scholarly journals Existential Psychology & Buddha Philosophy: It's Relevance in Nurturing a Healthy Mind

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 22-28
Author(s):  
Tapas Kumar Aich

The term "existentialism" have been coined by the French philosopher Gabriel Marcel in the mid-1940s and adopted by Jean-Paul Sartre. The label has been applied retrospectively to philosophers like Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers and Søren Kierkegaard and other 19th and 20th century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, generally held that the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with the conditions of existence of the individual person and his or her emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts. The early 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, posthumously regarded as ‘the father of existentialism’, maintained that the individual solely has the responsibilities of giving one's own life meaning and living that life passionately and sincerely, in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation, and boredom. Over the last century, experts have written on many commonalities between Buddhism and various branches of modern western psychology like phenomenological psychology, psychoanalytical psychotherapy, humanistic psychology, cognitive psychology and existential psychology. In comparison to other branches of psychology, less have been studied and talked on the commonalities between Buddhist philosophy and modern existential psychology that have been propagated in the west. Buddha said that the life is ‘suffering’. Existential psychology speaks of ontological anxiety (dread, angst). Buddha said that ‘suffering is due to attachment’. Existential psychology also has some similar concepts. We cling to things in the hopes that they will provide us with a certain benefit. Buddha said that ‘suffering can be extinguished’. The Buddhist concept of nirvana is quite similar to the existentialists' freedom. Freedom has, in fact, been used in Buddhism in the context of freedom from rebirth or freedom from the effects of karma. For the existentialist, freedom is a fact of our being, one which we often ignore. Finally, Buddha says that ‘there is a way to extinguish suffering’. For the existential psychologist, the therapist must take an assertive role in helping the client become aware of the reality of his or her suffering and its roots. As a practising psychiatrist, clinician, therapist we often face patients with symptoms of depression where aetiology is not merely a reactive one, not an interpersonal conflict, not simply a cognitive distortion! Patients mainly present with some form of personal ‘existential crisis’. Unless we understand and address these existential questions, we probably, will fail to alleviate the symptoms of depression, by merely prescribing drugs, in these patients! DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jpan.v3i3.11836  

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-174
Author(s):  
Fransmar Costa Lima

Resumo: O artigo que ora se apresenta é, na realidade, um pequeno ensaio que tem por finalidade indagar a importância da educação no pensamento de Søren Kierkegaard e investigar se, no âmbito da existência como possibilidade, uma educação voltada para a subjetividade se mostra efetiva diante dos debates acerca da liberdade e da singularidade do indivíduo. Pouco se debate sobre o conceito de educação em Kierkegaard, porém, acreditamos que se trata de um ponto basilar no pensamento do filósofo dinamarquês, conforme buscamos demonstrar, e deve ser objeto de maiores pesquisas, estudos e reflexões. Tomamos como referência para o início desse debate textos como as Migalhas Filosóficas e o Post-Scriptum, onde a subjetividade e a singularidade aparecem como conceitos fundamentais.Palavras-chave: Educação. Existência. Singularidade. Subjetividade. Kierkegaard. Abstract: The present article is, in fact, a small essay whose purpose is to investigate the importance of education in Søren Kierkegaard's thinking and to investigate whether, in the scope of existence as a possibility, an education focused on subjectivity is effective before the debates about the freedom and the singularity of the individual. There is little debate about the concept of education in Kierkegaard, but we believe that this is a basic point in the thinking of the Danish philosopher, as we seek to demonstrate, and should be the object of further research, study and reflection. We take as reference for the beginning of this debate texts such as the Philosophical Fragments and the Post-Scriptum, where subjectivity and singularity appear as fundamental concepts.Keywords: Education. Existence. Uniqueness. Subjectivity. Kierkegaard. REFERÊNCIASALMEIDA, J.M A alteridade na construção da ética de Kierkegaard e Lévinas. In:  Revista Controvérsia - Vol. 6, n° 1: 36-45 (jan-mai 2010), São Leopoldo: UNISINOS, 2010.KIERKEGAARD, Søren. Diario: 1847-1848, Vol. 4. 3ª ed. A cura di Cornelio Fabro. Brescia: Morcelliana, 1980. (D 4)._______. Opere. Sansoni Editore. Milano: 1993._______. Postilla Conclusiva no Scientifica alle Briciole di Filosofia. In: Opere. Tradução e organização de Cornélio Fabro. Sansoni Editore: Milano, 1993._______. As obras do amor: algumas considerações cristãs em forma de discurso. Tradução de Álvaro Valls. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2005._______. Três Discursos Edificantes de 1843. Tradução de Henri Nicolay Levinspuhl.  Publicação do Tradutor. Rio de Janeiro:  2000.KIERKEGAARD, Søren. Migalhas filosóficas ou um bocadinho de filosofia de João Climacus. Tradução de Álvaro Valls, e Ernani Reichmann. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2001._______. O conceito de Ironia: constantemente referido à Sócrates. Tradução de Álvaro Valls, e Ernani Reichmann. Vozes: Rio de Janeiro, 1997._______. Johannes Climacus ou É preciso duvidar de tudo. Tradução Silvia Saviano Sampaio e Álvaro Valls. Martins Fontes: São Paulo, 2003._______. Diário Íntimo. Tradução de Maria Angélica Bosco. Santiago Rueda: Buenos Aires, 1989MARTINS, J.S.; VALLS, A. L. M. (orgs.). Kierkegaard no nosso tempo. Nova Harmonia: São Leopoldo: 2010. 


