Existential Lens Research Articles

Self-Identity Through an Existential Lens in Hesse’s Siddhartha

This paper explores Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha through an existential lens, analyzing the protagonist’s journey as a profound quest for self-identity and authentic living. By rejecting conventional paths such as asceticism, materialism, and even the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhartha embodies the existential struggle to define oneself through personal experience and individual choice. The novel delves into existential themes such as the rejection of conformity, the burden of freedom, the transformative power of suffering, and the fluid nature of self-identity. Siddhartha’s repeated encounters with suffering serve as catalysts for self-realization, illustrating that identity is not a fixed state but a dynamic process shaped by lived experiences. The river, as a central metaphor, symbolizes the interconnectedness and continuous flow of life, reinforcing the existential notion that true wisdom lies in embracing the totality of one’s journey. This analysis highlights Siddhartha as a profound reflection on the human condition, emphasizing that the search for self-identity is an endless and deeply personal pursuit, characterized by moments of clarity, despair, and ultimately, acceptance.

A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry into Higher Education Educators' Engagement with Technology for Facilitating Higher Order Thinking Skills

Adopting a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, this study delves into the lived experiences of higher education (HE) educators who utilise digital technology to enhance Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Grounded in the philosophical frameworks of Heidegger (1927/1962) and Gadamer (1960/1975) and employing an adaptation of van Manen’s (2014) Methodology of Phenomenology, this research provides an in-depth emic perspective on how educators experience the use of digital tools to foster students’ HOTS. The study engages a diverse, international cohort of twelve HE educators from Australia, Canada, India, the UK, and the USA, covering key disciplines relevant to contemporary business schools.The study aims to enhances understanding of the intricate relationship between digital technology and educators' experiences in fostering HOTS. By exploring these experiences through an existential lens, it addresses ethical, cognitive, and affective dimensions. The findings resonate with insights from Beard (2018) and Hare (2022), affirming technology's dual role in education, as encapsulated in the 'pharmakon' concept, originally articulated by Derrida (1972) from his reading of Plato’s Socrates. This principle illustrates technology's capacity to serve both as a remedy and a poison, a duality further explored in digital contexts by Kern (2014) and Adams (2017). For example, while digital technologies promote connectivity and collaborative learning—serving as a remedy to traditional educational limitations—they can also lead to cognitive overload and superficial engagement, exemplifying its 'pharmakon' effect in supporting HOTS development.By focusing on educators' lived experiences through a phenomenological lens, the research illuminates how educators adeptly navigate the complexities and opportunities presented by digital tools. The findings underscore the necessity for a critical and nuanced understanding of technology's role in shaping educational practices and outcomes and advocates for a balanced, reflective approach to technology integration when supporting HOTS development. The study offers grounded insights to inform pedagogical strategies for HOTS development in the digital era.

‘The shaping force of technology in psychotherapy’

ABSTRACT Adopting psychotherapeutic technique as a technological matter in which something is learnt, deployed and applied, the article considers how the relationship between therapist and client is increasingly dominated by thinking of a technical manner. By exploring this notion through an existential lens, the conversation is expanded beyond our usual practical use of technique as a technology of change, and instead considers the implications of systematising conversations to yield outcomes and maximise results. In essence, the paper explores how we condition inquiry, and how this inquiry may in turn condition us. Bringing to the forefront, the importance of acknowledging our relationship with method and technique, as part of an ethical engagement with our practice.

Assisting refugee survivors of torture and trauma: An existential perspective.

