“Existential analysis is a form of depth psychology therapy and a field of research with a phenomenological-hermeneutic orientation that, within the framework of an existential-ontological anthropology, focuses on the question of human existence. In therapeutic work, the possibilities of existence and the obstacles to them become clear in light of the relationship between therapist and patient and can therefore be brought to light by the therapist. Cues to possibilities of being that remain buried help patients gain the confidence to increasingly embrace these possibilities within the safe space of the therapeutic relationship, thereby achieving a freer, more mature, and self-determined way of life.”

“The term ‘Daseinsanalysis’ was first used by the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger in 1941. It is a neologism intended to combine Martin Heidegger’s ‘Daseinsanaytik’ with Freud’s psychoanalysis. The Zurich School of Existential Analysis, to which the Austrian Institute for Existential Analysis (ÖDAI) also refers, traces its origins primarily to the Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist Medard Boss (see, among others: “Grundriss der Medizin und Psychologie,” 1971), who expanded the scope of existential analysis to include the fields of neurosis theory, psychosomatics, and dream theory, and was further developed by the Swiss psychotherapist Gion Condrau (…).”

(St. Libisch, Ch. Spitzer: Existential Analysis. In: Markus Hochgerner (ed.): Foundations of Psychotherapy: A Textbook for the Introductory Course in Psychotherapy. Facultas: Vienna 2018, pp. 108ff.)
Beginning in 1983, Alice Holzey-Kunz in particular emerged with an independent reorientation of existential analysis, drawing more heavily once again on Freud and psychoanalysis as well as Sartre and Kierkegaard.