ltural environment of the individual. Pilgrim (1992) suggests that such diagnostic pidgeon-holing does not enhance humanity, nor aid those who are dealing with the distressed individual to find meaning. It also neglects to consider life beyond the physical, failing to address the more philosophical questions that abound from our very existence.

Existential psychiatry and psychology arose in Europe in the 1940's and 1950's as a direct response to the dissatisfaction with prevailing

Deurzen-Smith, E. (1984). Existential Therapy. In Dryden, W. (ed.), Individual Therapy in Britain. Harper & Row: London

th logotherapy, and also Laing (1960), working with schizophrenics, in the anti-psychiatry movement in Britain.

The gift of existential freedom, is not only the source of anxiety, but brings the burden of profound responsibility. If it is true that our being is actually nothing and that we are in a constant flux, then one is faced with a terrible emptiness and at the same time a miraculous freedom (Bugental 1978). May (1989) observes that freedom is how we relate to our destiny and destiny is significant only because we have freedom.

Owen, I. R. (1994). Introducing an existential-phenomenological approach: basic phenomenological theory and research- Part 1. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 7, (3) 261-273

May (1969) addresses the issue of 'will', arguing against Freudian notions of determinism, as the point where one acts on one's freedom. He highlights the crisis of will in the modern Western world. May (1969) presents a vignette, of a catatonic episode in a patient who had experienced a 'crisis of will and values', whereby he had become so acutely aware of his responsibility and actions that no movement was possible for fear of negative omnipotent consequences. In his pathological world he was caught an inner dead-lock. This case is likened to the general stupor of an apathetic society in which individuals have chosen to allow others to make their decisions, relinquishing the responsibility for their destinies, unable to make the decisions that mig

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