Searching for meaning in chaos: Viktor Frankl's story

The existential psychiatrist Viktor Frankl (1905–1997) lived an extraordinary life. He witnessed and experienced acts of anti-Semitism, persecution, brutality, physical abuse, malnutrition, and emotional humiliation. Ironically, through these experiences, the loss of dignity and the loss of the lives of his wife, parents and brother, his philosophy of human nature, namely, that the search for meaning is the drive behind human behaviour, was moulded. Frankl formulated the basis of his existential approach to psychological practice before World War II (WWII). However, his experiences in the concentration camps confirmed his view that it is through a search for meaning and purpose in life that individuals can endure hardship and suffering. In a sense, Frank’s theory was tested in a dramatic way by the tragedies of his life. Following WWII, Frankl shaped modern psychological thinking by lecturing at more than 200 universities, authoring 40 books published in 50 languages and receiving 29 honorary doctorates. His ideas and experiences related to the search for meaning influenced theorists, practitioners, researchers, and lay people around the world. This study focuses specifically on the period between 1942 and 1945. The aim is to explore Frankl’s search for meaning within an unpredictable, life-threatening, and chaotic context through the lens of his concept of noö-dynamics.

Paul Tillich: Samarbejdet mellem menneskets ontologiske ophav og eksistentielle vilkår

Mainly working with Paul Tillich’s lesser known works and one unpublished text, this article seeks to examine how his ontological approach to the doctrine of God and humanity inevitably must interact with an existential approach to the human predicament, which is characterized by estrangement and separation from the essential being of human beings. On this view, theology must include an ambiguity consisting in the use of an essentialist perspective and an existentialist perspective in combination with a need for both a vertical and a horizontal way of thinking.

Advanced pedagogic support for the formation of self-development competence in university freshmen

Among the mandatory requirements for the implementation of the main professional educational programmes in higher education is the formation of a universal self-development competence, which provides for forecasting, building and implementing the self-development trajectory that best meets their personal needs and aspirations. However, the results of a sociological study show that most university freshmen are unable to predict and implement the trajectory of self-development and note the lack of opportunities in this matter from teachers. One of the assistance types to university students can be advanced pedagogic support for the formation of self-development competence in university freshmen. The uniqueness of pedagogic support, conceptual foundations of which were developed by Oleg Gazman, is that it determines students' self-determination in a situation of choice and the subsequent independent solution of their problems. The anticipatory nature of pedagogic support for the formation of self-development competence in university freshmen is to provide students with a reason to think even before they have a problem. At the moment when a difficult moment appears in their real life, they already have a set of methods and techniques for its successful resolution. As a result of the theoretical research a refined definition of advanced pedagogic support for the formation of self-development competence in university freshmen is proposed from the position of the existential approach (Mikhail Rozhkov).

Identification and Identity: Differentiating the Conceptual terms

The problem of identity and identification has been occupying a prominent place in research studies since the early 20th century and is one of the most relevant issues in the science of the late 20th - early 21st centuries. It is determined by the changes in socio-cultural reality in the post-modern societies of the second half of the 20th century, the crisis in the existential approach to the personality studies, enhanced integrative trends in the scientific thinking, its humanitarianization and anthropocentric nature. This research paper looks at the actualization of the studies on identity and identification, describes the history and scope of the identification studies, substantiates the differentiation between the terms of individual/collective identity and identification. The subject of the article is the phenomenological and conceptual essence of identity and identification. The goal of the article is to substantiate identity and identification as the phenomena and scientific concepts. The methodological basis of the research includes the complex of the general research methods, namely: observation, description, induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis, taxonomy and modelling. The differentiation of the investigated terms reduces to the fact that identification serves as a foundation for constructing identity, so they correlate as a mechanism, process, and result of such mechanism’s operation in an individual self-conscious. Identification is seen as a cognitive-and-emotional mechanism of identity construction, due to which the subject constructs his or her own sameness. Identity is a result of recognition and emotional assessment of the individual-and-group and collective characteristics by an individual or group. Such characteristics have been endorsed by the relevant others as a result of constructing the world image, the image of the collective, of individual's or group's self and their place in there, basing on the specific identifying features.

Military-Historical Anthropology: Vectors of Theoretical Polemic in Russian and English Historiography

A classification of theoretical approaches in military-historical anthropology is proposed. The authors note that social constructivism prevails in English-language historiography as a whole, while in Russian studies an existential approach does. It is shown that the socio-cultural direction and the phenomenology of the front-line experience have recently begun to play an increasing role. It is concluded that a theoretical analysis of the differences between these approaches allows not only to identify their strengths and problematic sides, but also to outline the prospects for interaction between them. The authors note that the most promising today is the setting for the participation of representatives of the academic community in joint cultural practices of representing the front-line experience with combatants, which makes it possible to make the dialogue between the phenomenology of front-line experience and the socio-cultural approach the most productive. It is argued that within the framework of such a dialogue, the question of the relationship between normative social structures and local practices should not be reduced to a previously known answer. It is emphasized that it makes sense not to level out or radically absolutize the theoretical tension between the indicated approaches, but to work it out — to look for points of practical interaction and modification of existing strategies for comprehending the past.

