2018 Conference: From Sigmund Freud to Viktor Frankl to Alfried Längle: The Legacy of Vienna and the Search for Meaning

EHI Conference

From Sigmund Freud to Viktor Frankl to Alfried Längle:
The Legacy of Vienna and the Search for Meaning

Featuring Honored Guest
Dr. Alfried Laengle of Vienna
Existential-Humanistic Institute’s 10th E-H Conference

San Francisco on Nov 30th & Dec 1st, 2018

Therapeutic Professionals, Elders, and Students Welcomed!

Held in central San Francisco, Existential-Humanistic Institute’s (EHI) 10th Existential-Humanistic Conference featured renowned Existential Analyst Dr. Alfried Längle (Laengle) as Friday’s Keynote Speaker and presenter of the Saturday Workshop and Panels!

This 10th conference included dynamic, interactive group discussion hosted by EHI’s Kirk Schneider, Nader Shabahangi, Sonja Saltman, Orah Krug, Troy Piwowarski, Doug Silberstein with Special Guest Dr. Längle.

From Sigmund Freud to Viktor Frankl to Alfried Längle:
The Legacy of Vienna and the Search for Meaning

Presented in Partnership by: The Existential-Humanistic Institute & Pacific Institute

Dates: Friday Evening, November 30th & Saturday, December 1st, 2018

Location: First Unitarian Universalist Church and Center, San Francisco, CA

Existential-Humanism exploration with those interested in existential-humanistic awareness: non-therapists and therapists alike!

Every conference EHI invites those who wish to delve into existential-humanism and integrated therapy; and of course we invite therapists, mental health providers, care-givers, doctors, nurses, social workers, and students who wish to learn more about existential-humanistic therapeutic practices for the modern integrated-therapy practictioner!

Special Guest Alfried Laengle, M.D., Ph.D.
2 Days/4+ sessions/1 Social Hour!
Keynote Speaker, Workshop Presenter and Panel Participant

EHI was excited to invite Dr. Alfried Laengle, noted Psychotherapist, Existential Analyst, and Clinical Psychologist, tol be our Keynote and workshop presenter at EHI’s 10th Conference. We were honored to have Dr. Längle join us for the full conference.

Dr. Alfried Laengle on Existential Analysis and “Meaning”
-Excerpt from “Goals and Motivations in Existential Psychotherapy” by Alfried Laengle, MD, PhD, 2015

“At its core, Existential Analysis (Vienna) could be summarized as “bringing to realization the essence of the individual”. The essence of an individual can only be found within a mutual inner and outer dialogue. It is through a phenomenological openness towards the world, through one’s encounter with others and towards oneself that a person discovers their unique “existential call” or their unique essence. This discovery enables a person to respond freely towards any given situation from their essential core. “Personal Existential Analysis” has been developed as a method to help a person discover their true essence in order to navigate difficult life situations or conditions of psychopathology.”

“A central theme in Existential Analysis has always been the question of meaning in life. Recent phenomenological and empirical research on the structure of human existence has shown that there are three existential motivations that precede a fourth motivation concerned with finding meaning. The first fundamental existential motivation deals with the very fact of being in the world; I exist. The second motivation follows by asking: how do I respond to the fact that I have a life? The third asks how do I respond to the fact that I have an identity, that I am an individual, a self? The fourth motivation centres on a personal existential meaning, (Frankl’s Logotherapy) as individuals fundamentally seek greater contexts and values for which they want to live.”

Alfried Längle, M.D., Ph.D., Dr. h.c.mult., and Professor of Psychotherapy was born in 1951 in Austria, studied medicine and psychology and works in private practice in Vienna as psychotherapist. He worked in close collaboration with Viktor Frankl from 1983 to 1991. Dr. Längle is the founder of the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis (Vienna) and it’s psychotherapeutic training program. He is a noted lecturer at many universities in Europe and South America. Since 2004 he has served as a Professor of Applied Psychology (psychotherapy) at Moscow’s HSE-university and is a guest professor at Vienna’s Sigmund Freud university (since 2011). Dr. Längle has served as Vice President of the International Federation of Psychotherapy (IFP – 2002-2010) and President of the International Society for Logotherapy and Existential Analysis, Vienna until 2017. Dr. Längle has authored over 400 publications and is the recipient of six honorary professorships.

For more information about Dr. Alfried Längle (Laengle), please visit his website www.laengle.info.

EHI 10th Existential-Humanistic Conference
Nov 30th & Dec 1st, 2018

From Sigmund Freud to Viktor Frankl to Alfried Längle:
The Legacy of Vienna and the Search for Meaning

2018 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Friday Evening Keynote*:

To Live With Inner Consent – An Existential Analytical Approach to a Fulfilling Life
Alfried Längle, Vienna

Human beings strive for happiness. We all want to have a good life. But how can we reach this goal? Upon what does it depend to get fulfillment in life? – The good life depends upon much more from ourselves than we often think. In large part, it depends upon really becoming ourselves. Only when we can make use of what we are essentially, in the deep inner self, and only if we can thus bring ourselves to the world, “to existence,” can we get back a feeling that all our endeavors are worth being lived.

The concept of “inner consent” is key to such existential access, or the life well lived. It embraces our freedom as well as our relationship and feelings, our perception of the world’s reality and possible development in the future including the meaning of existence. This feeling of inner consent reflects our basic capacity to deal with the world and ourselves.

Further, it forms a matrix for motivation and practical guidance of life but also for the understanding and treatment of psychopathology. In short, the question of inner consent forms the basis for the structural model of modern Existential Analytical Psychotherapy.

CEs- Want to know about what you will be learning? Please email Michelle at Conf@ehinstitute.org for the full Workshop course description: including the outline, learning objectives, limitations and references.

Friday, 8pm-9pm Social Hour: Mingle, Nosh and Network

Saturday, December 1st
9:00AM – 5:30PM
ALFRIED LANGLE’S WORKSHOP & PANEL/Q&A FOLLOWING

Saturday, 10am – 1pm*: Expanding Humanistic Practice with Existential Analysis and Logotherapy
Alfried Längle, Vienna

This workshop focuses on building a bridge between the given humanistic understanding of treatment and the add-ons by Existential Analysis and Logotherapy. Furthermore, it offers the opportunity to arrive at a closer view of four key existential themes. These four themes derive from a phenomenological understanding of human experience, and form an inescapable life-challenge with which each person must confront. They are: the world, being alive, being a person, and needing meaning.

The workshop focused on describing the application of these themes to psychotherapy and their implication for psychopathology. Thus, it opens access to introspective uses of the existential themes and for experiments in everyday living. A demonstration of the approach was featured during the second half of the presentation.

1pm-2:30pm LUNCH BREAK- On our own

2:30pm-5:00 Audience Participation w/ Dr Laengle

Attendees had the opportunity to engage with Dr. Laengle regarding the presentations, and watch a demonstration with an attendee volunteer.

5:00-5:30pm EHI’s Kirk Schneider with Alfried Laengle

The chief aim of Kirk and Alfried’s discussion was to elaborate on and sometimes challenge points of contrast and comparison between Dr. Laengle’s existential-analytic approach to psychotherapy and the existential-humanistic approach. Such elaboration and questioning is aimed at helping both board members and the audience to better understand Dr. Laengle’s approach and to consider the opportunities for bridge-building between his existential analytical and the existential-humanistic approach.

Dr Schneider and Dr Laengle discussed the relevance of Existential therapeutic models and Existential Humanistic therapy today for people in the world – how does it help the common person live a more ‘meaningful’ life, so to speak?