The role of religion, of religious individuals and organizations, is currently discussed within both a private and public sector of development. I have viewed documents from the World Bank and DFID where the religious presence is a growing fact and previous theories that religion would disappear with economic development have been abandoned. As a result DFID conducted a large study on the importance of religion for development work, RaD 2005-2011, under the directions of Professor Carole Rakodi. Rakodi (2011) concluded that religion was highly related to the success or failure of developmental projects, and to understand the values people had religion needed to be understood within its specific cultural context. She developed an analysis model to conduct this work. I studied this model and decided to view her analyzing method from a different perspective, from the theory of construct of meaning and the role of religion within worldviews by Joseph Silberman (2005) and Chrystal Park (2005). I was curious to see if theory within psychology of religion could bring further understanding of religion and religious actors to the discussion within development, and if analyzing religion from this perspective could better reach the needs described as necessary to conduct productive work. From studies of the public health in Scandinavia DeMarinis (2011) expresses how religious faith has been affected by privatization and secularism. By researching public health she has seen that within society a number of expressions and ways to relate to the sacred have emerged, and she calls for other methods of analyzing religion. A concept of existential meaning-making was constructed and is now being used in research for understanding the function of religion within meaning structures for the well-being of man. The end result of my research became this thesis whereby I am comparing the two methods of analyzing religion and existential meaning by using a hermeneutic method. I have compared their structures to see which dimension they reach, their historical backgrounds and interpretation of concepts like religion, culture, value, well-being and development. The results have been interpreted with the theory by Silberman and Park. Among my conclusions is that the way we view religion has a huge impact for analysis. It affects how projects and policies are constructed and how we meet and relate to people from other cultures. The two methods note similar aspects but the use of the concept of existential meaning-making is able to reach further and provides an answer to challenges seen within development on how to view religion. By using a concept of existential meaning it allows for a broader perspective and inclusion of all relation to the sacred as well as a self-reflective position to our own understanding of important concepts that directly or indirectly affect work with development in the ways of structuring goals, policy and projects.

The purpose of the study has been to examine how meaning is created in the song lyrics of the Swedish gangster rapper Ant Wan. This has been done partly by iden- tifying the meaning-making themes in the song lyrics and partly by using Park's (2010) theory of meaning-making. To investigate this, two research questions have been used:  The first is "What existential meaning-making themes can be reflected in the song lyrics?" and the second is "In what way are the existential meaning-making themes presented in Ant Wans song lyrics and how can they be understood based on Park's meaning-making theory?" The method underlying the entire study is a qualitative content analysis with an abductive approach and the material has undergone coding and thematic processes based on Boréus & Bergström (2005) and Lindgren (2014). The theory used in the study is Crystal Park's (2010) theory and model of meaning making.  The conclusion of the study shows that there were existential meaning-making themes in Ant Wans song texts and these themes could be explained based on Crystal Park's (2010) theory of meaning-making. The themes that could be identi- fied in the lyrics were Existential questions, Love, Religion and Criminality. These themes were then explained based on the theory that some form of process could be interpreted in the texts based on the concepts of global meaning and situational meaning. Finally, the analysis shows that there are several parallels between the theory and the empirical data used to create an understanding of the content of the text extracts. The conclusion of the study also shows that traces of previous research and its results could be found in this study's results and analysis.

Syftet med den här uppsats är att undersöka varför människor med barndomstrauma kan finna mytologiska symboliska berättelser i existentiell kultur läkande. De frågor som ställs är: På vilket sätt kan berättelser om superhjältar ge ökad förståelse om barndomstrauma, både för de som själva upplevt det, samt de som inte upplevt det? Hur kan berättelser om superhjältar verka psykiskt läkande vid barndomstrauma? Vilken betydelse har känslor i läkandeprocessen av barndomstrauma? Material som använts är TV-serien Moon Knight och kommentarer från YouTube. Teoretiska perspektiv som används är positiva psykologiska teorier, John P. Wilsons avgrundupplevelse och Viktor Frankls viljan till mening samt analytiska teorier om filmtolkning och hur det digitala samhället kan ge en existentiell kontext, med Jung, Tilander och Duppils forskning. Metoden som använts är grundad teori (GT). Tidigare forskning har visat ett samband mellan meningsskapande och populärkultur, främst berättelser om superhjältar, likaså de psykiskt läkande effekter film och TV-serier kan ha. Barndomstrauma har visat både negativa risker och positiva aspekter och har stor psykisk inverkan även i vuxen ålder. Den här uppsatsen visar ett samband mellan barndomstrauma och en ökad förmåga, förståelse, begär och upplevelse av existentiellt meningsskapande från mytologiska symboliska budskap från populärkultur, i uppsatsen benämns det existentiell kultur som även förklaras närmre. Det ger psykiskt läkande effekter och bidrar till välbefinnande och själslig helhet som kan jämföras med det som kan upplevas i religiösa sammanhang. Dessa resultat är viktiga eftersom barndomstrauma och meningsskapande i populärkultur är relativt outforskade områden men som kan komma till hjälp för barn och vuxna som upplevt barndomstrauma. Det blir ett sätt att både förstå och hjälpa dessa, likaså ett sätt för dem att enklare förstå sig själva för att sedan kunna läka och finna välbefinnande. / The aim of this paper is to investigate why people with childhood trauma can find mythological symbolic stories in existential culture healing. Questions asked: In what way can stories about superheroes provide increased understanding about childhood trauma, both for those who have experienced it themselves, as well as those who have not? How can stories about superheroes have a psychological healing effect following childhood trauma? What is the importance of emotions in the healing process of childhood trauma? Materials used are the TV series Moon Knight and comments from YouTube. Theoretical perspectives used are positive psychological theories, John P. Wilson's the abyss experience and Viktor Frankl's will to meaning as well as analytical theories about film interpretation and how the digital society can provide an existential context with Jung, Tilander, and Duppils’ research. The method used is grounded theory (GT). Previous research has shown a connection between meaning-making and popular culture, mainly stories about superheroes, as well as the psychological healing effects from films and TV series. Childhood trauma has shown both negative risks and positive aspects and has a large psychological impact even in adulthood. This paper shows a connection between childhood trauma and an increase in ability, understanding, desire and experience of existential meaning-making from mythological symbolic messages from popular culture, called existential culture in this paper, a term that will be explained. It provides psychological healing effects and contributes to well-being and a spiritual wholeness that can be compared to some religious experiences. These findings are important because childhood trauma and meaning-making in popular culture are relatively unexplored areas but can be helpful for children and adults who have experienced childhood trauma. It becomes a way to both understand and help these, as well as a way for them to understand themselves more easily, to heal and find an inner peace.