Consistent exposure to refugee narratives of trauma and torture can profoundly impact trauma therapists. This secondary analysis reanalyzed data from a narrative inquiry investigating the lived experiences of refugee trauma therapists. We aimed to explore emergent concerns through an existential lens to enrich understanding and provide additional insights into the lived experiences of these individuals. Participants in this purposive sample (N = 19) were therapists who had provided interventions to refugees for 2-34 years. Narrative construction, theory-guided data analysis, and memo writing were used to reanalyze data generated by semistructured interviews augmented by photo elicitation. The findings indicate that being forced to reevaluate familiar beliefs consequent to one's professional roles induced intense existential moments, described as "a dark night of the soul," "the paradox of life and death," "uncanny feelings of not being at home," and "a falling." Acknowledging the complexities of the field, an existential framework to assist refugee trauma therapists in metabolizing and living with the professional challenges they encounter instead of focusing on alleviating decontextualized symptoms of distress is recommended. Research to inform requirements of the space to enable refugee trauma therapists to share their concerns and facilitate transitions toward more authentic, nonevasive sense of "being-in-the-world" is suggested.

The entangled becoming in humanities doctoral education

PurposeInstitutional framings of doctoral education mostly do not recognize the existential dimension of doctoral experience. This paper aims to offer an expanded understanding of experiences of doctoral researchers in the humanities with the concept of entangled becoming. This concept is developed through an existential lens by using Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy – particularly his emphasis on emotions such as passion, anxiety and despair – and Denise Batchelor’s derived concept of vulnerable voices.Design/methodology/approachThe conceptual framing is used for an empirical study based on ethnographic interviews with 10 doctoral researchers and supplementary observational notes from fieldwork at a university in Denmark. Two of the interview cases were selected to showcase variation across lived experiences and how doctoral researchers voice their entangled becoming.FindingsCommon experiences such as loneliness, insecurity(ies), vulnerability(ies) or passion for one’s research were identified across the interviews. On the other hand, this study shows that each doctoral journey in the humanities envelops a distinct web of entanglements, entailing distinct navigation, that makes each case a unique story and each doctoral voice a specific one.Originality/valueCombining an existential philosophical perspective with a qualitative study, the paper offers an alternative perspective for doctoral education. It connects the humanities doctoral experience to the broader condition of human existence and the sophisticated uniqueness of each researcher’s becoming.

A TechnoEthical Framework for Teachers

ABSTRACT A TechnoEthical Framework for Teachers (TEFT) is introduced to aid educators in selecting and employing educational technologies in ethically sound and pedagogical sensitive ways in their classrooms. TEFT views technology through three key technoethical lenses or perspectives: instrumental, sociomaterial and existential. The instrumental lens is most familiar to teachers and focuses on the policies and laws governing teachers’ and students’ uses of technology. The sociomaterial perspective attends to technology’s built-in biases and how it translates behaviour in prescribed or circumscribed ways. The existential lens considers how students’ and teachers’ entanglements with technology condition how they experience the world and transform their ways of knowing, doing, being and becoming. Taken together, these three approaches provide teachers with a theoretically robust view of the ethical implications of using technology in the classroom.

Child and Adolescent Psychological Reactions to Climate Change: A Narrative Review Through an Existential Lens.

A narrative review was conducted on research surrounding children's and adolescents' experiences of emotional and mental health and wellbeing in relation to climate change; we also explored potential connections to existential themes. Children and adolescents represent a vulnerable group in relation to experiencing negative mental health impacts due to climate change. Further, this population experiences a wide range of emotions in relation to climate change, with most research reporting on worry and anxiety. Several studies that explored associations between such emotions and mental health outcomes found positive associations. Additionally, research suggests that there is an existential underpinning to how climate change is experienced by children and adolescents. Although important contributions have been made in recent years, knowledge gaps remain. An understanding of the psychological responses children and adolescents have in relation to climate change is needed to inform practice and policy. This may be supported by an existential framework.

