The search for the meaning of life is, therefore, the actual “understanding” of life, the discovery and introduction into it of meaning, which outside of our spiritual effectiveness not only could not be found, but would not exist in empirical life.
More precisely, in faith as a search for and discernment of the meaning of life, there are two sides that are inextricably linked with each other - the theoretical and practical side; the sought-after “understanding” of life is, on the one hand, discretion, finding the meaning of life and, on the other hand, its effective creation, the volitional effort with which it “admires.” The theoretical side of understanding life is that, having seen true existence and its deepest, true focus, we thereby have life as a genuine whole, as a meaningful unity and therefore understand the meaningfulness of what was previously meaningless, being only a scrap and a fragment. How, in order to survey the area and understand its location, you need to move away from it, stand outside it, on a high mountain above her and only then will you really see it - so in order to understand life, you need to, as it were, go beyond the boundaries of life, look at it from a certain height from which it is completely visible. Then we are convinced that everything that seemed meaningless to us was so only because it was a dependent and inconsistent passage. Our individual, personal life, which, in the absence of a true center in it, seems to us a playground of the blind forces of fate, a point of intersection of meaningless accidents, becomes, to the extent of our self-knowledge, a deeply significant and coherent whole; and all its random events, all the blows of fate acquire meaning for us, somehow fit into themselves, like necessary links, into the whole that we are called upon to realize. The historical life of peoples, which, as we have seen, presents to the empirical gaze a picture of a meaningless and chaotic clash of elemental forces, collective passions or collective madness, or testifies only to the continuous collapse of all human hopes - contemplated from the depths, becomes, like our individual life, coherent and reasonable, as if a life-objective “course” of self-revelation of the Divine. And the profound German thinker Baader was right when he said that if we had the spiritual depth and religious insight of the compilers of Sacred History, the entire history of mankind, the history of all peoples and times, would be for us an uninterrupted continuation of Sacred History. Only because we have lost the instinct and taste for the symbolic meaning of historical events, we take them only from their empirical side and in their sensory-clear or rationally-comprehensible part we recognize the whole whole of events, instead of seeing through this part the true, metaphysical whole, – this is the only reason why the events of secular, “scientifically” cognizable history seem to us to be a meaningless set of blind accidents. Read, after a number of “scientific” histories of the French Revolution, after the Tains and Olars, “The History of the French Revolution” by Carlyle, who in the 19th century retained at least a weak remnant of a religious, prophetic perception of life, and you can see from a living example how one and the same event, depending on the spiritual significance of those who perceive it, is either simply tasteless and meaningless chaos, or unfolds into a gloomy, but deeply significant and meaningful tragedy of humanity, reveals a reasonable connection, behind which we feel the wise will of Providence. And if we ourselves had eyes to see and ears to hear, then even now Jeremiahs and Isaiahs would be among us, and we would understand that in events such as the Russian revolution, the collapse of the former glory and power of the Russian state and the wanderings of millions of Russians in foreign lands, no less spiritual significance, no less clear signs of God's wisdom than in the destruction of the temple and the Babylonian captivity. We would understand that if the history of mankind is as if the history of the consistent collapse of all human hopes, then - only to the extent that these hopes themselves are blind and false and contain a violation of the eternal commandments of God's wisdom, that in history at the same time an inviolable truth is affirmed God and that, taken together with its first, absolute beginning - the birth of man from the hands of God and with its necessary end - the completion of man's destiny on earth - it becomes a suffering, but rationally meaningful path of all-human life.
And finally, the world's cosmic life, which, if we take it as a self-contained whole, is also, despite all its grandeur, nothing more than a meaningless play of blind elements - placed in connection with its focus, with the religious meaning of existence, with fate in the world of God-Humanity, comprehended as a metaphysical whole, from its absolute beginning in the creation of the world to its expected end in the transformation of the world, also acquires at least a vaguely discernible meaning. For in cosmic life, comprehended in its inextricable connection with eternal life, with the supertemporal being of God, everything is symbol- a distorted, clouded, visible reflection and manifestation of the great laws of spiritual existence, as if in a vague dream. Not only the dominant mechanical worldview, which, due to its own blindness, sees in the world only a set of dead levers, wheels and screws, but also the vitalistic view, which comprehends the cosmos as a living element, and even the ancient pantheistic comprehension of the world as a living being does not achieve true insight here. Only Christian mystics and theosophists, like Jacob Boehme and Baader, had this deep instinct, which opens the eyes to the world and allows one to see in it the visible likeness of invisible forces and in its supposedly blind laws - the embodiment of the rational laws of spiritual existence. But then, looking at the world as the periphery of the absolute center, you discover that it is not at all meaningless, but that at every step it reveals to us traces of its origin from absolute Wisdom, and every natural phenomenon is a symbol, behind which or in which it can be revealed deepest meaning. – Thus, everywhere the orientation towards the primary focus of being, the opening of the veils that shield its metaphysical depths from us, illuminates with light what was previously complete darkness, makes eternally significant that which seemed to only rush past us in a whirlwind of chaos. Everywhere the degree of penetration into the meaning of being depends on the spiritual vigilance of the knower himself, on the degree of affirmation himself in the eternal Meaning of life. As old Goethe said: lsis zeigt sich ohne Schleier Nur der Mensch – er hat den Star (“Isis has no covering, only we have a thorn in the eye”).
Next to this theoretical understanding of life comes the other side of our spiritual re-education and deepening, which can be called the practical understanding of life, the effective affirmation of meaning in it and the destruction of its meaninglessness.
We know and foresee that all the considerations developed above for modern consciousness, entirely oriented towards the world and effective work in it, will seem too “detached from life”, “lifeless”. world and all human affairs still remain debunked, the enthusiasm for great deeds is extinguished, and life’s wisdom here leads to the liberation of a person from fulfilling his life’s duty, to world-denying “quietism” - this is what opponents of the life understanding outlined here will probably say. That an attempt to comprehend the world and life is feasible only through renunciation of the world in the sense of overcoming its claim to have a self-sufficient and absolute meaning, through affirmation of oneself in the supra-worldly, eternal and truly comprehensive basis of being - this is simply a self-evident truth, which in the field of spiritual knowledge has the meaning of an elementary axiom , without knowledge of which a person is simply illiterate. And if this simple and elementary truth contradicts “modern consciousness” or our prejudices based on passions, even the most noble ones, then - so much the worse for them! But if this understanding of life is reproached with quietism, with preaching “not doing” and passivity, if by “detachment” they mean a person’s isolation within himself, withdrawal from life and separation from it, then this will be a pure misunderstanding based on a misunderstanding of the true essence of the matter.
We have just seen that spiritual orientation on the fundamental basis of being and affirmation of oneself in it does not “meaningless” life for us, but, on the contrary, for the first time opens to us the breadth of horizons in which we can comprehend it. Self-deepening here, in the field of knowledge, is not a closure of the spirit, but, on the contrary, its expansion, its liberation from all narrowness that causes its blindness. But same ratio dominates in the sphere of practical, in the sphere of active life. We have already seen that the search for the meaning of life is, in fact, a struggle for it, its creative affirmation through free inner activity.
