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Abstract
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Confrontation of internal conflicts of an individual with the main important concepts of existence like death, freedom, meaninglessness, and isolation have been one of the most controversial themes during the history. Nineteenth century Europe is one of the periods in which human’s ideas toward the existence has dramatic changes. Existentialism appeared in the late nineteenth century to answer these fundamental questions in this way that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual (Macquarie 14-15). As one of the first existential philosophers, Kierkegaard theorized that human discontent could only be overcome through internal wisdom. Later, Nietzsche further developed the theory of existentialism by introducing the idea of free will and personal responsibility in his works. In the early 1900s, philosophers such as Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre began to explore the role of investigation and interpretation in the healing process. Existential therapy was developed by Otto Rank, Rollo May, and Irvin Yalom. This study aims to explore the existential therapy based on Dr. Irvin D. Yalom’s theories in his Existential Psychotherapy (1980) through its important concepts like freedom, death, meaninglessness, and isolation in selected works of nineteenth century dramatist Henrik Ibsen. A Doll’s House (1879) and An Enemy of the People (1882) portrait the subject of human beings freedom to choose his/her future by his/her revolt against any perceived unfairness, oppression, or indignity in the human condition. Results evoke the spirit of existentialist understanding of these plays and explores the existential therapeutic approach toward the existential concepts in these plays. This thesis argues that with an applied literature point of view the reader of Ibsen’s dramas could use existential therapy as a healing for human condition in the existence.
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