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28
Author(s):  
Jens Bonnemann

In ethics, when discussing problems of justice and a just social existence one question arises obviously: What is the normal case of the relation between I and you we start from? In moral philosophy, each position includes basic socio-anthropological convictions in that we understand the other, for example, primarily as competitor in the fight for essential resources or as a partner in communication. Thus, it is not the human being as isolated individual, or as specimen of the human species or socialised member of a historical society what needs to be understood. Instead, the individual in its relation to the other or others has been studied in phenomenology and the philosophy of dialogue of the twentieth century. In the following essay I focus on Martin Buber’s and Jean-Paul Sartre’s theories of intersubjectivity which I use in order to explore the meaning of recognition and disrespect for an individual. They offer a valuable contribution to questions of practical philosophy and the socio-philosophical diagnosis of our time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 92-98
Author(s):  
ILYA KAPLUNOVICH ◽  
◽  
SVETLANA KAPLUNOVICH ◽  

The founder of humanistic psychology A. Maslow claimed: those who have only a hammer as a tool are inclined to consider the problem as a naill. Is it possible to learn to see in subordinates not nails, but individuals of joint labor activity? What effective management methods are able to identify the true cause and hidden motives of the employee, influence them and get him to voluntarily accept the actions expected and necessary for the manager? The answer to these questions is the purpose of the described study. In management, the Japanese ”Five Why” method is widespread, which, according to the authors, is not productive enough. Having abandoned the formal-logical and relying on the causal-genetic method of research, the technology of adaptive learning in the zone of proximal development, the authors propose another, domestic approach, which has proven its greater efficiency. The article describes the technology of working with it in practice and its advantages. When using the «keyword» technology, the movement towards the result is purposeful. Within the framework of the individual logical trajectory it affects the reasoning of the employee, not the manager. With these questions, the manager constantly assesses and leads the subordinate into an individual zone of proximal development, and the discussion is held within it (that is, the developing effect of the employee’s reflections is ensured). Reliance on the keywords of the respondent ensures that there are no obstacles in the construction of inferences. If in the end there are obstacles, they are quickly leveled by relying on the next keyword of the respondent.


