Synopsis
In existential psychotherapy, the client is treated as a Gestalt and attempts are made to raise his self-awareness at the same time encouraging him to sample pleasurable and unpleasurable experiences. Man's positive valence towards others, the love Gestalt, qualitatively the same in all human relationships, is seen to differ only in its emphasis. Mental illness is seen as a lack of awareness of aspects of this Gestalt and psychotherapy as restoring this awareness, as also the appropriate emphasis. Authentic behaviour patterns are achieved as a result of rehearsals of existential modes.