Here we need to note one more aspect of the matter. We have already said that “God is love.” Religious comprehension of life, the revelation of one’s affirmation in God and connectedness with Him is by its very essence revelation of the human soul, overcoming her hopeless self-isolation in empirical life. True life is life in all-encompassing unity, tireless service to the absolute whole, we are for the first time truly we gain ourselves and our life, when we sacrifice ourselves and our empirical isolation and isolation and strengthen our entire being in something else - in God as the primary source of all life. But in this way, we connect ourselves in the deepest, ontological way with everything living on earth and, above all, with our neighbors and their fate. The well-known image of Abba Dorotheus says that people are like radius points in a circle, the closer to the center of the circle, the closer they are to each other. The commandment: “love your neighbor as yourself” is not an additional commandment, from the outside, for some unknown reason, attached to the commandment about the immeasurable, with all the strength of the soul and all the thoughts, love for God. It follows from the latter as its necessary and natural consequence. The children of the one Father, if they truly recognize themselves as such and see the Father as the only support and foundation of their life, cannot help but be brothers and not love each other. A branch of the vine, if it does not realize that it lives only by the juices running throughout the vine and coming from its common root, cannot help but feel the primordial unity of its life with all the other branches. Love is the basis of all human life, its very being; and if a person in the world seems to be a torn off and self-contained piece of being that must assert itself due to other people's lives, then a person who has found his true being in the world-encompassing unity, realizes that outside love there is no life and that he himself is even more asserts himself in his true being, the more he overcomes his illusory isolation and strengthens himself in the other. The human personality is, as it were, externally closed and separated from other beings; from the inside, in its depths, it communicates with all of them, merged with them in primary unity. That's why, the deeper a person goes inside, the more he expands and, acquires a natural and necessary connection with all other people, with all world life as a whole. Therefore, the usual opposition between self-deepening and communication is superficial and based on a complete misunderstanding of the structure of the spiritual world, the true structure of being, invisible to the sensory gaze. They usually object that people then “communicate” with each other when they are always running around, meeting with many people, reading newspapers and writing in them, going to rallies and speaking at them, and that when a person is immersed “in himself,” he leaves from people and loses touch with them. This is an absurd illusion. A person is never so withdrawn, lonely, abandoned by people and having forgotten them himself, as when he is completely wasted on external communication, on business relations, on life in sight, “in society”; and no one achieves such loving attention, such a sensitive understanding of someone else’s life, such a breadth of world-encompassing love, as a hermit who prayerfully penetrated, through the last self-deepening, to the primary source of the world-encompassing universal life and all-human Love and living in it as the only element of his own being. A non-religious person can at least to some extent come closer to understanding this relationship if he looks closely at the constant relationship between depth And latitude in the entire sphere of spiritual culture in general: a genius, a personality, deepened in himself and following his own path, indicated by his own spiritual depths, turns out to be necessary and useful to everyone, understandable to even later generations and distant peoples, because from his depths he draws common to all; and a person who lives in the bustle of continuous external communication with many people, ready to imitate them in everything, to be “like everyone else” and live with everyone, knowing only the outer surface of human life, turns out to be a worthless creature, useless to anyone and eternally lonely...
From this basic relationship of spiritual existence, according to which the greatest community and solidarity is found in the depths, it follows that genuine, creative and fruitful work is also accomplished only in the depths, and that precisely this deep, inner work is a common work performed by everyone not for himself alone , but for everyone. We have seen what this real, fundamental business of man is. It consists in the effective affirmation of oneself in the Primary Source of life, in the creative effort to pour oneself into it and Him into oneself, to strengthen oneself in it and thereby effectively realize the meaning of life, to bring it closer to life and with it to disperse the darkness of meaninglessness. It consists in the prayerful feat of turning our soul to God, in the ascetic feat of struggle against the darkness and blindness of our sensual passions, our pride, our egoism, in the destruction of our own empirical being for resurrection in God. Usually people think that a person doing or trying to do this thing either “does nothing” at all, or, in any case, is selfishly occupied only with his own destiny, his personal salvation and is indifferent to people and their needs. And he is opposed to a “public figure”, busy shaping the fate of many people, or a warrior, selflessly dying for the good of his homeland, as people who act, and, moreover, act for the common good, for the good of others. But all this reasoning is fundamentally false, due to complete blindness, chained consciousness to the deceptive, superficial appearance of things.
First of all, what is genuine, productive work? In the realm of material life, the science of wealth, political economy, distinguishes between “productive” and “unproductive” labor. True, there this difference is very relative, because not only those who directly “produce” goods, but also those who are engaged in their transportation, sale or protection of state order, in a word, everyone who works and participates in the general structure of life are equally needed and they do equally necessary work; and yet this difference retains some serious meaning, and it is clear to everyone that if everyone begins to “organize” the economy, distribute goods, and no one produces them (as was the case, for example, at one time, and partly to this day) remains in Soviet Russia), then everyone will die of hunger. But in the area of spiritual life, the idea of productive and unproductive labor seems to have been completely lost; and here it is of essential, decisive importance. In order to propagate ideas, in order to organize life in accordance with them, you must have them, in order to do good to people or fight evil for the sake of it, you must have them. goodness itself. Here it is absolutely clear that without productive labor and accumulation life is impossible, no penetration of goods into life and their use is possible. Who produces and accumulates here? Our concepts of good are so vague that we think that good is a “relationship between people,” a natural quality of our behavior, and we do not understand that good substantially that it is a reality that we must first of all obtain, that we ourselves owe have before you start benefiting other people with it. But he extracts and accumulates goodness only an ascetic - and each of us only to the extent that he is an ascetic and devotes his strength to inner feat. Therefore, the prayerful and ascetic feat is not a “fruitless activity”, unnecessary for life and based on oblivion of life - it is the only one in the spiritual sphere productive business, the only true creation or production of that food, without which we are all doomed to starvation. Here is not idle contemplation, here is hard, “by the sweat of the brow,” but also fruitful work, here the accumulation of wealth takes place; and this is therefore the main, essential work of every person - that first productive work, without which all other human affairs stop and become meaningless. In order for the mills to work, so that the bakers can bake and sell bread, it is necessary for grain to be sown, for it to sprout, for the rye to ear and grain to be poured into it; otherwise the mills will stop or turn empty and we will have to live on chaff and quinoa. But we endlessly build new mills, which flap their wings noisily in the wind, we worry about opening bakeries, arranging the order of obtaining bread in them, we are concerned that no one will offend another, and we forget only about the little thing - that sow grain to water the field and grow bread! Thus, socialism takes care of all human well-being, fighting against the enemies of the people, holding meetings, issuing decrees and organizing the order of life - and at the same time not only not caring about the growth of grain, but thoroughly destroying it and littering the fields with tares; After all, this daily bread for him is only a soporific “opium”, because the cultivation of good is an empty matter, which monks and other parasites do out of idleness! So, at the American pace of life, millions of people in America and Europe fuss, do business, try to get rich, and in the end, together with tireless labor, they create a desert in which they swelter from the heat and die from spiritual thirst. So, in a political fever, rally speakers and newspapermen preach justice and truth so persistently and furiously that the souls of both preachers and listeners are completely devastated, and no one knows why he lives, where the truth and goodness of his life are. All of us, modern people, live more or less in such a crazy society, which exists only like Russia during the years of the revolution, squandering benefits that our predecessors once inconspicuously created in quiet, invisible workshops. Meanwhile, each of us, no matter what other work he does, should spend part of his time on the main task - on accumulating within himself the forces of good, without which all other actions become meaningless or harmful. Of all things, our politicians love St. Sergius of Radonezh to note with approval that he blessed the army of Dmitry Donskoy and gave her two monks from his monastery; they forget that this was preceded by decades of persistent prayer and ascetic work, that this labor produced the spiritual riches on which the Russian people have fed for centuries and still feed, and that without it, as the insightful Russian historian Klyuchevsky points out, the Russian people would never have had the strength to rise up to fight the Tatars. We are eager to fight evil, organize our lives, do real, “practical” work; and we forget that for this we need, first of all, the forces of good, which we need to be able to cultivate and accumulate in ourselves. Religious, inner work, prayer, ascetic struggle with oneself is such an inconspicuous main work of human life, laying its very foundation. This is the main, primary, and only truly productive human activity. As we have seen, all human aspirations are ultimately, in their ultimate essence, aspirations for life, to the fullness of satisfaction, to the acquisition of light and strength of being. But that is precisely why all external human affairs, all methods of external arrangement and ordering of life are based on internal affairs - on understanding life through spiritual activity, through cultivating in oneself the forces of goodness and truth, through man’s effective integration into the Primary Source of life - God.
And further: although every person, both in the physical and in the spiritual sense, in order to live, must myself breathe and eat and cannot live only at the expense of other people’s labor, but it does not follow from this, as they usually think, that invisible, silent work is work for oneself alone, that in it all people are separated from each other and each is busy only with his own egoistic business . On the contrary, we have already seen that people are separated from each other on the surface and connected in their depths, and that therefore any deepening is thereby an expansion, overcoming the partitions that separate people from each other. Our time, poisoned by materialism, has completely lost the concept of the universal, cosmic or, so to speak, magical power of prayers and spiritual achievement. We need the vague and perilous miracles of occult phenomena and seances in order to believe, as in a “rare exception,” that the spirit acts at a distance, that human hearts are connected with each other in another way than through the action of the sounds of one person’s throat on the eardrum of another. In fact, the experience of prayers and spiritual achievement not only confirms this a thousandfold in specific examples, but also immediately reveals it as a general relationship - spiritual power is always super-individual, and it always establishes an invisible connection between people. A lonely hermit in his cell, in seclusion, invisible and inaudible to anyone, does something that immediately affects life as a whole and affects all people; it makes things not only more productive, but also more general, more captivating and influencing people than the most skilled rally speaker or newspaper writer. Of course, each of us, weak and inept ordinary workers in the field of spiritual existence, cannot count on such the action of one’s inner doing; but, if we are free from conceit, can we count on great results in the area of our external intervention in life? The fundamental relationship remains the same here; what is impossible for people is possible for God, and no one knows in advance to what extent he is able to help other people with his prayer, his search for truth, his inner struggle with himself. In any case, this basic human task of effectively comprehending life, cultivating in oneself the forces of goodness and truth is not only the individual task of each individual; by its very essence, by the nature of the area of being in which it takes place, it is a common, conciliar matter in which all people are connected with each other in God, and everyone is for everyone, and everyone is for everyone.
