Can suffering be a route to human growth an exploration into the process of constructing meaning out of traumatic life events
Synopsis "Can suffering be a route to human growth an exploration into the process of constructing meaning out of traumatic life events"
"I believe each human being has the potential to change, to transform one's attitude, no matter how difficult the situation." --- Dalai Lama Suffering is inevitable in life. To forget suffering is impossible. Suffering may take a person to abyss or oblivion. But to accept it as a part of life, integrate it in the experiential world is optional. Negative life events; however is a sudden, intense happening which is overwhelming to the person‟s status and thus pulls him back on the growth process that occurs through the life time. Environment, at this stage, provides ambiguous stimuli - sometimes over, sometimes under but never adequate or perfect because there is no set proforma of reactions. The individual begins to grope in the dark and slowly finds his way beyond the suffering. S/he looks outside the negativities of the circumstances and is thus able to break the cycle of negativity which in itself is a virtue. Fighting to survive each day despite intense, continuous negative circumstances requires courage. To look beyond these circumstances in life, to break the chain and not become a part of the cycle of victim and perpetrator, requires considerable strength and that is one of the biggest virtues a person can develop. The notion that positive psychological changes can occur in the aftermath of adversity is not new. There is ample evidence which goes far back in history to suggest that this phenomenon of attempting to understand inexplicable suffering and preserving to it has been a part of human psyche since ancient periods. All world religion and cultures take pride in religious and charismatic leaders who have come out victorious and virtuous of life ordeals; e.g. Jesus in Christianity, Rama in Hinduism, Mandela and Gandhi in contemporary politics and lastly Victor Frankl. Suffering brings about a spirit, an inner courage to fight the circumstances and change the life course. It can be substantiated with numerous accounts of holocaust survivors, victims of age old slavery system and our very own ancestors who have been witness to the trauma of partition and migration in India during our Independence in 1947; and obviously millions of people who lose their homes and near and dear ones due to natural calamities like earthquake, flood or man-made calamities like war, all over the world till date. It is perhaps the greatest of all latent human potentials which keeps the human race survive, live, love and pro-create amidst all these adversities. In the domain of psychology, a stark contradiction has been found in explaining the outcome of traumatic life experiences. Popular culture as well as academic circles have been discussing and debating over trauma since the last three decades. (Shephard, 2000). But in general, the focus has always been on the detrimental aspects of trauma. There is no denying the fact that life experiences,
