence or absence of object to distinguish fear and anxiety. Kierkegaard and Freud also mention that the presence of object is called fear and the absence of object is anxiety. May interprets anxiety ontologically. Succeeding Kierkegaard's comment on nothing/non-being, May insists that anxiety is the experience of Being affirming itself against Nonbeing. May interprets Kierkegaard's concept of freedom as the possibility or potentiality in terms of similar meaning. May argues that Anxiety is the situation when faced with the problem which human being will achieve his potentiality. Kierkegaard's concept of freedom is also associated with sin at the same time as the freedom associated with anxiety. Succeeding this, May discusses the relation of guilt feeling and anxiety is the flipside of the coin. He understands that guilt feeling is not a pathological symptom but an evidence of the human being's possibility. Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety has a sub-title which is 'a simple psychologically orienting deliberation on the dogmatic issue of hereditary sin'. This shows that he understood the relationship between anxiety and guilt as dilemma that can not be separated. Through this study, I want to clarify that May's concept of anxiety which is the most important concept in his existential psychotherapy, is derived from Kierkegaard's concept of anxiety.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.69-73
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• 2021

Dealing with existential concerns experienced by patients is an important part of palliative care. Interventions that use the life review method to encourage patients to reminisce about their lives can help them find new positive meanings, promote ego integrity, and reduce emotional suffering. Not everyone has positive memories when they look back on the past, however. This poses a limit on the effectiveness of the life review method for healthcare providers working in palliative care contexts. In this study, we discuss the limits of life review and suggest imagery rescripting as a new modality constituting a psychotherapeutic approach to deal with negative memories safely and effectively.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.14-17
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• 2005

By the influence of the descriptive approach of DSM-III, the anxiety became the same thing as the anxiety disorder to the clinicians. This unfortunate result sacrificed psychodynamic model of symptom formations and simplified the anxiety as one of the disease entity not as the overdetermined symptoms. These phenomenon awakened the psychoanalytic interest which was in sleep. Freud was the first major articulator of the basic significance of anxiety in human behavior. He attributed the particular quality of the anxiety experience to the trauma of birth, and subsequently to the fear of castration. Such classification of the anxiety according to the psychosexual development is helpful for the clinicians in understanding the origin of anxiety which the patient shows during the psychotherapy. The other analytical view of interpersonal psychoanalysis came from Sullivan. A large part of his therapy is taken up with recognizing and correcting parataxic distortions that interfere with realistic self-appraisal of events and of oneself in relation to others. Perhaps no explanation is the 'most basic' explanation for human anxiety. Anxiety is a multifaceted entity consisting of aspects of realm of discourse. Existential anxiety is inescapable in Western culture but it can be transcended by the cultivation of mind in Eastern culture. The analysts need to stay attuned to their own propensities for anxiety and must permit their own experiences with anxiety to be the grist for the psychotherapeutic mill.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.91-101
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was done to identify effects of a life-esteemed education applied logotherapy on life respect, meaning of life, and depression on older elementary school students. Methods: A nonequivalent control group and non-synchronized design was conducted with a convenience sample of 142 students. The program named 'My Precious Life'. consisted of one session per week for five weeks. Students were assigned to the experimental group (n=70) or the control group (72). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, Fisher's exact test, t-test, and repeated measured ANOVA with the SPSS/PC 18.0 program. Results: Meaning of life and life respect increased significantly and depression decreased significantly for participants in the experimental group. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that life-esteemed education applied logotherapy is effective in improving meaning of life and life respect and in decreasing depression in elementary school students. It can also be used to prevent existential distress and to intervene as a motif for having hope in life.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.315-320
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• 2022

This study discussed its implications for the meaning in life, which began to emerge through existential psychotherapy in the era of coronavirus infection 19 (COVID-19). In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are making efforts to live a meaningful life, and individuals and communities are making efforts to find meaning in how to live a meaningful life. Humanity has a premise for a peaceful life, and since the past, interest in the meaning in life has continued. The deadly virus called COVID-19, which hit the world in December 2019, created stress such as anxiety, alienation, and depression in people, endangering the lives of individuals and communities. Research on the meaning in life was active even before COVID-19, but I think it is necessary to look at the changes in people's meaning in life and how COVID-19 is affecting each individual amid the global pandemic of the virus. In other words, clarifying the meaning of our lives in the era of COVID-19 is a coping to reduce stress and a catalyst to improve the quality of life. This study aims to provide basic research to prepare ways to improve the quality of life in the era of COVID-19 by examining various perspectives and results on the meaning in life.