This is the great, the only thing with the help of which we effectively realize the meaning of life and by virtue of which something significant actually happens in the world - namely, the revival of its innermost fabric, the dispersal of the forces of evil and the filling of the world with the forces of good. This matter - a truly metaphysical matter - is possible at all only because it is not at all a simple human matter. Here only the work of preparing the soil belongs to man, while the growth is accomplished by God himself. This is a metaphysical, Divine-human process in which man only participates, and that is why in it the affirmation of human life in its true meaning can be realized.
From here it becomes clear the absurdity of the illusion in which we find ourselves when we imagine that in our external activity, in work that flows in time and participates in the temporary change of the world, we can accomplish something absolute, achieve the realization of the meaning of life. The meaning of life is in its affirmation in the eternal, it is realized when the eternal beginning appears in us and around us, it requires the immersion of life in this eternal beginning. Only insofar as our life and our work come into contact with the eternal, live in it, are imbued with it, can we generally count on achieving the meaning of life. In time, everything is fragmented and fluid; everything that is born in time, according to the poet, deserves to die in time. Since we live only in time, we live only for time, we are absorbed by it, and it carries us away irrevocably along with all our work. We live in a part disconnected from the whole, in a fragment that cannot help but be meaningless. Let us, as participants in the world, be doomed to this life in time, even if - as will become clear below - we even obliged participate in it, but this With our work we achieve, and even with the greatest success, only relative values and through it we cannot in any way “comprehend” our life. All the greatest political, social and even cultural changes, as mere events of historical life, in the composition of the temporary world alone, do not accomplish that metaphysical underground work that we need: they don’t bring us closer to the meaning of life - just like all our deeds, even the most important and necessary ones, that we do inside the carriage of the train in which we are traveling does not move us one step towards the goal to which we are moving. To significantly change our life and correct it, we must improve it immediately as whole; but in time it is given only in parts, and living in time, we live only in a small, transitory fragment of it. Work on life as a whole is precisely spiritual work, the activity of contact with the eternal as immediately given in its entirety. Only this underground work, invisible to the world, brings us into contact with those depths in which pure gold, truly necessary for life, rests. The only thing that makes sense of life and therefore has absolute meaning for a person is, therefore, nothing more than effective participation in the Theanthropic life. And we understand the words of the Savior, to the question “what should we do?” who answered: “This is the work of God, so that you believe in Him Whom He sent” ().
When assessing an individual life strategy from the point of view of optimality, efficiency, and expediency, it is necessary to take into account the nature of the tasks the solution of which it serves in the development and existence of the individual. The construction of a life strategy is preceded by a search for the meaning of life, and therefore the strategy is derivative, secondary in relation to the found meaning. The meaning of life acts as a kind of “core” of the entire life strategy. The need for a certain strategy arises as meaning is acquired and intentions to implement it mature, although in reality not every person who claims to realize meaning
has a consistent, proven strategy. Developing a life strategy in itself is a rather complex cognitive and practical task, which at the same time is subordinated to an even more important task - the task of practical realization of the meaning of life. In essence, a life strategy is a generalized way for a person to realize the meaning of his own life. The meaning of life, like any mental phenomenon, performs a reflective function in relation to individual existence, that is, it is its subjective image. But the specificity of the meaning of life as a mental phenomenon is that its content reflects not the actual, present, current state of affairs, but the desired, possible, future state of being. In other words, meaning does not “duplicate” the objective reality of life, but projects a better life reality, perfect from the point of view of a specific person. In the content of meaning, life is reflected not as it is, but as it can and should become. And if the meaning indicates to the individual why and where to go in life, then the strategy is what paths and routes to move in the chosen direction.
Thus, a life strategy is designed to solve the problem of practical realization of the meaning of life, and the measure of its optimality is determined by the level of productivity of this process, the ratio of achievements and costs, gains and losses, achievements and defeats on the path to the implementation of an individual’s life plan. An optimal strategy maximizes achievements and gains while minimizing failures and costs, or at least allows the individual to achieve an acceptable balance between successes and failures in life.
Life productivity is an integral indicator, the assessment of which requires a holistic coverage of human life. Unfortunately, neither in psychology nor in other social and human sciences there are still reliable, well-founded methods for a comprehensive objective measurement of the productivity of an integral human life. Attempts to objectively measure other complex parameters of vital activity, for example, the so-called, face similar difficulties. "quality of life". In this regard, in scientific research, primarily psychological, these concepts are reinterpreted on the basis of a subjective approach, and the emphasis is shifted to forms of subjective representation, ways of personal experience of quality of life and productivity. Productivity, quality and similar
they increasingly operationalize the integral characteristics of individual life activity as subjective rather than objective variables. This means that they are assessed on the basis of the internal self-esteem of the individual as a subject of life, and not according to measures, norms, and standards applied from the outside. It should be noted that a subjective assessment of individual life activity can be formed at a conscious and unconscious level, and therefore, not only direct rational self-report, but also more subtle, non-verbalized experiences of the individual act as a psychological correlate of its quality and productivity.
In our opinion, the most adequate subjective indicators of productive or unproductive life activity, and therefore an optimal or suboptimal life strategy, are experiences of meaningfulness in life, life satisfaction and a crisis of meaning in life. Their natural connection with the life strategy implemented by the individual is most fully substantiated in the works of K. A. Abulkhanova.
The feeling of meaningfulness of life is a phenomenological manifestation of that real determination of life activity that comes from the meaning of life. This feeling, as it were, “certifies” the very fact of the presence of semantic structures that determine the biased, actively transformative attitude of the individual to his own life. However, “the experience of the meaning of life or life as having meaning is associated not only with the prior presence of goals, plans, and intentions. It is associated with the measure of compliance of these claims in a broad sense and their implementation - in a broad sense of achievements, which gives the experience of life as genuine, that is, having meaning.” Real life successes strengthen and stabilize the sense of meaningfulness in life, which, in turn, motivates and energizes the daily functioning of the individual with even greater force. In other words, the experience of meaningfulness in life serves not only as an initial motivation, but also as a reinforcing (positive) feedback in the regulation of life activity, including signaling the effectiveness of the method of organizing it developed by the individual - the life strategy. If the feeling of meaningfulness in life not only precedes, but also results in the implementation of an individual’s life strategy, then it can be considered as a subjective indicator of its effectiveness and optimality. As K. A. Abulkhanova emphasizes, “the meaning of life is
not only the future, not only the life goal, but also the psychological “curve” of its constant implementation. Therefore, by achieving specific goals in life, we do not lose its meaning, but, on the contrary, we strengthen it, become convinced of it, and experience it.” Thus, a high level of meaningfulness for the subject of life itself is a phenomenological “confirmation”, a subjective “signal” of productive self-realization, and for the researcher an empirical indicator of the optimal life strategy for a given subject.
Another psychological criterion by which the optimality of an individual’s life strategy is established is subjective life satisfaction.
This is a generalized emotional experience that colors the perception of individual life as a whole and reflects the measure of success, progress, and advancement of the individual in the realization of vital values, motives, and goals. K. A. Abulkhanova rightly notes that satisfaction or dissatisfaction is “a complex, but always generalized feeling of a fulfilled or failed, successful or unsuccessful life,” which is “an important indicator of personal achievements.” Life satisfaction can be considered as a subjective “equivalent” of life productivity, since this experience is formed as a result of a person’s comparison of what has actually been achieved in life with the image of an ideal, desired, perfect life, which is “designed” by the individual meaning of life. By the intensity and dynamics of the feeling of satisfaction, one can judge, on the one hand, the very meaning of life in its meaningful correlation with life reality, and on the other, the effectiveness of the methods and means of its practical implementation of the individual’s life strategy. It is fundamentally important that in the mechanism of formation of this feeling, objective life successes and achievements of the individual are not refracted through external social norms and criteria, but are passed through internal standards and benchmarks of a “good life”, set by individual meaning. This feature makes satisfaction or, on the contrary, disappointment, dissatisfaction with life a very informative and in many ways irreplaceable psychological indicator of the effectiveness and productivity of an individual’s life strategy. “Speaking about the absence of any criteria and norms by which one could evaluate a person’s life from the outside, he himself has the main and unmistakable criterion, which, although not amenable to logical explanation, can hardly be interpreted arbitrarily. This criterion is satisfaction or dissatisfaction with life,” states K. A. Abulkhanova.
