Narrative, existentialism, and resilience

This investigation is designed to discover and explain how some people are able to construct an understanding of themselves and the challenges of their lives in ways that support two forms of resilience: practical and existential. The thesis looks at that construction through a conceptual framework which brings together narrative theory and existential philosophy as two related ways of understanding human life and its many challenges. Given that conceptual bi-theoretical framework, we can more clearly see why the achievement of ongoing resilience in the face of setbacks, challenges, and tragedies is inherently problematic but nevertheless possible.

The major concern of the author is show how the construction of resilience can benefit from an engagement with the narrative and existential concerns that have been identified and examined in depth by Paul Ricoeur and Martin Heidegger. We are strengthened or weakened by our stories; and we live in denial or are resolute in the face of our contingency and mortality.

The form of sense making referred to as cognitive reappraisal has already been shown to support resilience. The present study however, goes beyond replacing negative thoughts with more positive ones as part of working toward goals and investigates how some people are able to make sense of life events over time that are so significant they have the potential to cast a permanently negative shadow over the way a person feels and thinks about their life as a whole.

Previous research has identified the supportive role that a religious or spiritual outlook can play, but this study has a focus on whether and how the non-religious outlook of Existentialism, in conjunction with an attendance to narrative issues, could support resilience.

The author provides an interpretive analysis of rich narrative accounts provided by interviewees who have faced undeniably challenging circumstances. He conducted in-depth qualitative interviews over three months with seven informants, meeting with each informant five times, and presents illustrative narrative-based examples to demonstrate how it is possible to find support for resilience in an Existential outlook, combined with an attendance to narrative issues. The goal of the analysis is to discover ways in which the interviewees have engaged with the central concerns of existence and narrative that were brought together in the conceptual framework that is developed in the first part of the thesis, Chapters Four and Five.

The thesis concludes that life challenges can be fruitfully seen as opportunities for the construction of a sense of resilience which draws upon elements of both narrative and existential concepts. Three key findings are highlighted as helpful sense making strategies: paying attention to what the totality of our moments adds up to; taking actions to redress wrongs now rather than hoping for justice to be delivered in an afterlife; and adopting an outlook on life, tragedy, and death that is informed by authentic temporalizing.