e primary fount of psychopathology" (Yalom 29).
Existential psychotherapy is not a "happiness and light" approach. It "emphasizes powerlessness, loneliness, emptiness, and angst and admits that it is very hard to find meaning and value in our lives" ("Existential Perspectives on Personality"). The existentialist is always on a quest to find meaning in his life, but he lives in a meaningless world, so that quest is fruitless. Thus, the client's despair reflects the therapist's despair, because neither of them has a pat answer or easy solution to the difficult task of making life meaningful.
The originator of European existential thought in American psychological thinking was Rollo May (Minnillo). May noted that existentialism was similar to humanism except for the fact that "Humanists see people as basically good; existentialists see human nature as neutral" (Minnillo). May sees the decision to become
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