Finally, another subjective indicator of the productivity of life and, therefore, the optimality of its strategy is the experience (or non-experience) of a person’s life crisis. This is a psychological crisis in the development of the individual as a subject of life, which is caused by contradictions that have not been overcome in a timely manner or, in principle, are insurmountable in the search, preservation and practical implementation of the meaning of life. The etiology and genesis of this crisis are traditionally explained by the absolute lack of meaning in life and the impossibility or inability of the individual to find it, as well as the dramatic loss and destruction of meaning in a difficult, critical life situation. In a number of our works, using theoretical and factual material, it has been shown that, along with the crisis of meaninglessness and the crisis of loss of meaning, there is another type of crisis of meaning in life etiology. These are crises of unrealization of the meaning of life, which can be determined both by external factors associated with the objective facts and complexities of life, and by internal conditions related to individual properties, substructures and the holistic psychological make-up of the individual as a subject of life. In particular, in a large series of empirical studies, psychological types of suboptimal meaning in life were identified, which are burdened with dysfunctional, disregulatory properties that internally impede the productive self-realization of the individual. Meanwhile, not only the functional inferiority of the very meaning of life, but also the suboptimal strategy for its practical implementation can become the cause of a personal crisis. Miscalculations when constructing a life strategy first entail partial or complete unrealization of meaning in life, which is painfully experienced by the individual, and subsequently can lead to devaluation, discrediting of this meaning and a total meaninglessness of life. This path of development is specific specifically for life-meaning crises, designated as crises of unrealized meaning of life. A life strategy can be considered optimal in the case when an individual’s life achievements are proportional to the amount of effort invested, when life success is proportional to the total expenditure of all possible individual resources. In other words, an optimal strategy helps to implement
the meaning of life at a price that is adequate to the scale and complexity of this meaning. The need for such correspondence is specially emphasized by K. A. Abulkhanova: “This can be expressed as a kind of psychological law: too high a psychological price spent on life achievements lowers motivation, aspirations and undermines the meaning of life. The capabilities of a given individual should be proportional to the measure of effort, actions, and expenses at which the individual would experience true satisfaction, and this would feed the further meaning of his life. When the price is too small, when success comes without any effort on the part of the individual, then the individual also ceases to experience satisfaction, and this in turn destroys the meaning of his life.”
Thus, meaningfulness of life, satisfaction with life and a crisis of meaning in life are mental phenomena that characterize the state of development and self-realization of the individual as a subject of his own life. These phenomena “condense” in their content the leading trends, driving contradictions, the main lines in one word, create a dynamic “cut” of the formation and functioning of the subject of life. Despite their subjective, phenomenal nature, all of them can be used as reliable, reliable and informative indicators of optimality and non-optimality of an individual life strategy.
Thesis
Fesenko, Pavel Petrovich
Academic degree:
Candidate of Psychological Sciences
Place of thesis defense:
HAC specialty code:
Speciality:
General psychology, personality psychology, history of psychology
Number of pages:
CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING THE MEANINGFULNESS OF LIFE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF THE PERSON.
CHAPTER 2. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY AND DESCRIPTION PSYCHODYAGNOSTIC METHODS.
CHAPTER 3. EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF MEANINGFULNESS OF LIFE, MEANINGFUL LIFE AND VALUE ORIENTATIONS WITH THE PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF THE PERSON.
Introduction of the dissertation (part of the abstract) On the topic "Meaningfulness of life and psychological well-being of the individual"
The relevance of research. The idea that a meaningful life is the key to spiritual balance, mental well-being in the broad sense of the word, and the lack of meaning in life leads to the formation of a special type of disease - noogenic neurosis, thanks to the works of V. Frankl, is firmly rooted in modern psychology and has given rise to numerous and multifaceted studies , which focus on the connection between the presence or absence of meaning in life and various forms of psychopathology (J.Crumbaugh, RJacobson, B.Sheffield, etc.). At the same time, research has focused mainly on studying the nature of the meaning of life and meaningful in life orientation in people suffering from various forms of deviations and mental illnesses. Analysis of the characteristics of healthy people’s experience of the meaning of their own lives fades into the background in this kind of research.
The very relationship between the meaning of life and various positive aspects of personality functioning remains a problem: in this context, it is not only the theory that is criticized self-actualization(it was emphasized that the development of one’s own potentials in itself cannot be the meaning of human life), but also hedonistically oriented theories of personality (it was noted that a person’s desire for happiness and pleasure is a dead-end path of development, from the point of view of finding and realizing the meaning of life) ( V. Frankl, D.A Leontiev, etc.). Because of this, the connection between meaningfulness in life and various positive aspects of human functioning (personal growth, self-acceptance, the ability to establish and maintain positive relationships with others, the desire for self-actualization, etc.) remains insufficiently illuminated.
Particularly controversial and little studied is the question of what is a necessary condition for finding the meaning of life. V. Frankl’s teaching about a special group of transcendental values (the values of creativity, experience, relationships), the implementation of which by an individual leads to the acquisition of a sustainable meaning in life and, thus, to spiritual harmony, spiritual well-being, gives rise to the problem: “Is a certain character of the leading value orientations personality is a necessary condition for experiencing life as meaningful, and, consequently, a guarantee of mental well-being?” Existing studies in personality psychology do not provide a clear answer to this question.
The lack of research into the connection between the meaning of life and the positive aspects of personality functioning is partly due to the variety of approaches that highlight different parameters of such functioning. Therefore, it becomes relevant to introduce a concept that could generalize these characteristics. In this study, the concept “ psychological well-being", developed by N. Bradburn, R. Ryan and E. Deci, C. Ryff, E. Diener, A. Waterman, A. V. Voronina. Despite the numerous approaches to the interpretation of psychological well-being and its empirical research, this concept still remains one of the least developed in both foreign and domestic psychology.
Based on the concept of psychological well-being created by the American psychologist C. Ryff, which summarizes theories describing various aspects of positive personality functioning (theories of A. Maslow, C. Rogers, G. Allport, C. G. Jung, E. Erikson, M. Yahody, etc.), and also, noting after E. Diener, that the study of psychological well-being should take into account not only the directly measured level of well-being, but also take into account the internal, individual coordinate system with which a person correlates his own psychological well-being, in this In the study, we define psychological well-being as an integral indicator of the degree of a person’s focus on the implementation of the main components of positive functioning (personal growth, self-acceptance, environmental management, autonomy, purpose in life, positive relationships with others), as well as the degree fulfillment this orientation, subjectively expressed in a feeling of happiness, satisfaction with oneself and one’s life.
Based on this, we distinguish between “” - the degree of implementation of the main components of positive functioning, and “” - the degree of focus on the implementation of the components of positive functioning. In addition, the study introduces the concept of the level and structure of actual and ideal psychological well-being.
This approach to the study of psychological well-being raises a number of questions that have not previously been the subject of research: about the relationship between actual and ideal psychological well-being, about the nature of this relationship among people with different (high and low) levels of actual psychological well-being, about the connection between meaningfulness of life, meaning in life and value orientations of a person with the components of current psychological well-being, as well as with its level.
Introduction of the concept " ideal psychological well-being“and its definition as the degree of individual’s focus on the implementation of components of positive functioning involves solving a number of issues that require special empirical research. Thus, it is necessary to empirically confirm the existence of this kind of orientation, and, first of all, to characterize the characteristics of the individual’s attitude to psychological well-being and ill-being. The same problem arises in connection with the problem of studying the meaning of life: there are practically no empirical studies of the individual’s attitude to the very fact of the presence or absence of meaning in life.
All of the above determines the relevance of this study, aimed at identifying the relationship between the meaningfulness of life, the meaning of life and value orientations of an individual with the psychological well-being of an individual.
Object of study: semantic sphere, values and psychological well-being of the individual.
Subject of research: the level and structure of actual and ideal psychological well-being, the level of meaningfulness of life, the structure of life meaning and value orientations.