Conceptualising eco-anxiety using an existential framework

There is a lack of conceptual clarity regarding the nature of distress caused by confrontations with climate change as a generalised or global phenomenon (distress often labelled ‘eco-anxiety’). However, existing literature has suggested that existential concerns might be central to the experience. This article explores and conceptualises the experience of eco-anxiety through semi-structured interviews with 15 self-selecting adults. Data were analysed using thematic analysis, which utilised an existential framework – consisting of the concerns of death, meaning, isolation, and freedom/responsibility – in a theory-driven analysis of interview transcripts. Participants’ experiences were conceptualised by four themes derived from the existential framework and six subthemes. Climate change was equated with death or loss and associated with guilt, anger, isolation, powerlessness, and chronic uncertainty about what to do as well with challenges to meaning in life. The study indicates that distress about climate change is a diverse and distressing phenomenon that can be appropriately conceptualised through an existential lens. Implications of this are discussed for climate and clinical psychology.

Olódumare and Esu in Yorubá Religious Thought

Theological and philosophical debates on deities do not end easily; rather they open new vistas of understanding and further argumentation. In a previous work, I argued that there are two pairs of Olódumare and Es̩u in contemporary Yorubá religious thought and praxis. This conclusion was to navigate the extreme position that Olódumare and the Christian God have nothing in common. Although Segun Ogungbemi recently maintained the strict theological and moral differences between Olódumare and God using existential lens, he has not addressed the practical reality instantiated by the contemporary Yorubá diverse worshipers. Danoye Ogúntó̩lá-Láguda’s position on Olódumare and Es̩u is also slightly different from Ogúngbemí’s, although the former maintains a more practical posture. From their arguments I propose, in addition to my earlier two-pair argument that contemporary Yorubá may have four pairs of Olódumare and Esu: the first pair is autochtho ̩ - nous to the Yorubá, the second is Christian, the third Islamic, and the fourth, philosophical.

An Existential Analysis of Responses to the 2020 Coronavirus Outbreak

This essay examines people’s responses to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic from the perspective of existential psychology. The existential anxieties associated with the pandemic, as well as people’s responses to them, can be understood and articulated through Sartre’s concept of bad faith. Using this existential lens, we examine the ways in which people’s responses to the virus interact with long-standing societal patterns of interconnection as well as inequity, and how these processes are rooted within the cultural context of late modernity. This analysis reveals that our interconnection simultaneously constitutes the most profound challenges in our psychological response to the pandemic, as well as our greatest source of hope.

Experiences leading elite motorcycle road racers to participate at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT): an existential perspective

ABSTRACT The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) is one of the deadliest and most controversial sporting events in the world, with more than 250 fatalities on the course over its 112-year history. Competitors race motorcycles at high speeds on public roads flanked by lampposts, trees, bus shelters, houses, and walls. The purpose of this study was to understand how engagement in TT might contribute to life meaning and give expression to our fundamental questions about existence. Four male athletes participated in life history interviews. Data were analysed using an existential-narrative approach and two representative stories identified: ‘That was the pivotal thing' and ‘You’re living your life, not just existing’. Themes were interpreted from an existential perspective, addressing authenticity, boundary situations, mortality and meaning. Riders constructed boundary situations as instrumental in their active choice to compete at TT. Within-TT experiences encompassed myriad sub-themes including conflicting emotions, perceptions of risk, flow and love for the sport, many reflecting TT as a site for engaging fully with life. Findings provide novel insight into riders’ experiences by interpreting their stories through an existential lens. We also suggest that classic theory and research, based on risk-taking and personality, does not adequately address motivation across all extreme sports.

Experiences Leading Elite Motorcycle Road Racers to Participate at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT): An Existential Perspective

The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) is one of the deadliest and most controversial sporting events in the world, with more than 250 fatalities on the course over its 112-year history. Competitors race motorcycles at high speeds on public roads flanked by lampposts, trees, bus shelters, houses, and walls. The purpose of this study was to understand how engagement in TT might contribute to life meaning and give expression to our fundamental questions about existence. Four male athletes participated in life history interviews. Data were analysed using an existential-narrative approach and two representative stories identified: ‘That was the pivotal thing' and ‘You’re living your life, not just existing’. Themes were interpreted from an existential perspective, addressing authenticity, boundary situations, mortality and meaning. Riders constructed boundary situations as instrumental in their active choice to compete at TT. Within-TT experiences encompassed myriad sub-themes including conflicting emotions, perceptions of risk, flow and love for the sport, many reflecting TT as a site for engaging fully with life. Findings provide novel insight into riders’ experiences by interpreting their stories through an existential lens. We also suggest that classic theory and research, based on risk-taking and personality, does not adequately address motivation across all extreme sports.

