Is there meaning in suffering or ts suffering only a soul-destroying experience from which nothing positive can emerge? In seeking to answer this question, a heuristic study was made of the experiences and views of the famous Auschwitz survivor, Viktor Frankl, supplemented by an exploration of the life-worlds of other Nazi concentration camp survivors. The underlying premise was that if meaning can be found in the worst sufferings imaginable, then meaning can be found in every other situation of suffering. Seeking to illuminate the views of Frankl and to gain a deeper grasp of the phenomenon of suffering, the theoretical and personal views of mainstream psychologists regarding the nature of man and the meaning of hi.~ sufferings were studied. Since the focus of this research was on the suffering of the Holocaust survivor, the Holocaust as the context of the present study, was studied as a crisis of meaning and as psychological adversity. In trying to establish the best way to gain entry into the life-world of the Holocaust survivor, the research methods employed in Holocaust survivor studies were reviewed and, for the purposes of this study, found wanting. The choice and employment of a heuristic method yielded rich data which illuminated the fact that, through a series of heroic choices Frankl, and the survivors who became research participants, could attain spiritual triumph in the midst of suffering caused by an evil and inhumane regime. Hitherto unexplored areas of psychological maturity were revealed by these heroes of suffering from which the following conclusions could be drawn: Man attains the peaks of moral excellence through suffering. Suffering can have meaning. Suffering can call us out of the moral apathy and mindlesness of mere existence. The Holocaust, one of the most tragic events in human history, contains, paradoxically, a challenge to humankind. Resisting the pressure to sink to the level of a brute fight for mere survival, Frankl and the research participants continued to exercise those human values important to them and triumphantly maintained their human dignity and self-respect. Evidence was provided that man has the power to overcome evil with good. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Is there meaning in suffering or ts suffering only a soul-destroying experience from which nothing positive can emerge? In seeking to answer this question, a heuristic study was made of the experiences and views of the famous Auschwitz survivor, Viktor Frankl, supplemented by an exploration of the life-worlds of other Nazi concentration camp survivors. The underlying premise was that if meaning can be found in the worst sufferings imaginable, then meaning can be found in every other situation of suffering. Seeking to illuminate the views of Frankl and to gain a deeper grasp of the phenomenon of suffering, the theoretical and personal views of mainstream psychologists regarding the nature of man and the meaning of hi.~ sufferings were studied. Since the focus of this research was on the suffering of the Holocaust survivor, the Holocaust as the context of the present study, was studied as a crisis of meaning and as psychological adversity. In trying to establish the best way to gain entry into the life-world of the Holocaust survivor, the research methods employed in Holocaust survivor studies were reviewed and, for the purposes of this study, found wanting. The choice and employment of a heuristic method yielded rich data which illuminated the fact that, through a series of heroic choices Frankl, and the survivors who became research participants, could attain spiritual triumph in the midst of suffering caused by an evil and inhumane regime. Hitherto unexplored areas of psychological maturity were revealed by these heroes of suffering from which the following conclusions could be drawn: Man attains the peaks of moral excellence through suffering. Suffering can have meaning. Suffering can call us out of the moral apathy and mindlesness of mere existence. The Holocaust, one of the most tragic events in human history, contains, paradoxically, a challenge to humankind. Resisting the pressure to sink to the level of a brute fight for mere survival, Frankl and the research participants continued to exercise those human values important to them and triumphantly maintained their human dignity and self-respect. Evidence was provided that man has the power to overcome evil with good. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Na clínica contemporânea, temos nos defrontado com novas expressões de sofrimento, nas quais o corpo ganha destaque. Entre os fenômenos recorrentes encontramos a dor crônica e as fibromialgias. Os estudos sobre esses assuntos apresentam posições distintas: uns consideram tais dores como fenômenos histéricos, outros, como uma manifestação do corpo deprimido. Pretendemos verificar as especificidades das dores crônicas, desde a possibilidade de uma manifestação histérica ou depressiva, mas avançando na hipótese de que elas possam ser manifestações do quadro melancólico. Tomaremos a teoria de Freud como principal fonte dos nossos estudos sobre a melancolia e cotejaremos também autores mais recentes que tratam do fenômeno da dor, particularmente os da psicossomática psicanalítica. Os pacientes que nos mobilizaram a empreender tais estudos foram aqueles que apresentavam traços curiosos: pouca fluidez pulsional, desânimo, dores em vários pontos do corpo, sintomas psicossomáticos, ansiedade bastante expressiva e, geralmente, marcados por uma falta de sentido, conotando, de um lado, traços melancólicos e, de outro, sintomas somáticos. Na melancolia, trata-se de uma perda na vida pulsional enquanto que no sofrimento decorrente de um luto normal, isso não acontece; a libido se desprende do objeto, devido a uma posição ocupada por esse objeto perdido, em que havia um duplo trabalho a ele dirigido, de amor e ódio, portanto passível de ser elaborado, no nível consciente. Nesse mesmo texto, ele mostra que no luto patológico, o objeto perdido mantém-se investido, libidinalmente, tendo como consequência um apego a ele, sem que ele possa ser elaborado, causando, portanto, uma sombra do objeto sobre o próprio ego do sujeito. Isso significa que há um hiper investimento narcísico no objeto, no qual o sujeito se fixa colando nele. Num mundo voltado para o individualismo, para o narcisismo e sem ideais é provável que se estimule mais esse encapsulamento, impedindo o sujeito de se vincular. Na clínica contemporânea os sintomas são mais dessa natureza: são primários, de caráter narcísico, no qual o sujeito se vê encapsulado num mundo vazio e sem significação. Nesse contexto, pensamos ser mais propício falar de sujeitos melancólicos, distinto dos deprimidos, pois estes fazem uma retirada do investimento libidinal, mas mantém uma relação com objeto.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:08:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 carolina_cavalcanti_henriques.pdf: 339372 bytes, checksum: 35ac31ce1aa15f2bcacce66bd22f3ada (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-11 / In contemporary practice, we have been faced with new expressions of suffering, in which the body gets featured. Among the recurring phenomena found chronic pain and fibromialgia. Studies on these subjects feature distinct positions: some consider such pain as hysterical phenomena, others as a manifestation of the body down. We intend to verify the specifics of chronic pain, since the possibility of a hysterical demonstration or depressed, but advancing the hypothesis that they may be manifestations of melancholic framework. Take the theory of Freud as the main source of our studies on the melancholy and cotejaremos also latest authors dealing with the phenomenon of pain, particularly the psychoanalytic literature. Patients who mobilized us to undertake such studies were those that were curious traits: low fluidity pulsional, dismay, pain in various parts of the body, psychosomatic symptoms, anxiety quite expressive and usually marked by a lack of sense, connoting, on the other hand, melancholic traits and somatic symptoms. In melancholy, a loss in pulsional life while suffering from a normal grief, that doesn't happen; libido peels back the object, due to a position occupied by this lost object, in which there was a double job to him directed, of love and hate, so liable to be drafted in the conscious level. In this same text, it shows that in the pathological mourning, the missing object remains invested, libidinalmente, resulting in an attachment to him, without it can be elaborated, causing therefore a shadow of the object about the subject's ego itself. That means there's a hyper narcissistic investment in object, in which the subject is fixed by pasting it. In a world facing individualism, for narcissism and without ideals is likely to stimulate more this encapsulation, preventing the subject from link. In contemporary clinical symptoms are more of this nature: are primary, narcissistic character, in which the subject finds himself wrapped in a world empty and without meaning. In this context, we think it's more conducive to speak of melancholy subjects, distinct from the depressed, because these make a libidinal investment withdrawal, but maintains a relationship with object. / Na clínica contemporânea, temos nos defrontado com novas expressões de sofrimento, nas quais o corpo ganha destaque. Entre os fenômenos recorrentes encontramos a dor crônica e as fibromialgias. Os estudos sobre esses assuntos apresentam posições distintas: uns consideram tais dores como fenômenos histéricos, outros, como uma manifestação do corpo deprimido. Pretendemos verificar as especificidades das dores crônicas, desde a possibilidade de uma manifestação histérica ou depressiva, mas avançando na hipótese de que elas possam ser manifestações do quadro melancólico. Tomaremos a teoria de Freud como principal fonte dos nossos estudos sobre a melancolia e cotejaremos também autores mais recentes que tratam do fenômeno da dor, particularmente os da psicossomática psicanalítica. Os pacientes que nos mobilizaram a empreender tais estudos foram aqueles que apresentavam traços curiosos: pouca fluidez pulsional, desânimo, dores em vários pontos do corpo, sintomas psicossomáticos, ansiedade bastante expressiva e, geralmente, marcados por uma falta de sentido, conotando, de um lado, traços melancólicos e, de outro, sintomas somáticos. Na melancolia, trata-se de uma perda na vida pulsional enquanto que no sofrimento decorrente de um luto normal, isso não acontece; a libido se desprende do objeto, devido a uma posição ocupada por esse objeto perdido, em que havia um duplo trabalho a ele dirigido, de amor e ódio, portanto passível de ser elaborado, no nível consciente. Nesse mesmo texto, ele mostra que no luto patológico, o objeto perdido mantém-se investido, libidinalmente, tendo como consequência um apego a ele, sem que ele possa ser elaborado, causando, portanto, uma sombra do objeto sobre o próprio ego do sujeito. Isso significa que há um hiper investimento narcísico no objeto, no qual o sujeito se fixa colando nele. Num mundo voltado para o individualismo, para o narcisismo e sem ideais é provável que se estimule mais esse encapsulamento, impedindo o sujeito de se vincular. Na clínica contemporânea os sintomas são mais dessa natureza: são primários, de caráter narcísico, no qual o sujeito se vê encapsulado num mundo vazio e sem significação. Nesse contexto, pensamos ser mais propício falar de sujeitos melancólicos, distinto dos deprimidos, pois estes fazem uma retirada do investimento libidinal, mas mantém uma relação com objeto.