The objectives of the study: 1) to determine the features of the relationship between the actual and ideal psychological well-being of the individual; 2) to identify the nature of the connection between the level of current psychological well-being and the level of meaningfulness of life, the structure of life meaning and value orientations; 3) determine the characteristics of the ideas and attitudes of modern Russians towards psychological well-being and ill-being, as well as the presence or absence of meaning in life (meaningfulness/meaninglessness of life).
Research hypotheses:
1. The structure of actual and ideal psychological well-being, as well as the relationship between them, is different for individuals with high and low levels of actual psychological well-being.
2. The higher the indicator of actual psychological well-being, the higher the meaningfulness of life and the more actual psychological well-being approaches ideal psychological well-being in its structure.
3. The structure of life meaning and value orientations differs among people with different levels of current psychological well-being.
4. The presence of meaning in life and psychological well-being are positively assessed by a person.
Research objectives:
1. Develop a battery of methods for studying the connection between meaningfulness of life and the psychological well-being of an individual.
As part of this task: a) Conduct a study of the validity and reliability of the Russian version of the “” methodology, as well as its standardization; b) Identify the socio-cultural specifics of the psychological well-being of a modern Russian; c) Develop a method for studying ideal psychological well-being.
2. Conduct an experimental study of the actual and ideal psychological well-being of an individual, show their correlation and characteristics in individuals with different levels (high and low) of actual psychological well-being.
3. Explore the connection between meaningfulness in life and current psychological well-being.
4. Investigate the level of meaningfulness of life, as well as the features of the structure of life meaning and value orientations in people with high and low psychological well-being.
5. To study the peculiarities of the attitude of a modern Russian to such concepts as: “ meaningfulness of life" And " psychological well-being».
Methodological basis of the dissertation work: The study of the meaning of life is based on the ideas of JT.C. Vygotsky about the structural and semantic structure of consciousness, ideas about the structure of the semantic sphere of personality, formulated in the works of A.N. Leontiev, A.G. Asmolov, B.S. Bratus, provisions about the psychological essence of the phenomenon of the meaning of life, put forward in the works of V. Frankl , understanding of the meaningfulness of life, proposed by D. A. Leontyev. The analysis of psychological well-being is carried out from the perspective of ideas about the positive aspects of personality functioning, developed in various concepts of humanistically oriented psychologists, summarized in the six-component concept of psychological well-being by S. Ryff, and also relies on the concept of psychological well-being of N. Bradburn, the model of subjective well-being of E. Diener, theories self-determination R. Ryan and E. Deci.
Research methods: To conduct the research, methods were selected that met its goals and objectives. The work used a block of methods aimed at studying the level of meaningfulness of life, the structure of value and life-meaning orientations, the level and structure of the actual and ideal psychological well-being of the individual: 1) Methodology “ Psychological Well-Being Scales"(S. Ryff); 2) Modified version of the technique “ Psychological Well-Being Scales"; 3) Methodology " Test of life's meaning orientations"(D.A. Leontyev); 4) Modified version of the technique “ Value orientations"(M. Rokeach); 5) A modified version of the Dembo-Rubinstein technique. 6) Modified version of the technique “ Semantic differential"(C. Osgood).
Difference criteria, correlation and factor analysis methods were used as methods for statistical processing of results. Statistical processing of the results was carried out using the SPSS program for Windows (version 11.5)
Novelty and theoretical significance of the study. The work redefines the concept of “ psychological well-being" The idea of actual and ideal psychological well-being has been introduced, it has been proven that indicators of ideal psychological well-being significantly exceed similar indicators of actual psychological well-being, and the structures of actual psychological well-being and ideal psychological well-being are different, which does not allow identifying these concepts. Their differences and features were also discovered in individuals with high and low levels of actual psychological well-being. It is shown that the higher the actual psychological well-being, the higher the meaningfulness of life and the more the actual psychological well-being approaches ideal psychological well-being in its structure. It has been proven that there is a direct connection between meaningfulness in life and aspects of positive personality functioning (autonomy, environmental management, positive relationships with others, personal growth, having goals in life and positive self-acceptance), which are considered as components of the structure of psychological well-being, subjectively expressed in a feeling of happiness, satisfaction with yourself and your own life. The work also shows differences in the level and structure of life meaning and the nature of value orientations between individuals with high and low levels of psychological well-being.
Practical significance of the study. To study psychological well-being, validation, cultural adaptation and standardization of the method were carried out. Psychological Well-Being Scales", standards have been developed for assessing the psychological well-being of modern Russians, and a methodological technique for studying ideal psychological well-being has been developed, which allows the use of this methodology in other studies. In addition, in the process of validation and standardization of the methodology “ Psychological Well-Being Scales”, proposed by S. RyfF, and on its basis a new, culturally specific methodology for studying psychological well-being was created. Based on a new, clearer understanding of the relationship between the meaningfulness of human life and psychological well-being, it is possible to identify new therapeutic approaches within the framework of the existential direction of psychotherapy to overcome the crisis of meaninglessness, as well as the treatment of a number of conditions that are accompanied by a subjective feeling of decreased value of life, loss of interest in it, create a basis for the prevention and diagnosis of this type of disorder. The data from our research allow us to find new approaches to psychotherapy for existential crises and noogenic neuroses, in particular, using well-being therapy. In addition, the research materials can be used to build special educational courses on mental health, positive functioning and psychological well-being of the individual.
The following provisions are submitted for defense:
1. There is a connection between such key aspects of the positive functioning of the individual as: meaningfulness of life and the psychological well-being of the individual, which has the nature of a highly significant direct correlation. At the same time, all structural components of psychological well-being directly correlate with the level of meaningfulness of life and meaningful in life orientations.
2. The structure of life meaning and value orientations is associated with the level of psychological well-being of the individual. Subjects with a high level of psychological well-being differ from people with a low level of psychological well-being in that they have a significantly higher level of meaningfulness in life and life-meaning orientation; their structure of significant terminal values is more specific, obviously more easily realized.
3. The level of psychological well-being is associated with a subjective feeling of the ability to realize significant values. The higher the level of psychological well-being, the more accessible significant terminal values appear from the point of view of their possession or their implementation.
4. The correlation of ideal ideas about psychological well-being with the current status of psychological well-being is associated with the level of current psychological well-being of the individual. Thus, the discrepancy between the structure of ideal psychological well-being and actual psychological well-being is greatest among individuals with low psychological well-being. While in individuals with high psychological well-being, the structure of actual psychological well-being approaches the structure of ideal psychological well-being.
Reliability and validity of the study: ensured by the representativeness of the sample, the use of methods adequate to the tasks and purposes of the study, and the carrying out of meaningful (qualitative) and quantitative (based on the use of mathematical statistics methods) analysis of the results obtained.
Approbation of the work: materials and conclusions of the work were discussed at meetings of the Department of Clinical, Neuro- and Pathopsychology of the Institute of Psychology named after. L.S. Vygotsky RSUH in the period from 2003 to 2005, at the conferences “IV readings in memory of JI.C. Vygotsky", Moscow 2003; "V Memory Reading JI.C. Vygotsky”, Moscow 2004. The research results were introduced into work with 3rd year students of the Faculty of Psychology of the Russian State University for the Humanities, during practical training in 2004. 3 scientific articles were published on the topic of the research.
Structure and scope of the dissertation: the dissertation consists of an introduction, three chapters, conclusions, a conclusion, a bibliography of 259 titles, including 62 in a foreign language, 9 appendices. The total volume of the dissertation is 206 pages. The work contains 5 graphs, 32 tables, 2 figures.
Conclusion of the dissertation on the topic "General psychology, personality psychology, history of psychology", Fesenko, Pavel Petrovich
1. The conducted research showed that ideas about the phenomenon of meaningfulness of life and the phenomenon of psychological well-being exist in the mind in the form of a clear dichotomy or polar assessments: meaningfulness / meaninglessness, psychological well-being / ill-being. Similar differentiation allows us to consider these ideas as subjective criteria with the help of which a person is able to evaluate his own existence. The study also showed that psychological well-being is perceived as a socially and personally approved state, with subjective desirability for the majority of subjects. Similar results were obtained regarding ideas about the meaningfulness of life.
2. Psychological well-being is characterized not only by the degree fulfillment the personality’s focus on positive aspects of functioning, but also the degree of intensity of this focus; Therefore, the study differs in the general index, level and structure of actual and ideal psychological well-being. According to the study, all indicators of ideal psychological well-being significantly exceed similar indicators of actual psychological well-being; these types of psychological well-being also differ in their structure (quantitative characteristics of the severity of components). The higher the actual psychological well-being, the more its structure corresponds to ideal psychological well-being; in people with low actual psychological well-being, there is no coincidence between actual and ideal psychological well-being according to any parameters.
