Ultimate Meaning Of Life Research Articles

Life meaning constructed from dignity therapy in traditional Chinese culture: A qualitative analysis of dignity therapy generativity documents.

To examine the thematic features of dignity therapy generativity documents of advanced cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in mainland China from the perspective of meaning-making during dignity therapy. This is a qualitative descriptive study. Content analysis was used to analyze 24 dignity therapy generativity documents derived from a quasi-experimental trial of dignity therapy for advanced cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in a daycare center at a cancer hospital in northern China. Among the 24 advanced cancer patients whose generativity documents were analyzed, 14 were male and ranged in age from 26 to 78years (average=50.3). Two dimensions emerged from the data: (1) the sources of meaning in life, which consisted of social relationships, things and circumstances providing meaning in life, and (2) the ultimate meaning in life, referring to finding one's real self and realizing the purpose in life, including personal life goals, dignity and autonomy, and morality of patients. The multidimensional constructs of meaning in life with distinctive traditional Chinese cultural characteristics could provide insights into dignity-conserving care for advanced cancer patients with Chinese culture and provide evidence for refining the implementation protocol of DT through intentionally addressing the ultimate meaning of patients in the therapeutic session.

DVASINGUMO VERTINIMAS: HUMANISTINIO DVASINGUMO APRAŠO KŪRIMAS IR VALIDAVIMAS

Spirituality is a basic human drive with diverse forms of expression that make for unique patterns of thinking consonant with an advanced level of cognition and integration of information. The paper features the Humanistic Spirituality Model, which captures the essential dimensions of humanistic spirituality through three components: self-actualisation, transcendence and ultimate meaning in life. The Humanistic Spirituality Inventory (HSI), a measure of spirituality developed on the basis of the Humanistic Spirituality Model, contains three scales corresponding to the three model components. According to the results of the HSI validation study (N = 331), the instrument has good psychometric properties, i.e. adequate content and construct validity as well as satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliabilities, which makes it a proper spirituality research measure.

Spiritual struggles and mental health outcomes in a spiritually integrated inpatient program

BackgroundPersons contending with serious mental health difficulties often experience struggles with religious faith and/or spirituality that may also demand clinical attention. However, research has not examined the relative importance of specific forms of spiritual struggles in mental health status or treatment outcomes of psychiatric patients. MethodsFocusing on 217 adults who completed a spiritually integrated inpatient program, this study examined (1) which struggles in Exline et al.’s (2014) framework (Divine, Morality, Ultimate Meaning, Interpersonal, Demonic, and Doubting) represented the most salient indicators of major depressive disorder (MDD) symptomatology and positive mental health (PMH) and (2) whether alleviation of these struggles predicted improvements in patients’ mental health status over the treatment period. ResultsGreater severity of spiritual struggles was generally associated with worse MDD symptomatology and less PMH at intake and discharge. However, when weighing the role of varying forms of struggles, issues with ultimate meaning emerged as a salient indicator of mental health status at the two assessments as well as longitudinal changes in both MDD symptomatology and PMH. LimitationsThis sample was recruited from acute stabilization units in a single spiritually integrated behavioral health center with a general affiliation with Christianity. Hence, treatment periods were relatively brief in some cases and findings might not generalize to other psychiatric programs or settings. ConclusionsFindings highlight the utility of assessing prominent forms of spiritual distress for planning and delivering psychosocial interventions, particularly with respect to issues related to a perceived absence of ultimate meaning in life.

Personal Perspective of the Mosaic of Living with Dementia

This article is based on a keynote presentation given to the national Spiritual Care Australia Conference in 2017, which had the theme “Engaging a Mosaic of Care”. As a person diagnosed with dementia, it gives a viewpoint from within the confusing mosaic of living with dementia, in which a sense of spirituality at the core of our being can prompt a search for ultimate meaning in life, through relationships with God and with others. This article is a Christian theological reflection, from the unique perspective of the lived experience. Spirituality does not need cognition or language, and the person can be ministered to with sensitivity. Each person with dementia is a unique individual with hopes, dreams and emotions, even if these cannot be expressed, and has been on a journey from diagnosis towards an increasingly confusing mosaic of sights, sounds and feelings. Chaplains can be our faithful companions on this journey of decline and despair.