Maternal overprotection predicts consistent improvement of self-compassion during mindfulness-based intervention and existential approach: a secondary analysis of the EXMIND study

Background Recently, we showed that 4-week mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) followed by 4-week existential approach (EXMIND) was as effective for developing self-compassion as 8-week MBI. This study aims to identify the predictors to EXMIND. Methods Of the 63 participants who completed the EXMIND group, 60 participants had baseline, 4-week, and 8-week total scores of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). Of the participants, 49 were female and 11 were male, with a mean age of 48.4 years. We investigated the participants’ intervention response patterns, then used analysis of variance to compared those patterns by age, gender, and the baseline scores of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa and San Diego Auto-questionnaire, the Temperament and Character Inventory, Mini-Mental State Examination, the Japanese Adult Reading Test, Young Mania Rating Scale, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, the Parental Bonding Instrument, and the Purpose in Life Test. In addition, multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify any response pattern predictors. Results Participants were divided into 4 groups based on response patterns in the changes of total SCS scores of the EXMIND group. The first group consisted of 15 participants who responded positively to MBI, but negatively to the existential approach (A group). The second group consisted of 23 participants who responded negatively to MBI, but positively to the existential approach (B group). The third group consisted of 20 participants who responded positively to both MBI and the existential approach (C group). The fourth group consisted of only 2 participants who responded negatively to both MBI and the existential approach (D group). Participants who responded positively to both MBI and the existential approach (C group) reported more maternal overprotectiveness than the other participants (groups A, B, and D). Conclusions The present findings suggest that maternal overprotection may predict consistent improvement of self-compassion during EXMIND therapy.

Non-classical Intentionality: An Existential View

This paper compares the ideas of intentionality and ‘pure Self ’ in the phenomenological and existential traditions. The purpose of the research is to compare and identify the meaning of these categories that is different from the phenomenological approach. While phenomenology was conceived as an epistemological program, the existential view represented in the paper by Nikolai Berdyaev shows the negative ontological consequences to which it leads. For example, the idea of intentionality (the direction of consciousness toward an object) can lead to the elimination of subject from the life picture of the world, whereas the idea of a ‘transcendental Self ’ leads to the justification of the lack of content in consciousness. Therefore, there is a conflict between these philosophical approaches. The topicality of the problem under study is due to identification of details and specific features of this conflict. The goal of phenomenology is purification of consciousness from subjective premises for achieving objective cognition. The goal of existentialism is the formation of existence of the subject, the actualization of his/her immanent freedom. Thus, the existential approach broadens the ideas on the nature of the consciousness orientation, which can be directed not only toward the phenomenal world, but also to the transcendental one. The scientific value of this study is due to the reconstruction of the existential approach concerning the issue of the direction of consciousness and the ‘pure Self ’ using the example of Berdyaev’s philosophy, as well as the possibility of creating ‘ontology of consciousness’ based on his philosophy. The article is based on the method of theoretical reconstruction and conceptual analysis of the arguments put forward by E. Husserl and N. A. Berdyaev, as well as numerous researchers of their work. The methodological basis of this work is a philosophical reconstruction and a comparative approach. The scientific significance of the research is justifying that the existential approach to ‘intentionality’ does not deny the phenomenological approach but enlarge it adding ontological content in this notion.

The Impact of the 1970s on Black Identity Development: An Analysis of Psychosocial and Black Existential Perspectives

With the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and the subsequent focus on black existence, itis perhaps timely to revisit a previous historical period – the 1970s which saw theemergence of the civil rights movement and the transformation of black consciousness and identity.Both psychosocial and existential theories highlight the relationship between context and the development of identity. Drawing on the work of Erikson, Cross describes stages of identity development from negro to black which he originally related to the historical context of the black consciousness period of the 1970s but later, developed into a tool to measure black identity. This model depicts identity as developing in fixed stages with objective and measurable characteristics. The black existential approach focuses on the construction of identity within a context shaped by an individual’s experiences. Black existential philosophy aims to explore how different black experiences shape different manifestations of black identity construction. This articlereviews these two perspectives. I conclude that the black existential perspective produces richer knowledge about the existence of black people. Using the example ofhow second generation British born black Jamaicans constructed their identity during the 1970s, it is possible to see how this construction was shaped by their lived experiences in Britain at this time.

EXISTENTIAL APPROACH AS A MEANS OF CONCEPTUAL MODERNIZATION OF MODERN HIGHER MUSIC EDUCATION

The article is devoted to the study of the substantive characteristics of the existential approach. Its fundamental positions, principles, scientific interpretations of key concepts are analyzed: existence, existentialism, existential. Peculiarities of modern understanding of existential knowledge and their practical application in existential pedagogy are investigated. According to researchers, the application of an existential approach in modern education is necessary and inevitable; life-affirming ideas of existentialism as a continuation of humanistic traditions in philosophy and psychology can serve as excellent support in substantiating the existential-value orientations of educational activity and constitute a methodological, theoretical and practical construct of the humanistic educational paradigm. It was found that to meet the need of modern education in a new open knowledge about man, expanding ideas about the development of a particular person, his inner world, meaning, deep experiences in communication with another person can existential pedagogy. It is determined that the main ideal goal of existential pedagogy is the formation of a person who is able to live his life optimally, making the most of his potential and realizing himself in socially significant activities. The opinion is expressed that the goal of modern higher music education, which is based on the principles of existential pedagogy, should be the formation of the existential sphere of personality. It is noted that the leading existences of the approach – the recognition of man as the main creator of his personality, the uniqueness of each individual, focus on personal growth, self-actualization, freedom of choice, etc. – successfully correlate with the demands of art education. It is proved that the existential approach has significant potential in the modernization of modern higher music education.