3. Meaningfulness in life is directly related to psychological well-being; As life becomes more meaningful, psychological well-being increases and vice versa. The main components of positive personality functioning (parameters of psychological well-being) are directly related to the meaning of life.
4. Individuals with a high level of psychological well-being have a significantly higher level of meaningfulness in life; the structure of their terminal values is distinguished by a more specific, obviously more realizable character. The discrepancy between the value and accessibility of terminal values in this group of subjects is smaller than in individuals with a low level of psychological well-being, which indicates greater subjective achievability of this group of values. People with low psychological well-being have low meaningfulness in life; the structure of their terminal values is abstract and difficult to implement.
5. Current psychological well-being is associated with the “value-availability” discrepancy index by an inverse correlation. The smaller the discrepancy between the subjective availability of significant terminal values, the higher the actual psychological well-being.
6. The transcendental nature of value and meaningful in life orientations (the significance of which has been argued by many researchers), found in subjects with low psychological well-being, is not a prerequisite for achieving psychological well-being. The higher the subjective attractiveness and realizability of terminal values, the higher the level of psychological well-being.
7. New data have been obtained on gender differences in the structure of life-meaning orientations: it has been established that women have a structure of life-meaning orientations that is not much different from men’s, and the overall level of life meaning is not statistically different from that of men.
8. For the first time in Russia, the dissertation carried out validation, standardization, as well as socio-cultural adaptation of the methodology “ Psychological Well-Being Scales", developed by K. Rieff. It is shown that the parameters of psychological well-being proposed by K. Rieff are applicable to the study of the psychological well-being of modern Russians.
CONCLUSION
The dissertation study of the connection between meaningful life and the psychological well-being of the individual (the components of which are various positive aspects of human functioning) showed that a meaningful existence is indeed the key to mental well-being in the broadest sense of the word.
Theoretical analysis of the concepts “meaning of life”, “ semantic sphere of personality"and others allowed me to formulate following D.A. Leontyev’s idea of the meaningfulness of life as “...a quantitative measure and degree of stability of the direction of a subject’s life activity towards some meaning.”
The theoretical review also showed that little attention is currently paid to research into the relationship between meaningfulness in life and various positive aspects of personal functioning, while the largest number of practical studies are aimed at identifying the connection between meaningfulness in life, the meaning of life and the semantic sphere of the individual with various negative aspects of personal functioning. This study filled this gap by addressing the concept of “ psychological well-being» personality.
The work shows that the concept " psychological well-being“at the moment does not have a clear definition, which made it necessary to conduct a theoretical analysis of its content, taking into account the currently existing views and approaches to its understanding. Following R. Ryan and E. Deci, we note that all theories of psychological well-being existing in the West can be divided into two movements: hedonic and eudaimonic. However, at the moment, a number of theories have emerged that seek to integrate both of these trends. One of these concepts, where, in our opinion, such integration is carried out most successfully, is the six-component concept of psychological well-being proposed by C. Ryff. It is this concept that we chose in the framework of this research work.
This study shows that psychological well-being is a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon, both actual and potential, which is not taken into account by modern concepts of psychological well-being. Therefore, there was a need to redefine psychological well-being as an integral indicator of the degree of a person’s focus on the implementation of the main components of positive functioning (personal growth, self-acceptance, environmental management, autonomy, purpose in life, positive relationships with others), as well as the degree of realization of this focus, subjectively expressed in a feeling of happiness, satisfaction with oneself and one’s life.
The dissertation differentiates the concept of “ ideal psychological well-being» - the degree to which the individual is focused on the implementation of the components of positive functioning (the intensity of the desire to realize oneself in an autonomous existence, in maintaining positive relationships with people around him, a focus on personal growth, etc.); and the concept " current psychological well-being“- a subjective assessment of the degree of implementation of this orientation in the real life of an individual. At the same time, it is assumed and justified that the structure (ratio of components) of actual and ideal psychological well-being may not coincide. In addition, the study introduces the concept of the level of actual psychological well-being - high and low psychological well-being. A low level of actual psychological well-being is due to the predominance of negative affect (a general feeling of one’s own unhappiness, dissatisfaction with one’s life), a high level is due to the predominance of positive affect (a feeling of satisfaction with one’s life, happiness). Each level may have specific structures of actual and ideal psychological well-being (which do not coincide) and a ratio (degree of discrepancy) between actual and ideal psychological well-being.
To operationalize and introduce into full-fledged scientific circulation of Russian psychology the concept “ psychological well-being"we needed to distinguish it from terms such as: " mental health», « psychological health", "the quality of life ". The concept " psychological well-being"emphasizes a person's subjective emotional assessment of himself and his own life, as well as aspects of positive personal functioning. Such an understanding separates it from a number of other concepts, which are often inadequately used as its synonyms. Thus, in contrast to the concepts “ mental health" and "quality of life" psychological well-being is not directly related to the presence or absence of any mental or somatic illnesses. What distinguishes ideas about psychological well-being from concepts of positive mental health is their interest not only in self-actualizing aspect, but to the way they are perceived by the person himself, focusing on the person’s experience of happiness and satisfaction with himself and his environment.
As part of the work to validate the Russian version of the methodology “ Psychological Well-Being Scales“it was shown that the parameters of psychological well-being proposed in C. Ryff’s theory are applicable to the study of the phenomenon of psychological well-being among modern Russians. The last statement can be considered true, despite the fact that the structure of psychological well-being identified by us through factor analysis consists of four components, in contrast to the six-component structure of psychological well-being in C. Ryff’s theory, because The components of psychological well-being that we have identified do not directly contradict the main provisions of C. Ryff’s theory, and are, rather, a consequence of clarifying the main provisions of the original theory. Moreover, the structure we obtained combines two main approaches to understanding the problem of well-being - hedonic and eudaimonic, which echoes the general trends in the development of ideas about psychological well-being that currently exist abroad. This allows us to consider further study of the problem of psychological well-being from the standpoint of the structure of psychological well-being we obtained as very promising. However, in this study, we decided to adhere to the main provisions of C. Ryff’s theory, which allows us to avoid theoretical confusion when analyzing the results and achieve greater clarity in cross-cultural comparison of data.
Study of ideas about the meaning of life using a modified version of the method " Semantic differential“showed that a meaningful life is characterized by a positive emotional assessment and is characterized by high activity, strength and orderliness. Psychosemantic the structure of ideas about the meaninglessness of life is represented by such signs as: weakness, passivity, chaos, emotional alienation, discomfort, simplicity, incomprehensibility. The emotional assessment does not have a sharply expressed negative orientation. Thus, it is shown that a meaningful life, in the views of the majority of our subjects, has subjective attractiveness and desirability, while a meaningless life, on the contrary, is perceived as extremely undesirable and unattractive. These data are in good agreement with the basic tenets of V. Frankl’s theory of the will to meaning. In addition, the study showed that the psychosemantic structure of ideas about oneself is approaching psychosemantic the structure of ideas about a person who has a meaning in life.
Analysis of ideas about psychological well-being using the MSD methodology allows us to conclude that the idea of psychological well-being has a high positive emotional assessment, high scores on such parameters as: activity, strength, comfort, proximity, complexity, orderliness, understandability, probability and reality. The idea of psychological ill-being has a negative emotional assessment; it is characterized by low scores on the following parameters: activity, strength, comfort, intimacy, complexity, orderliness, and understandability. The structure of ideas about themselves in most subjects approaches the psychosemantic structure of ideas about a person who is completely satisfied with life. Thus, we can say that the majority of subjects perceive themselves as psychologically well rather than psychologically dysfunctional.
A study of the structure of the actual and ideal psychological well-being of modern Russians showed that the structure of the actual psychological well-being of the greatest values reaches the values of such components as: “Personal growth”, “”, “Goals in life” - which indicates that modern Russians consider the greatest the extent to which these components of positive functioning are realized in one’s life. At the same time, they are much less characterized by a positive assessment of themselves and their lives in general, the ability to be independent, and a sense of confidence in their own ability to achieve set results and competence.
According to the subjects, ideal psychological well-being is most associated with highly developed self-acceptance, the ability to establish and maintain warm, trusting relationships with others, the presence of goals in life and the ability to effectively implement them. While the ability to be internally independent, the ability to defend one’s opinion and the desire for self-development, according to the subjective assessment of the majority of respondents, are inferior in importance to the above four characteristics.