Author(s):  
Angus Nicholls

The term daemonic—often substantivized in German as the daemonic (das Dämonische) since its use by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the early 19th century—is a literary topos associated with divine inspiration and the idea of genius, with the nexus between character and fate and, in more orthodox Christian manifestations, with moral transgression and evil. Although strictly modern literary uses of the term have become prominent only since Goethe, its origins lie in the classical idea of the δαíμων, transliterated into English as daimon or daemon, as an intermediary between the earthly and the divine. This notion can be found in pre-Socratic thinkers such as Empedocles and Heraclitus, in Plato, and in various Stoic and Neo-Platonic sources. One influential aspect of Plato’s presentation of the daemonic is found in Socrates’s daimonion: a divine sign, voice, or hint that dissuades Socrates from taking certain actions at crucial moments in his life. Another is the notion that every soul contains an element of divinity—known as its daimon—that leads it toward heavenly truth. Already in Roman thought, this idea of an external voice or sign begins to be associated with an internal genius that belongs to the individual. In Christian thinking of the European romantic period, the daemonic in general and the Socratic daimonion in particular are associated with notions such as non-rational divine inspiration (for example, in Johann Georg Hamann and Johann Gottfried Herder) and with divine providence (for example, in Joseph Priestley). At the same time, the daemonic is also often interpreted as evil or Satanic—that is: as demonic—by European authors writing in a Christian context. In Russia in particular, during a period spanning from the mid-19th century until the early 20th century, there is a rich vein of novels, including works by Gogol and Dostoevsky, that deal with this more strictly Christian sense of the demonic, especially the notion that the author/narrator may be a heretical figure who supplants the primacy of God’s creation. But the main focus of this article is the more richly ambivalent notion of the daemonic, which explicitly combines both the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian heritages of the term. This topos is most prominently mobilized by two literary exponents during the 19th century: Goethe, especially in his autobiography Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth), and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in his Notebooks and in the Lectures on the History of Philosophy. Both Goethe’s and Coleridge’s treatments of the term, alongside its classical and Judeo-Christian heritages, exerted an influence upon literary theory of the 20th century, leading important theorists such as Georg Lukács, Walter Benjamin, Hans Blumenberg, Angus Fletcher, and Harold Bloom to associate the daemonic with questions concerning the novel, myth, irony, allegory, and literary influence.


Author(s):  
Farah Ahmad ◽  
Jamie Jianmin Wang ◽  
Christo El Morr

The current chapter systematically reviewed literature on online mindfulness interventions. Electronic databases were searched from 2005 to July 2016. The aim was to examine the nature of online mindfulness interventions, design features, and their effectiveness in improving symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. The review of selected studies shows that online delivery of mindfulness psycho-education and practice is an area in its infancy. There is evidence that online mindfulness interventions can have a positive impact on mental health in terms of stress, depression, and anxiety; however, large sample studies are needed in order to have conclusive results. Moreover, the extension of online mindfulness interventions beyond the individual level to include a community dimension, such as virtual community features, and a focus on the social determinants of health, needs to be explored in future. The online mindfulness intervention could be a cost-effective way to scale up the promotion of mental wellbeing.


Author(s):  
John G. Wilson

In this chapter, we investigate the recent situation concerning the seduction of consumers by advertising and the media. A new plethora of media-organised conglomerates is attempting to monopolise our attention and steer our emotions, opinions and choices towards increased consumption through imposed wants in the interest of gross profits for a semi-invisiblised few. Herein we consider: the colonisation of public places (advertising), the work/spend cycle, increased work at the cost of leisure; impression management, status-conscious and conspicuous consumption, reflective versus pre-reflective thinking in consumer choices, the early recruitment of children, how human emotions can become the fuel of overconsumption, class-based emotions and fashion consumption, obsessions with body image, the evasion and silencing of criticism by the corporate media. The approach is one founded in critical theory - a perspective that describes the individual as reciprocally constituted by the society in which she lives, rather than as a passive entity existing prior to socialisation. It seeks to reveal the seduction of our subjectivities (running marketing strategies ‘from within') as contrasted with the value-free, ‘objective' approach of much contemporary social psychology. Contemporary theoreticians in sociology and consumer studies, including Pierre Bourdieu and Juliet Schor, are cited along with deeper philosophical perspectives from the earlier philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, complete with references from contemporary books and journals.