Spiritual Struggles and Interleukin-6: Assessing Potential Benefits and Potential Risks

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between spiritual struggles and levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) with a subsample (N = 943) of participants who took part in a nationwide survey. This study, which was completed in 2014, was conducted in the United States. Spiritual struggles refer to difficulties that a person may encounter with his or her faith and include having a troubled relationship with God, encountering difficulties with religious others, and being unable to find a sense of ultimate meaning in life. Based on the notion that spiritual struggles may be associated with personal growth as well physical health problems, it was hypothesized that there is a nonlinear relationship between the two: levels of IL-6 will decline at relatively low levels of spiritual struggles, but levels of IL-6 will increase as spiritual struggles become more severe. The findings support this hypothesis and suggest there is a quadratic relationship between spiritual struggles and IL-6. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Sociologies of Everyday Life: From Alienation to the Production of Meaning

This paper analyses the concept of everyday life as formulated in relational sociology. It shows that Pierpaolo Donati’s historical analysis of the dualist nature of everyday life is similar to that of Alvin Gouldner but that the two authors’ approaches differ in terms of the possibility of overcoming this dualism. From the perspective of relational sociology, sociological interpretations of everyday life can be traced to two paradigms. The first is the Marxist paradigm, in which everyday life is primarily characterized by forms of alienation. The second is the phenomenological paradigm, in which everyday life primarily consists of producing meaning. The first paradigm examines stories and cultures of subordinate social groups, and denounces domination and alienation in everyday life. The second paradigm examines the common-sense world, and how it is taken for granted, structured, and inter-subjective. Relational sociology seeks to overcome these two paradigms by highlighting their aporias, and considers alienation to be the outcome of a deep division between the ultimate meaning of life and the culture of everyday life. While in order to overcome this dualism, Gouldner offers an immanent reading of everyday life, relational sociology tries to show how in everyday life the relationship between social practices and culture may give rise to a new form of secularism that is accepting of non-fundamentalist aspects of religious belief.

The Prosperity Gospel and the Spirit of Consumerism According to Joel Osteen

This article explores the link between Protestantism and the spirit of consumerist capitalism by focusing on the prosperity gospel and one of its most prominent contemporary proponents—pastor, televangelist, and New York Times bestselling author Joel Osteen. Through in-depth content analysis of eight of Osteen’s most influential and widely read books, I explore the underlying assumptions of his teachings about faith, prosperity, and consumption. The broader implications of Osteen’s theology of money and consumption for American religion—especially the link between Protestant Christianity, consumerism, and the American Dream—are considered. Findings reveal Osteen’s support for the consumerist belief that happiness and ultimate meaning in life are linked with ever-increasing discretionary consumption. Godliness and nonessential consumption go hand in hand for Osteen, whose Christianized version of the American Dream and prosperity gospel teachings are important components of the spirit of twenty-first-century consumerist capitalism.

Psychoanalyse über den Schädiger von ‘Gewalt in der Liebesbeziehung’ und seelsorgerliche Studien für ihn

Dating abuse has recently emerged as a fairly serious social problems in Korea. The word “dating” is called as a common sense a meeting between lovers, and also the purpose of the meeting is love. love is only unique experience and the ultimate meaning of life. and the hope and desire of man are carried out through love. but dating abuse is an expression of perverted love and the perpetrator of dating abuse likes to suppress the partner under conditions of love violently. unfortunately dating abuse is not expressed, but hidden. because dating abuse is a crime that breaks out in the private sector between couple. Ever since it was thought to be obtained because of the pain and suffering that violence is entirely the quota of victim. so pastoral counselor ever care only for the victims of dating abuse. sure enough care for the victims must be made compulsory. but if pastoral counselor does not understand, and nothing react, what the causes of violence are thorough, phenomenon of violence can only continue to receive. for the eradication of dating abuse, the change of the perpetrator has to be preceded by the psychological analysis of the perpetrator. I want a psychological analysis of the perpetrators of dating violence, using the psychoanalytic theory of Alfred Adler (Individual Psychology) and Viktor Frankl (Logotherapy). so i suggest how to help the perpetrators of dating violence.