The study of the relationship between the structure of actual and ideal psychological well-being revealed that there are statistically significant differences between the average values of all six components of actual psychological well-being and ideal psychological well-being. In our opinion, it seems natural that the actual status is somewhat (and sometimes clearly) lower than the identified ideal status. This discrepancy, such as, for example, the discrepancy between the “real self” and the “ideal self,” should be considered as a space or bar in relation to which the dynamics (situational, age-related, etc.) of actual well-being can be observed.
The work examined the structures of actual and ideal psychological well-being in individuals with high and low levels of psychological well-being. Thus, subjects with a high level of actual psychological well-being believe that a psychologically well-off person, first of all, strives to determine goals in life, that he is equally aimed at establishing positive relationships with others, managing the environment, implementing personal growth, and to the least extent The ability to live autonomously is valued. One's own ability to achieve autonomy and control the environment is assessed as associated with certain difficulties. For this group of subjects, the ability to be independent and the ability to resist social pressure has somewhat less subjective significance compared to other parameters of psychological well-being. Among the respondents who made up this group, according to three parameters, current psychological well-being corresponds to ideal ideas about psychological well-being. An increase in the level of actual psychological well-being in this case is associated with an increase in the sense of competence in managing the environment (the discrepancies in this parameter are the greatest, which indicates that the subjects are least satisfied with their abilities to successfully cope with the demands of everyday life).
An analysis of the relationship between actual and ideal psychological well-being in a group of subjects with a low level of actual psychological well-being shows that they feel not fully capable of managing the environment, self-acceptance, and experience significant difficulties in determining goals in life and achieving autonomy. At the same time, this group is characterized by statistically significant differences between the severity of the components of actual and ideal psychological well-being in all main parameters, that is, not a single component of actual psychological well-being reaches the ideal.
A study of the meaningfulness of life and basic life-meaning orientations showed that the majority of subjects had a general level of life meaning and life-meaning orientations that met the standards. However, new data on gender differences in the structure of life-meaning orientations obtained in our study in comparison with standards is noteworthy. Thus, women in our study have a structure of life-meaning orientations that is almost identical to men’s, and the overall level of meaningfulness in life is not statistically different from that of men. An unambiguous interpretation of such a phenomenon is beyond the scope of our study, but given that our data are confirmed by the results of work carried out in recent years by other researchers, we can assume that the changes we identified in the gender specificity of life-meaning orientations and the meaningfulness of life are a consequence of socio-cultural changes that have occurred in our society (changes in attitudes towards gender roles in the last decade and, above all, towards the female role).
There is a direct correlation between the general indicator of meaningfulness of life and the index of current psychological well-being (p< 0.01), причем, чем выше уровень актуального психологического благополучия (то есть, чем в большей степени человек ощущает свою способность реализовать свою направленность на позитивные аспекты функционирования), тем выше уровень осмысленности жизни и наоборот.
All components of actual psychological well-being are associated with meaningfulness of life and basic meaningful in life orientations (p< 0.01). Можно сказать, что осмысленность человеческой жизни непосредственно сопряжена с ощущением счастья, общей удовлетворённостью собственным бытиём. Тем самым, косвенно подтверждается предположение В. Франкла, о том, что в ходе поиска и реализации человеком смысла собственной жизни он обретает счастье.
The conducted research allows us to state the uneven nature of the relationships between the components of actual psychological well-being and life-meaning orientations, which allows us to divide all the characteristics of psychological well-being into two groups. The first group, which can be designated as “central”, includes parameters that are most related to the meaningfulness of life (have the highest correlation coefficients with the indicator of meaningfulness of life): “Goals in life”, “ Environment management", "Self-acceptance". The second group, designated as “peripheral”, includes the following parameters: “Personal growth”, “ Positive relationships with others", "Autonomy" - which, although they have significant correlations with life-meaning orientations, their significance, from the point of view of connection with the semantic sphere of the individual, is lower. This division, although quite conditional, allows us to identify new approaches to correcting crises of meaninglessness (noogenic neuroses) using “ wellness therapy"(well-being therapy), described. Therapy of this kind should not be limited to just helping in finding the meaning of life (in other words, increasing psychological well-being according to the “Goals in life” parameter), but should be accompanied by checking the meaning of life for constructiveness (the “Self-acceptance” parameter) and realism (the “Self-acceptance” parameter) Environment management"), i.e. a person’s ability and ability to implement it.
The dissertation presents the results of a study of differences in the structure of life meaning and value orientations among individuals with high and low levels of actual psychological well-being. Analysis of the data obtained allows us to come to the conclusion that subjects with a high level of current psychological well-being have higher scores on all six indicators of the LSS technique. A significant difference in the indicator of meaningfulness in life indicates that respondents with a high level of psychological well-being have a stable meaning in life, which is manifested in significantly greater sthenicity, energy, and vitality. At the same time, among representatives of the group of subjects with a low level of actual psychological well-being, life is much less meaningful, which can lead to greater susceptibility to depression, increased susceptibility to mental, somatic diseases and addictions. In the comparative analysis, it is noteworthy that subjects with a high level of psychological well-being see the meaning of life in the very process of living their lives; the present seems to them full of meaning and very attractive. Subjects with a low level of psychological well-being see the meaning of their whole life in the future to the same extent as in the present.
We present the results of a study of the relationship between the level of current psychological well-being and the characteristics of the structure of values. Thus, subjects with a high level of actual psychological well-being give greater preference to the emotional attractiveness of terminal values, their value orientations are characterized by greater specificity and realism. Subjects with a low level of actual psychological well-being are attracted by the opportunity to gain pleasure from their own development and creativity; their value orientations are abstract and fundamentally difficult to implement.
The dissertation research shows that the transcendental nature of value orientations, found primarily in subjects with a low level of actual psychological well-being, cannot be considered as a prerequisite for achieving psychological well-being. Obviously, the higher the subjective attractiveness and realizability of terminal values, the higher the level of actual psychological well-being. This position is confirmed by the presence of an inverse correlation between the value-availability discrepancy index in the structure of terminal values and the level of actual psychological well-being: the lower the level of actual psychological well-being, the more inaccessible those terminal values to which a person strives are considered. This discrepancy suggests the presence of a “vicious circle” type of dependence, when in subjects with a low level of psychological well-being, the inability to realize their own values causes a feeling of dissatisfaction and reduces the overall level of psychological well-being, at the same time, a feeling of dissatisfaction entails an increase in the subjective significance of the values of self-development, in achieving which the possibility of compensation is seen.
So, to summarize, it can be noted that in the study carried out, all the tasks were solved and all the hypotheses put forward were proven.
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Meaningful life
Many details of Singer's theoretical and practical views were subject to sharp criticism, but the most severe criticism of his work, as well as the work of utilitarians in general, was caused by their excessive demands. Simply put, critics believe that if we live a moral ethical life according to Singer's demands, we will have to sacrifice many of the things that give our lives meaning. It is as if Singer believes that we have a responsibility to set aside our personal concerns as indistinguishable from the concerns of all other people. Many people think that if we follow Singer's recommendations, we will become impoverished and harm our personal interests and the activities that bring us satisfaction and joy. For example, in order to do the right thing, we will have to act in a way that is contrary and inconsistent with respect and consideration for those who are near and dear to us. When the birthday of loved ones, children or friends approaches, we think about a gift, but the money spent on a gift could bring much more benefit to those who are less fortunate than us. Even time spent with family or friends, at the cinema or at a holiday dinner, wouldn't it be better spent fighting poverty and helping those in need? We would be simply happy if our family and friends themselves preferred that we, instead of spending money on gifts, send money on their behalf to hunger relief organizations or chimpanzee rights foundations, or chose to work for serving soup instead of going to the movies. However, even the most selfless people sometimes believe that what means more to them is a gift from their beloved or a vacation together with her. And if an ethical theory claims that certain actions cannot be justified, that we are doing something morally reprehensible by buying gifts or going to the cinema, then such a theory seems to us, as mere mortals, to be overly demanding.
Singer understands this as well as you and I, and without being a purist or considering himself a moral paragon, he says that we should only do what we can. But most people spend most of their time not wanting to do what they can. If we think carefully and impartially about what we are doing to improve the world, we will realize that most of us could be doing much more to end human suffering and beyond. You don't have to completely agree with utilitarian philosophy to see that there are many pressing problems in the world that go beyond what ethics requires of us.
Philosophers have long challenged common sense, and often such challenges have served to improve our collective lives. The questions posed by Peter Singer may seem too pointed to us, requiring the sacrifice of something, and generally impossible. But if we rise to the challenge it poses, we can contribute to building a world with less pain and suffering and more happiness. We will truly make our world a better place to live, and we will make life itself more meaningful.
