"What does a human being do when there is nothing to be done? A misfortune has occurred, the situation cannot be put right, it is hopeless, the whole of life is bereft of meaning... But time passes, and we see the same person cheerful once more and full of hopes. How has he managed to emerge from the crisis, to pass from grief to happiness? These questions, or, to be more precise, the amazement evoked by this strength of the human spirit, provided the starting point of the present study.'" "So Fyodor Vasilyuk begins this remarkable book. In it, he constructs an original theory of the psychological processes whereby a human being copes with critical, often tragic, situations in life. Building upon the activity theory of two Soviet giants of psychological work, L. S. Vygotsky and A. N. Leontiev, he introduces the category of experiencing. Experiencing is not seen as a reflection of a state in the subject's consciousness, and not as a form of contemplation, but as a particular form of activity, directed towards the restoration of meaning in life. In introducing the principles--pleasure, reality, value, creativity--which regulate human experiencing, Dr. Vasilyuk draws examples from literature and his own clinical case studies." "The Psychology of Experiencing, now published in the West for the first time, will become requisite reading for not only psychologists but also all those interested in how human beings live through and survive emotional traumas."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved