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Journal of Humanistic Psychology
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An Existential Case Study of Madness: Encounters with Divine Affliction

Scott Kiser, M.A.M.F.T.

Saybrook Graduate School

This article presents an existential case study of a psychotic episode that the author experienced, focusing particularly on a phenomenological description of the actual process of psychic breakdown and subsequent recovery. Primary importance is placed on depicting this process as an empowering source of meaning formation as well as a spiritually transformative experience. The experience of psychosis is thus portrayed as a crisis of meaning in which the individual is challenged to reestablish an ontological ground and integrated sense of self through the recreation and deepening of personal existence. The presentation is a first-person narrative account, followed by an existential analysis of the experience’s value in terms of transformation and meaning creation, as well as a discussion of the existentialist sources in philosophy, psychology, and literature, that have contributed significantly to the author’s psycho-spiritual development.

Key Words: existential • phenomenological • psychosis • suffering • transformation • divine

Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 44, No. 4, 431-454 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0022167804269043
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S. Kiser
Become Who You Are: Integrating the Conceptions of Will and Being in the Psychotherapeutic Theory of Rollo May
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, April 1, 2007; 47(2): 151 - 159.
[Abstract] [PDF]