Sense Giving in the Art of Henri Matisse

Both in face-to-face interactions and in indirect forms of communication, such as art, we are constantly involved with communicating our definition of reality, something which even holds for the ultimate meaning of life, death and suffering. Several works of Henri Matisse, most notably those in the Chapelle du Rosaire at Vence, shed light on aspects of this process of sense giving. Although grounded in everyday life, Matisse’s art rises to the realm of ultimate meaning, and thus provided him with a means of transcending his own suffering.

The Spiritual Dimension of Caring: Applying a Model for Spiritual Tasks of Ageing

SUMMARY This chapter describes a spiritual dimension of ageing using themes and a model for spiritual tasks of ageing, developed as a part of doctoral studies that examined spirituality amongst a group of independent-living older adults in Canberra and NSW. This model has been tested further and the model was confirmed through in-depth interviews of residents of nursing homes in the ACT. The first study identified six major spiritual themes from participant interviews. These were: ultimate meaning in life for each person, the way they responded to meaning, self-sufficiency versus despair, moving from provisional to final life meanings, relationship versus isolation in ageing and hope versus despair.

Spirituality, language and depth of reality.

This paper explores the potential for patients to express spiritual concerns other than through a religious vocabulary. The spiritual is presented as an indivisible dimension rather than a compartment of existence and spiritual expressions are regarded as intertwined with autobiography, and attempts to discover ultimate meaning in life's events. It is argued that metaphor and symbol may reveal truths as compelling as those disclosed by the natural sciences and that multiple layers of meaning exist in all human activity and expression. Professionals are invited to reflect upon the authenticity of their communication with patients, for the simplest act of care may be deeply significant when a patient feels that their own sense of reality has been recognised.

Jesus the Bodhisattva: Christology from a Buddhist Perspective

To believe and affirm that God is love and that human beings are not like orphans lost in the vast, meaningless universe but are under the care of a loving God constitutes the core of Christian faith. Yet it is by no means easy to do so, for there seems to be more hatred than love in the world, more injustice and violence than justice and peace, and in the eyes of modern science the world appears to be nothing more than blind congeries of restless particles. Despite this, however, what enables Christians to have the courage to affirm the moral meaning of life is none other than the truth revealed through Jesus Christ concerning human life and the world. Christians believe that, in Jesus Christ, the mystery of the ultimate reality of the world and the ultimate meaning of life was decisively revealed. Rather than relying on abstract philosophical speculation, they base their understanding of the ultimate reality and its relationship with human beings on a concrete historical being, Jesus. It is for this reason that Christology-which is thinking about the mystery of Jesus' person and the significance he has for human salvation-is of decisive importance in Christian theology. What I attempt here is to develop an indigenous Asian Christology by interpreting the meaning of Jesus' message and life from the Buddhist perspective, especially from its doctrine and ideal of bodhisattvahood as developed in Mahayana Buddhist tradition. I try to show that the power that made Jesus what he was and the power that makes a bodhisattva a bodhisattva are ultimately the same and that the only way for humans to be authentic human beings in Buddhism and Christianity is through the power of cosmic love.

Paradox and Tragedy in Human Morality

Traditional ethics has established itself as an independent disci pline by postulating a "good" independent of all particular desires. It has been assumed that this "good" was something beyond nature, and that man had the capacity to reach out for it by transcending his natural incli nations. In this article, the traditional picture of morality is confronted with modern evolutionary biology. It is shown that goal-directedness, choice, and social behavior can be accounted for in a naturalistic frame work. The purport of concepts like free will, good, and the meaning of life, however, changes dramatically. Specifically, our tendency to objectify values, to postulate an absolute good and an ultimate meaning of life, is unmasked as a strategy of mental territoriality which reveals us as typical participators in the struggle for existence.

Altruism in surgery of AIDS patients.

There is usually a long period of time between infection with the AIDS virus and manifestation of symptoms. Asymptomatic patients often would benefit from elective surgery for diseases such as arthritis which are unrelated to their infection. The surgeons' decisions to accept the risks to themselves, their spouses, and their operating teams in order to relieve pain and suffering appear to be based upon two covenants; one concerns their role within the doctor-patient relationship, and the other concerns their relationship to what they see as the ultimate meaning in life.