Beyond Complex Trauma: An Existential View of Adverse Childhood Experiences

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can trigger a variety of existential reactions that disrupt physical, mental, and behavioral health. This article explores the implications of ACEs for the development of children, adolescents, and adults. Examining ACEs through an existential lens, the authors provide a way to conceptualize clients with multiple ACEs and offer suggestions for interventions.

Heroic Intelligence: The Hero’s Journey as an Evolutionary and Existential Blueprint

This article revisits the hero’s journey—and heroic behaviour as understood in its emerging contemporary conceptualisations—as a seat of intelligence across the biological, psychological, social, cultural, historical, phenomenological, and existential domains. In so doing, we acknowledge Joseph Campbell’s assertions about several changes that occur in heroes, one being differences or amplifications in certain types of cognitive activity. First, the hero’s journey is examined as a deeply ingrained event in our evolution, providing a foundation for the interconnection between heroism, intelligence, and the transformative process. We also examine the possibility that heroism can have biological implications, perhaps extending to epigenetic expression. Next, heroic behaviour is considered as intelligent behaviour that is embodied and embedded in our evolution and the everyday. The concept of the heroic as a discrete form of physical intelligence is examined through a phenomenological and existential lens; this supports a reading of human organisms as ‘hero organisms’, capable of heightened cognitive, physical, and transcendent action. The article concludes with a discussion on a physically grounded heroic intelligence as fundamentally a question of consciousness that is intimately bound to existential pursuits, and the legacy of Joseph Campbell’s work potentially re-defining the concept of evolutionary design.

THE HUMAN DESIRE FOR PLEASURE AS A BASIS FOR THE UNITY OF MANKIND: EMPIRIC RESEARCH VALIDATING SPINOZA’S 350 YEAR-OLD PHILOSOPHY

The aim of the research is to test Spinoza’s universal law of self-preservation for all mankind. This embodies the different levels of desire to exist, and on higher levels, the desire for knowledge, on the highest levels, the entire scope of practical knowledge according to which human beings function in daily life and how all this is expressed in a unified way. 512 examinees from different ethnic groups, ages and genders at the Zefat Academic College in Israel were tested during course of four academic years, where they learned how to apply theories using actual cases. Method Research population included 383 students in Zefat Academic College (183 Jewish, 93 Moslem, 63 Druze and 27 Christian; the rest were “other” or absent). Each student was given a questionnaire with ten questions. Results showed a strong tendency towards unity among the groups. The unity of human nature stipulated by Spinoza is based on the notion that after removing the environmental influences that shape humans from early childhood, and observing them through the basic existential lens, a higher correlation is achieved because they act according to their nature – the human one. The research results support Spinoza’s claims from 350 years ago. Article visualizations:

A Canterbury tale: imaginative genealogies and existential heritage tourism at the St. Lawrence Ground

At its most innate, heritage is biological, and perceptions of our own origins can drive many heritage journeys. However, like many heritage excursions, genealogical travel can also fuse objective fact with imagination in the search for meaning and identity. This paper explores a genealogical journey to a cricket ground in Kent, where the search for a family member's past seamlessly merged with broader heritage constructions. Through this journey, it was found that heritage could be seen as a series of dualities; a mixture of collective and individual, objective and imaginative, and tangible and existential. Furthermore, it considers that heritage sport tourism – a topic broadly concerned with extrinsic, tangible heritage such as sports sites, sports museums, and sporting artifacts, can also be viewed through a more existential lens.

College life through an existential lens: A role for adventure.

