Alexander Batthyany

Mind and its place in the world : non-reductionist approaches to the ontology of consciousness

Mind and Its Place in the World: Introduction and Overview Whats the Mind-Body With You Anyway? Thinkways: The Impulse to Reductionism Self-Appropriation: The Dynamic Structure of Human Consciousness One Mans Meat is Another Mans Person Consciousness and the Intentional Awareness of Instantiables Mental Monism Considered as a Solution to the Mind-Body Problem Telepathy: Or, How Do I Know That This Thought is Mine? The Dimensions of Conscious Experience: A Quantitative Phenomenology A Radical Externalist Approach to Consciousness: The Enlarged Mind On Explanation, Interpretation, and Natural Science with Reference to Freud, Ricoeur and Von Wright Personal Identity, the Self and Time Quantum Monism: Spinozicism Revived? Boundary Conditions for Theories of Consciousness: The Near-Death Experience and the Failure of Materialism.

Psychologies of Meaning

The psychological conceptualization of meaning has been addressed through different prisms and viewed as carrying multifaceted functions and manifestations, such as cognitive (for example, meaning-making, a sense of coherence); motivational (for example goals, purpose); types (micro or meaning in life versus macro or ultimate meaning-meaning of life); the search for, or presence of, meaning; as well as dimensions and sources of meaning. While positive psychology focuses on human strengths and positive emotions and tends to emphasize the “brighter” side of human functioning, existential psychology traditionally tends to address the ‘‘darker’’ or unsettling aspects of human existence, such as guilt, suffering, and mortality. Both traditions make ample reference to meaning, yet there seems to be a surprisingly small overlap between the empirical and theoretical work of both fields. Both traditions uncover important aspects of the still incomplete understanding of meaning itself and its role in human psychology. It is argued that a combination of both approaches may benefit each of them and embody a substantial step toward a deeper understanding of meaning and purpose.

Clinical Perspectives on Meaning: Understanding, Coping and Thriving through Science and Practice

The will to meaning is a fundamental and basic need relevant to all people. With respect to the mental health professions, therapists, clinicians, and scholars are constantly confronted with existential questions, about which existing textbooks and diagnostic manuals carry little, if any, information. Despite the mounting research findings underscoring the importance of meaning for human coping and thriving, little research has focused on methods one can follow in order to nurture or reinforce it. This chapter introduces a book which aims to redress this imbalance, bringing together diverse and varied perspectives, bridging the gaps between disciplines and branches of meaning-oriented psychologies. This chapter reviews the book’s overarching goals and objective, extending the current literature in the rapidly growing and promising area of meaning, demonstrating its vital relationship to human health, well-being, and existential fulfillment considering a range of mental health settings, applications, and contexts.