Translated material
"Nausea" and "extraneous"
As existential philosophy can help survive in the destructive world and realize what “as before” will not. The opinion of the psychotherapist
The heyday of existential philosophy fell on the first and beginning of the second half of the twentieth century. She put the existence of an individual in the center of her consideration and it was not accidental - it was during the first and Second World Wars that a huge number of people faced the complete unpredictability of their own fate, with the injustice of the surrounding world, with the need to make difficult personal elections.
When the situation became more calm, one could turn to more general and abstract issues: the structure of culture in general, the role of the language in it, the relationship of the signifier and the signified, etc. - And then new directions for that time came to the fore: philosophical hermeneutics, structuralism, poststructuralism.
It is curious that the generalized name “philosophers-expensors” unites thinkers who adhered to quite different philosophical and religious views, often never met personally, often occupied completely opposite political positions.
Martin Heidegger, who supported the Nazi regime (at least in the first years of its formation);
Anti -fascist Karl Yaspers
and the Judaist religious thinker Martin Buber in Germany, who supported the French colonial policy to a certain extent;
Skeptical of the communist ideas of Alber Camus
and an anti-colonialist, a radical supporter of left-wing views, sympathizing not only in Soviet communism, but also Chinese Maoism Jean-Paul Sartre in France;
Christian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, who sympathized with the ideas of communism;
And the philosopher Ivan Ilyin, who sincerely supported fascism even after his defeat.
One way or another, they are united by the fact that in the center of their thoughts there was the choice of an individual person who does not really understand where to go, feels completely powerless, tries to understand how to find life guidelines and what bridges associate him with other human beings.
Existential philosophy influenced some psychiatrists and psychologists, as a result of which existential psychotherapy arose - in fact, a number of different, independently of each other's therapy. Despite the differences in the conceptual apparatus and practice, in their focus of attention there is how a person experiences his life, how it treats the basic existential problems laid down in the very nature of human existence: the limb of being, absurdity, inexhaustible imperfection of the world, anxiety, guilt, etc.
Further, I will try to show how some conflicts connected by universal, or, in the words of existential philosophy, ontological reasons for human existence, have become more acute in connection with the events that have been happening recently.
For many people in the last two years, a stable and predictable, as it seemed, world with its usual values and expectations again cracked
(Of course, I do not mean regions where ethnic, religious, criminal wars are permanent). It turned out that not only personal plans for life are unreliable, which, in general, is more or less understandable to a person, but universal moral and moral guidelines may not work, which, it would seem, have long been granted-which, in particular, have clearly demonstrated, in particular, the events of October 7 last year in Israel.
And in this situation, the forgotten existential philosophy again becomes more than relevant. Events of this kind encourage, but rather even force a person to look at the wrong side of the world, at what is hidden behind scene scenery. On the absurdity of existence, which French existentialists highlighted in their works.
“I was not at all surprised, I understood that this is the world, the world that appeared before me in all my nakedness, and I was suffocating with rage at the sight of this huge absurd creature.”
Jean-Paul Sartre "Nausea"
Catastrophic events in the form of natural and technogenic disasters, wars, genocides, various kinds of violence destroy our naive, brought up from childhood that the world is predictable, friendly and safe if it is prudent. That people are good and kind by nature, that there is justice and that good always defeats evil. During periods of tragedies and cataclysms, it becomes obvious that this is far from the case.
A condition of confusion arises, which is like children in families where there are systematic abusive relationships, when the same person is both a caring face and the aggressor. And for a child, it is almost impossible to clearly separate one from the other, you have to replace one pole of reality from consciousness or live in a state of bifurcation, dissociation. Something similar happens in societies that experience strong social shocks.
How to reconcile among themselves that the priest, who always trusted and who preached ten commandments, suddenly begins to say that some people are not even bad to kill.
How to get along with the fact that a relative with whom there has always been a warm relationship was on the side of those who destroy what is valuable to you. It is very difficult to get out of this conflict.
Many people prefer to pretend that they do not see and do not hear what they actually see and hear, for the sake of maintaining loyalty and friendly relations.
If again we draw analogies with clinical practice, you can recall examples of mothers who, as it were, do not notice sexual harassment to their child from their partner, because They are afraid to lose him. Or an example of women who justify men who beat them and cause physical injuries. As an explanation, you can often hear that she allegedly provoked him or was careless, and that he is a real man and a strong personality.
These examples cause very strong sadness and indignation, but even more sadness causes when whole large communities behave in this way.
Social shocks, similar to those we are talking about, lead to the collapse of the usual value guidelines and meanings. Our once made plans for the future collapsed. Our values that we believed in, as if do not work. The people we trusted do not deserve confidence.
No matter how paradoxical this may sound, in such a situation, the support point can give us a recognition that some existential thinkers designated as “a given limb”. This means that all events, experiences, relationships ultimately come to an irreversible completion. Sometimes this completion can be expected, and sometimes unexpected. At some point, we have to part with significant people, abandon plans when we understand that they will not come true.
At some age, although it is sad, we had to abandon children's illusions, from the faith that our parents are infallible demigods, that the world as a whole is predictable and benevolent, that people important to us will never leave us.
Based on my current experience in counseling and psychotherapy, many people get stuck in this place (although I myself sometimes sin by this), trying to believe that time can be stopped or turned back, that everything can become as before. Phrases that often have to hear:
“Soon everything will end ...
We will meet as before ...
There will be a great future ...
People are aware of their mistakes ...
I'm trying to convince my loved ones ...
They already understand something ... "
However, if we look a little more detached at ordinary everyday experience, and even more so at the historical experience of large -scale social tragedies, then “as before” does not come, and positive changes, if they happen, then do not occur quickly - the dead do not disappear, they will not disappear, and the related and friendly ties will no longer be “to develop”, as people around you in critical in critical. situations. Well, human beings are not at all inclined to admit that they were wrong in something. Often for this it is necessary to change generations.
But the adoption of these realities is necessary in order to build updated life meanings and goals.