From the book Ride the Tiger by Evola Julius8. Dimension of transcendence. “Life” and “more than life” So, the positive elements we identified in previous chapters can serve as an initial support only for a very special type of person, since in his inner world he finds an unfragmented
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From the book Works in two volumes. Volume 1 by Hume David From the book The World of Leonardo. Book 1 author Bogat EvgeniyCHAPTER 7 Theater as life, or Life as theater (Illustration used for the title: Leonardo da Vinci, drawing) Pavlinov’s note about everyday life, which “begins on the street and ends in infinity,” in my opinion, is related to Exupery, to his thoughts about
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From the book Great Prophets and Thinkers. Moral teachings from Moses to the present day author Guseinov Abdusalam AbdulkerimovichLife The thinker, known in the European cultural tradition as Confucius (the Latin Confucius is a corruption of the Chinese Kung Fu Tzu, that is, teacher Kun), and in his homeland as Kun Tzu, was born in 551 BC. e. in the small ancient Chinese kingdom of Lu (modern
From the book Ethics author Apresyan Ruben GrantovichLife Buddha is the founder of one of the world religions, and the cultural development of his image has continued for two and a half thousand years. The evidence about him is an amazing combination of truth and fiction. Separate real facts from myths and
From the book 50 great books about wisdom, or Useful knowledge for those who save time author Zhalevich AndreyLife The life path of Epicurus (341–270 BC) was not bright, eventful, which is quite natural for a thinker, one of whose sayings reads: “Live unnoticed!” He was born and raised on the island of Samos, where the Athenians had a settlement. He has an interest in philosophy
From the book The Hidden Meaning of Life. Volume 2 author Livraga Jorge AngelLife The legend of Buddha is based on the real life of a real person - Siddhartha Gautama. He was born into the family of the king of a small country of the Shakya tribe in northeast India in the middle of the 6th century. BC e. Therefore, he was subsequently called Shakyamuni (sage from the Shakya tribe).
From the book Aristotle for everyone. Complex philosophical ideas in simple words by Adler MortimerLife The inclusion of Jesus Christ among the great moralists can cause internal protest among believers. And yet it is completely justified. As the Gospels tell, Christ is the son of God, believed to have been born as a result of the virgin birth. To the ground he
From the book The Sage and the Art of Living author Meneghetti Antonio50. “A wise life is a pure life” There is no gift more valuable than generosity, And no worse enemy than self-interest. Love well. Cleanse your heart from vices immediately... Panchatantra You should adhere to morality inviolably, relentlessly, impeccably, unsullied, undistorted... After all,
From the author's bookWe and life
From the author's bookChapter 10 Life and the Good Life The younger we are, the more things we do aimlessly, or at least playfully. There is a difference between aimless activities and gaming. We act aimlessly when we do not know the desired result. But when we play, we have a goal -
From the author's bookChapter 10. Happiness as that which leaves nothing better to be desired, and thus as the last goal to which one should strive (Life and the good life) The difference between life and the good life. Politics, book I, chapters 1, 2, 9. The concept of happiness as a good life in general and together
From the author's book1.1. Life The verb to live (vivere) means to rush swiftly, like a force within another force. This word comes from the Latin vis - strength, vivens - living, that is, the one who is this force inside another force. The word life comes from vis and the Greek?????? (titemi) –
1.Accept failures as normal life experiences.
Not a single person lived his life serenely, smoothly and smoothly - not one. And you will not be an exception, believe me. The main thing you need to understand at the moment of failure is that everything will end someday, it will pass, and that you still need to move on with your life. And not just to live, but to live in pursuit of the best, towards the goal. Set goals - then you will have something to live for and calmly overcome failures, fall and get up again and move on.
2. Disappointment in people is inevitable.
We often expect from people what they cannot give us, and then we worry that our expectations were not met. Understand that these were your personal expectations, and the person did not “sign up” to them. And if so, what complaints can there be? Be more tolerant of people, forgive their weaknesses, because it is unknown how you will behave in this or that situation that will be difficult for you.
3. Love, not fall in love.
A person cannot help but love, but it is a very complex thing. Falling in love is euphoria, and love is giving. Do you feel the difference? In the first case, this is the feeling that “I feel so good with you,” that is, you get pleasure from communication, from dreams and hopes. In the second case, you take care of someone else. Falling in love quickly passes, but true feelings remain for life. Why do we need a perishable product?
4. Be able to let go.
True, this is not very simple, because by nature many of us are “mossy owners.” However, we must give people the right to live their lives without squeezing them into their ideas and into their framework. If you don't connect with someone, let them go. If you can’t come to terms with something, just let it go. It's better for your psyche. The best news here: the one who should be in your life according to fate will definitely be in it. Why do we need the rest?
5. Swim against the current.
There are so many stereotypes in our lives that it’s impossible to spit. Because of them, people now live the way they do. The picture is quite unsightly, no matter how you look at it. If you want to live differently than everyone else, don’t believe in what they believe and don’t do what they do. This requires a lot of courage, but the result will be amazing.
6. Change and edit your plans more often
This is not about the fact that today I want one thing, and tomorrow another, and it’s not about wanting at all. A plan is the steps to achieve your goal, right? And since life changes quickly, in the process of achieving the goal you gain experience, skills, etc. - the plan will require adjustments. Therefore, do not become too attached to it, be flexible.
7. Everything is temporary.
If we remember our life, we will understand that ten years ago we were different, a year ago we were not the same as we are now, and even the “I” of yesterday is different from the “I” of today. Everything flows and changes, so you shouldn’t worry too much about the unpleasant, just as you shouldn’t rest on your laurels for too long if luck smiles widely. Harmony and balance in everything is true.
8. You are no worse than others.
Therefore, do not compare yourself with anyone, especially with those who shout at every corner how wonderful their life is. Instagram is not an indicator of a person’s life, but rather window dressing, a kind of dream. Everyone has enough problems, so solve your own one by one, without counting the money in other people’s pockets and the number of their successes. Focus on your goals, and then people will compare themselves to you, but this is no longer your concern.
9. Forgive yourself.
Forgive yourself in advance for all mistakes - in advance, then it will be easier for you to accept them. You will act rashly, badly, stupidly and wisely. So what? Doing something is much better than sitting back and not making mistakes. This is life in a greenhouse, but this is not life. The wise say that you are always right, even if you are wrong. Because you couldn’t do anything differently at that moment - you had no experience, knowledge or anything else. But now you have experience and you understand what you need to know so that next time a mistake does not happen.
10. You are not a dollar for everyone to like.
Yes, there will be people who will say they can't stand you. You know, this is very funny, because there is a cunning mechanism at work here: a person doesn’t like what is in him about you. He just doesn’t see it in himself, but sees it in you as if under a magnifying glass. It turns out that he can’t stand himself with such qualities, not you. Laugh and ignore it. And if possible, tell him about it.
11. Say whatever you want to say.
Do not be silent. Otherwise, no one will know what you think, what you feel, what you want and what you don’t like. It will be very inconvenient for you to live like this - people will do everything wrong. Therefore, take this motto: “speak, speak everything!” Express everything in a friendly and calm tone.
12. Grow and develop.
To do this, you need to do what you are afraid to do - at least small steps. Constantly read, listen to audio and improve your skills. Seek a balance between entertainment and business (rest is also important). Ask advice from more experienced and wise people. Look for answers to questions.
13. Sow seeds of good fortune.
We know that nothing is accidental. What you did yesterday will echo today or the day after tomorrow. It’s just that we, like a magnet, attract to ourselves everything that we deserve. Therefore, do only what will lead to a positive result, aim for the result. And all will be well.
14. Don't doubt yourself.
Anyone who has achieved a lot knows that the main person in your life is yourself. There is no need to doubt the most important thing. If you consider that a person uses only 10% of his potential, his abilities, in his entire life, can you imagine how much more internal wealth you have? Just open them every day, gaining new knowledge and acquiring new skills. Overcoming your weaknesses helps you respect yourself and be confident. What weakness or habit will you overcome today, this week, in a month?
15. Take responsibility.
Everyone is busy with their own lives, so you should take care of yours. No one is to blame for the way you live today, there is no one to blame for your achievements - only your merits have led you to success. You can consider yourself a victim of circumstances and spend your whole life lamenting about the injustice of the world, or you can gradually, step by step, improve your life yourself. This is one of the surest ways.