Research Catalog

Title

A psychology of nothingness / by William F. Kraft.

Author

Kraft, William F., 1938-

Publication

Philadelphia : Westminster Press, [1974]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

160 pages; 21 cm

Summary

Is there a way to understand--and, more important, to make use of--the experiences and emotions that we usually think of as being entirely negative? How are we to make sense of life's apparent "non-sense": the loneliness, depression, anxiety, frustration, anger, apathy, and anguish that we are certain to encounter in the course of living? William F. Kraft, a practicing psychotherapist, maintains that we can use all of these experiences in the service of life and fulfillment--once we understand that they are part of the process of growth. It is only when people admit to pain and loneliness, he says, that they can begin to lead meaningful lives. The feelings of nothingness are essential for authentic living--inescapable and even necessary. Dr. Kraft discusses the experience of nothingness--as a fundamental life force and as creative suffering. Then he analyzes the language of nothingness: all the sad words for the bad emotions we meet. He explores the dynamics and meaning of "healthy" and "unhealthy," as applied to our feelings. Proposing that man discovers himself in his sense of nothingness at various stages of his life, Dr. Kraft explores the first emergence into a consciousness of nothingness, in adolescence, as a sense of boredom and cynicism. Next, he deals with the depression, loneliness, and frustration of early adulthood. In full adulthood, maintains the author, the sense of nothingness is banished by commitment and a search for authentic living. Then in middle and old age, he suggests, a positive approach must be forged for experiences of depression, guilt, anguish, and death. In his final chapters Dr. Kraft offers a new psychological approach to death and dying, which are the clearest articulations we know of nothingness. For everyone who thinks that alienation is a symptom of illness, an experience to avoid, or a sign of personal failure, this book is happy--and mandatory--reading.--Adapted from dust jacket.

Subject

• Existential psychology
• Nothing (Philosophy)
• Psychology
• Emotions
• Existentialism
• Psychology
• Emotions
• Existentialism
• psychology
• emotion
• existentialism
• Existential psychology

Bibliography (note)

• Bibliography: p. [159]-160.

Contents

The experience of nothingness. The dynamics of nothingness ; Nothingness as a fundamental life-force ; Nothingness as creative suffering -- The language of nothingness. Loneliness ; Aloneness ; Depression ; Anxiety ; Guilt ; Frustration ; Anger ; Boredom ; Apathy ; Anguish -- Man's emergence in nothingness -- Nothingness in early adolescence -- Nothingness in young adulthood -- Nothingness in adulthood -- Nothingness in middle age -- Nothingness in old age -- The significance of nothingness -- Man's approaches toward nothingness. Negative approaches ; Positive approaches -- Dying, death, and nothingness. The values of dying and death ; Attitudes toward dying and death.

ISBN

• 0664209971
• 9780664209971

LCCN

73021809

OCLC

• ocm00790408
• 790408
• SCSB-9573813

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library