Magdalena Kowalska, Uniwersytet Jagielloński
The aim of this presentation is to analyze the role of spirituality as a potential coping mechanism for the loss of meaning in the context of noogenic depression. Noogenic depression, as conceptualized in logotherapy Viktor Frankl, is a form of psychological suffering in which the core difficulty is not affective disturbance in the narrow clinical sense, but rather a deficit or loss of existential meaning. In this perspective, the central clinical issue concerns not only mood impairment, but also the disintegration of systems of meaning and the difficulty in constructing a coherent narrative of one’s life.
The presentation is grounded in existential psychology, which assumes that the search for meaning is a fundamental dimension of human functioning. Its frustration may lead to existential emptiness, feelings of disconnection, and a decline in psychological well-being. The contemporary cultural context, often described in terms of postmodernism, is characterized by axiological pluralism, relativization of norms, and fragmentation of narratives about the world and the self. These conditions may contribute to the weakening of stable meaning systems and increase the risk of chronic existential uncertainty.
Within this framework, spirituality is understood as an individual or communal experience of transcendence and as a source of meaning systems that extend beyond the individual perspective. It is hypothesized that spirituality may serve an adaptive function by supporting the reconstruction of meaning, organizing existential experience, and facilitating the integration of difficult life events into a coherent life narrative.
In synthesis, noogenic depression is interpreted as a consequence of meaning loss within the postmodern fragmentation of meaning structures, while spirituality is conceptualized as a psychological resource that may support the restoration and reintegration of existential meaning.