The aims of this study were two. First, it was designed to gain insight into the practice ofadventure programming, using the Adventure Trip Program (ATP) at Texas State University as a case for examination. Second, it was designed to probe the interaction of a student's college experience and adventure programming. To accomplish these aims, two questions were formulated to illuminate the character and practice of adventure programming and uncover encounters between participants and participation in adventure trip programs. The two questions are as follows (1): To what degree is the Adventure Trip Program [at Texas State University] effective in meeting/fulfilling its articulated goals, as indicated from the viewpoint of the participant? (2): Are there other latent or hidden means through which the adventure program is beneficial for participants, but which are not manifest in its articulated goals or purposes?

Reality and Existentialism in House of Leaves

House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski, is a novel first published in 2000 that has since developed notoriety in literary circles for its arguably unique experimentation with a multi-layered plot, varied visual typography, and multi-media format. Despite being widely read and influential over the past decade, little scholarly analysis has been done on House of Leaves. As House of Leaves could represent an entire new genre of literature, it is important that we understand its themes and the ways in which various writerly techniques function within the novel. 
 In this paper, I analyze House of Leaves through an existential lens, specifically utilizing the ideas of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus to examine the psyche of one of the novel’s main characters, Johnny Truant. In addition to primary sources by Danielewski, Sartre and Camus, I employ a 2002 analysis of House of Leaves by Katherine N. Hayles to aid my research. I conclude that Johnny’s story, and House of Leaves as a whole, breaks down traditional notions of reality, but retains existential hope for individuals who are able to find a purpose in life, even if that “purpose” is necessarily subjective.
 My analysis presents an original take on House of Leaves, and contains wider implications for future novels that emulate its experimental style. Past analyses have focused on post-modern aspects of House of Leaves, but I analyze it through an existential lens. Beyond adding to the body of work on House of Leaves, my existential take on an otherwise post-modern text may prove influential to analyses of other “post-modern” novels in the future.

Childhood Experiences of Incarcerated Male Child Sexual Abusers

While numerous efforts have been made to understand the impact of child sexual abuse, little has been done to examine the childhood experiences of those who abuse children. Child sexual abusers have been studied from quantitative perspectives using behavioral checklists, parental-bonding surveys, and sexual history questionnaires. The purpose of this study was to explore incarcerated child sexual abusers’ recollections of their childhood experiences using the descriptive existential lens of phenomenology. Eight incarcerated male child sexual abusers described their childhood from existential perspectives of lived space, lived other, lived body, and lived time via face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Analysis was accomplished through the qualitative, descriptive method of Max van Manen. Rich descriptions of the participants’ insights into their daily childhood life experiences that shaped their self-concepts and contributed to their adult behaviors were gathered. Four major themes were identified: (1) failure to root, (2) what you see is what you learn, (3) stupid is as stupid does, and (4) life's moments. Data from this study suggest that the experiences of childhood significantly contribute to an adult self-concept that can be distorted by the lack of a secure home space, maladaptive relationships, internalization of inappropriate behavior, and a lack of significant family development. This study explores the psychosocial and behavioral consequences of early childhood experiences. The findings support the need for family and psychological mental health nurse practitioners to be more aware of early home environments; improve their assessment of children's developing self-concept and the potential for abusive relationships.

Islam and Islamic Extremism: An Existential Analysis

Islam, like all religions, offers solutions to existential anxieties. This article provides a timely analysis of Islamic mainstream and extremist doctrinal and ritualistic structures through an existential lens to gain an understanding of the psychological underpinnings of Islamic extremism. It is shown that Islam offers an interlocking tradeoff among the ultimate concerns of meaning, freedom, and death in addition to individual solutions for each. It is argued that this container for holding existential anxiety is under assault by modernization and that the resultant psychic pressure is at the core of the psychology of Islamic extremist organizations. The work of Tillich, Yalom, May, and others provides the existential lens through which Islamic doctrines and practices, both mainstream and extremist, are examined.