Existential Phenomenology is a school of thought that studies what it is like to be a human being by looking directly at our lived experience. It asks, “What are the fundamental ingredients of human existence?”

It rejects the idea that a person is just a mind (consciousness) separate from the world or a collection of biological/sociological facts. Instead, it claims that our existence is an active, interpretive process deeply tied to our environment, our future, and our choices.

Existence Precedes Essence (We define ourselves)

• As humans, we are born as an autonomous but ever changing being into a preexisting world without a fixed nature or purpose; we create our own identity through our choices.
• We are thrown into the world - we are surrounded by circumstances not of our choice. This thrownness is the base of our freedom, to do with as we choose, but we have facticity - the collection of things about us that can be said to be true.
• The way a human being “is” is not a collection of fixed qualities; it is defined by its constant process of becoming. Humans are always “ahead of themselves,” constantly projecting into the future and taking up possibilities. Our ‘whatness’ is defined by our ‘to-be-ness’. The only way to understand what a person is is to look at their existence, which is their way of living out their possibilities given their context.

We are Dasein: “Being-in-the-World”

Heidegger’s concept of “being-in-the-world” (In-der-Welt-Sein) is the central idea he uses to understand human existence. It is his way of saying that a person is never a detached mind or consciousness looking at an external world; instead, we are always fundamentally involved with the world.

What “Being-in-the-World” means

• Being: Refers to the human way of existing, which he calls Dasein (literally “Being-there”). Dasein is unique because it is the only kind of being that is aware of its own existence.
• -in-: This word does not mean being inside a container, like milk in a bottle. Instead, it means involvement, familiarity, and concern. Think of being “in” a job, “in” a relationship, or “in” a state of mind. We are absorbed and engaged in it.
• -the-World: The “world” here is not just the planet Earth or a collection of physical objects. It is the network of meanings, relationships, and purposes that makes things matter to us.

An example

• Before Being-in-the-World (The Traditional View): A traditional philosopher might say we are a mind (subject) holding a physical object (object), processing information about the hammer’s weight and shape, and then directing your hand to hit the nail.
• Heidegger’s Being-in-the-World: When we are focused on hammering a nail, we are not thinking about the hammer’s weight or chemical composition. The hammer disappears as an object and simply becomes “that which is for hammering.” The world is immediately understood in terms of tools and purposes.
• The World is a Workshop: Our experience is like a workshop where everything is ready-to-hand (Zuhanden). The nail is for the wood, the wood is for the shed, and the shed is for shelter. The meaning of the hammer is defined by its place in this purposeful network.
• The Primacy of Action: Our practical action comes first. We understand the world through our ability to use, care for, and deal with things, not through detached scientific observation.

The entire purpose of “being-in-the-world” is to reject the centuries-old philosophical problem of dualism (the idea that the mind and body/world are totally separate). Heidegger argues this separation is unnatural—we are never separate from the world. Our existence is, by its very nature, co-constituted with the world we inhabit. You and your meaningful environment are a single, unbreakable unit.

We struggle for authenticity

• A key challenge is choosing to live a life that is truly our own, not one dictated by social rules.
• Inauthentic Life: Living like “The They” (Das Man). This means letting society, trends, or anonymous expectations dictate our thoughts, choices, and interests. It’s following the crowd to escape responsibility.
• Authentic Life: Facing our freedom and finitude (death) and making choices that genuinely reflect our unique situation and commitment. It means owning our life and being responsible for it.

Our Freedom comes with responsibility

• To act ethically is to act from a place of self-possession (owning our life), rather than self-deception (lying to ourself about our freedom and finitude).

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”

Jean-Paul Sartre

• We didn’t ask to be born, but now that we’re here, we have no pre-set instructions. we are “condemned” to choose, and in choosing, we bear the full weight of that action. we can’t blame our upbringing, our nature, or fate—we chose. This feeling of overwhelming responsibility is called anguish or dread (Angst).
• When we make a choice, we are not just choosing for ourself, we are setting an example for all humanity. In choosing how to act, we are defining what, in our opinion, a person ought to be. This forces every decision, no matter how small, to become a moral one.

“The existence of others as a freedom defines my situation and is even the condition of my own freedom.”

Simone de Beauvoir

• We can’t be truly free in a world where we oppress others. To truly achieve our own freedom, we must will the freedom of all others, because our human projects require a world of other free, willing beings to have any meaning.
• This introduces a social standard. While there are no universal moral rules, there is one universal project: the unending creation of freedom. Any action that denies the freedom of others (through oppression, violence, or objectification) is immediately judged as an unethical choice because it denies the very condition necessary for our own moral life. For De Beauvoir, “To will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one and the same decision.”

Existential Phenomenology as therapy

The analysis aims to capture and describe human experience as richly and accurately as possible, avoiding preconceived ideas. It involves these key steps:

The Phenomenological Reduction

This is the starting point, often called “bracketing.”

• Goal: To set aside or “put in brackets” all our natural assumptions, scientific theories, and everyday beliefs about what something is.
• Example: If we are studying grief, we ignore the psychological or biological theories we’ve read about it (e.g., the five stages of grief). Instead, we focus purely on the immediate, raw experience of grief: What do I actually see, feel, and notice as I think about losing someone?

Descriptive Analysis

Once we have bracketed our assumptions as best as we can, we start to describe the experience as it presents itself.

• Focus: We describe the structures of the experience, such as time, space, body, and relationship to others, as they are lived by us.
• Example: Describing our experience of grief, we might notice how our world seems to have slowed down (a change in lived time) or how the familiar kitchen now feels empty and hostile (a change in lived space).

Existential Interpretation

When the sensations of the experience become less painful, We can interpret the descriptive analysis through the lens of fundamental human concerns:

• Being-in-the-World: How we are situated and involved in their environment.
• Thrownness: How the unchosen facts of our life (their history, background) shape the experience.
• Facticity and Transcendence: The tension between the unavoidable facts of the situation (facticity) and our potential to choose our attitude towards it and create new meaning (transcendence).

The technique of existential phenomenology is a rigorous method for digging into the “what it’s like” of being human, treating the subject’s experience as the primary source of truth, and interpreting that experience in terms of choice, freedom, and responsibility. It moves beyond simply reporting feelings to uncovering the deep, structural meanings of lived life.