Author(s):  
Charles B. Guignon

The term ‘existentialism’ is sometimes reserved for the works of Jean-Paul Sartre, who used it to refer to his own philosophy in the 1940s. But it is more often used as a general name for a number of thinkers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries who made the concrete individual central to their thought. Existentialism in this broader sense arose as a backlash against philosophical and scientific systems that treat all particulars, including humans, as members of a genus or instances of universal laws. It claims that our own existence as unique individuals in concrete situations cannot be grasped adequately in such theories, and that systems of this sort conceal from us the highly personal task of trying to achieve self-fulfilment in our lives. Existentialists therefore start out with a detailed description of the self as an ‘existing individual’, understood as an agent involved in a specific social and historical world. One of their chief aims is to understand how the individual can achieve the richest and most fulfilling life in the modern world. Existentialists hold widely differing views about human existence, but there are a number of recurring themes in their writings. First, existentialists hold that humans have no pregiven purpose or essence laid out for them by God or by nature; it is up to each one of us to decide who and what we are through our own actions. This is the point of Sartre’s definition of existentialism as the view that, for humans, ‘existence precedes essence’. What this means is that we first simply exist - find ourselves born into a world not of our own choosing - and it is then up to each of us to define our own identity or essential characteristics in the course of what we do in living out our lives. Thus, our essence (our set of defining traits) is chosen, not given. Second, existentialists hold that people decide their own fates and are responsible for what they make of their lives. Humans have free will in the sense that, no matter what social and biological factors influence their decisions, they can reflect on those conditions, decide what they mean, and then make their own choices as to how to handle those factors in acting in the world. Because we are self-creating or self-fashioning beings in this sense, we have full responsibility for what we make of our lives. Finally, existentialists are concerned with identifying the most authentic and fulfilling way of life possible for individuals. In their view, most of us tend to conform to the ways of living of the ‘herd’: we feel we are doing well if we do what ‘one’ does in familiar social situations. In this respect, our lives are said to be ‘inauthentic’, not really our own. To become authentic, according to this view, an individual must take over their own existence with clarity and intensity. Such a transformation is made possible by such profound emotional experiences as anxiety or the experience of existential guilt. When we face up to what is revealed in such experiences, existentialists claim, we will have a clearer grasp of what is at stake in life, and we will be able to become more committed and integrated individuals.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Nielsen

In this article, I argue that Kierkegaard’s analysis of the self and the concept of despair introduces another approach to the self that is different from the one found in humanistic psychology. Rather than seeing the self as something organic, something universally and privately given to the individual to develop, Kierkegaard presented a dialectical and a relational understanding of the self, wherein the notion of “the other” is central. Central in Kierkegaard’s analysis in Sickness Unto Death are two modalities when it comes to despair: the despair of not willing to be oneself and the despair of willing to be oneself. Kierkegaard’s analysis of the despair of willing to be oneself can be read as a strong critique of the notion of self being constituted by itself, as argued by humanistic psychology.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne O’Donohue ◽  
Lindsay Nelson

Purpose – This study aims to re-examine the concept of alienation, particularly from the perspective of existential psychology. While research interest continues to centre on links between human resource management (HRM) and organizational performance, such as in studies by Beer et al. (1984), Huselid (1995), Becker and Gerhart (1996) and Guest (2011), there is a growing interest in individual attributes such as employee well-being in addition to organizational performance, as mentioned in studies by Macky and Boxall (2007), Wood and de Menezes (2011) and Guest and Conway (2011). In this paper, we focus on issues related to the individual, and in doing so we suggest that HRM theory needs further development, as pointed out by Guest (2011). Design/methodology/approach – This is a paper in the tradition of critical theory that draws on both classical and modern research in the business and psychology literature. It outlines the development of the concept of alienation from its classic articulation by Marx through to the perspective offered by existential psychologists such as Blauner (1964). How alienation, thus, defined might manifest in the workplace is then discussed, as are its links to other concepts associated in the literature with positive and negative work experiences is presented. Findings – We argue that alienation needs to be addressed at two levels, namely, at the systemic level, in terms of factors external to the individual such as work and organizational systems and processes, and in terms of factors internal to the individual’s “state of mind”. We offer strategies for management to consider counterbalancing the negative effects of residual feelings of powerlessness, meaninglessness, isolation and self-estrangement that systemic change is unable to eliminate. Originality/value – The paper refocuses attention on the individual within the context of HRM, the effects of alienation and other outcomes of positive and negative work experiences such as work engagement and job burnout.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lusy Tunik Muharlisiani ◽  
M. Pd Dr Heni Sukrisno ◽  
Dina Chamidah

This research has the primary aim of describing the symptoms and factors that cause burnout and affect self-esteem on the performance of lecturers in the execution of quality management in higher education, and the secondary aim of obtaining a formula for burnout dan self-esteem that can depict the emotional condition or feelings of lecturers toward their performance. The approach used in this research in this research was qualitative-descriptive. Data analysis was conducted during and after data collection. Research results showed that the primary cause of burnout is not stress, but imbalance in mental processes (thinking, feeling, behaving). The primary cause of a low self-esteem is the character of the individual in the inability to control emotions. This research also produced a formula in the form of a scale to measure burnout using the two dimensions of (a) emotional exhaustion and (b) cognitive distortion. Meanwhile, the formula for self-esteem utilizes the two dimensions of (a) confidence and (b) the reduction of confidence.


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