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Kierkegaard, the Spirit of Time and the Individual: Implications for Clinical Psychology

Received: 08 May 2018    Accepted: 02 July 2018    Published: 26 July 2018
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Abstract

The aim is to analyze how Søren Kierkegaard, by the voice of his pseudonym “A”, in the chapter the tragic in ancient drama reflected in the tragic in modern drama from Either-Or. Part I, discusses time and the individual, namely by contrasting Zeitgeist, as the spirit of time, and Zeitgeist, as the spirit in time in his presentation of two existential situations of Antigone, namely, the modern character he creates and the Greek character. Kierkegaard claims that the lamentations of the modern Antigone show less sorrow but more pain than the classical Antigone. This difference allows him to posit modern spirit as ready for reflection and in tension with the ancient spirit which is more prone to action. Hence, the tension between the ancient tragic and the modern tragic keeps the universal character without abandoning the individual and, thus, brings to light the individual in history, and this is exactly what is enhanced in this article as of great interest for psychologists, in particular, in clinical existential practice. After an introduction mapping the question, there follow 4 sections focused on the spirit of time, the tragic, Antigone, and Antigone and the spirit of time; and, finally, section 5 presenta the final conclusions, focusing on the relevance of the discussion of the idea of the spirit of the time, and of Kierkegaard’s questioning of this idea, for psychology.

DOI 10.11648/j.jher.20180403.11
Published in Journal of Health and Environmental Research (Volume 4, Issue 3, September 2018)
Page(s) 84-90
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Kierkegaard, Antigone, The Spirit of Time, Existential Psychology

References
[1] Sören Aabye Kierkegaard, The tragic in ancient drama reflected in the tragic in modern drama In Either/Or, Part 1, trans. by Howard V, Hong. USA, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1843/1987.
[2] Sören Aabye Kierkegaard, De la tragedia, trans. by J. Zavália. Buenos Aires: Editora Quadrata, 1843/2005.
[3] Sören Aabye Kierkegaard, El reflejo de lo trágico antiguo en lo trágico moderno In O lo uno o lo otro. Un fragmento de vida, trans. by Darío González. Madrid: Editorial Trotta, v. 1, 1843/2006.
[4] Sören Aybe Kierkegaard, O reflexo do trágico antigo no trágico moderno In Ou – ou Um fragmento de vida, primeira parte, trans. by Elisabete M. de Sousa. Lisboa: Relógio D´Água, 1843/2013.
[5] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Fenomenologia do Espírito, parte 2. Trans. by Paulo Meneses. Petrópolis: Vozes, 1807/1992. (Phenomenology of Spirit).
[6] Gabriel Guedes Rossati. Kierkegaard e o reconhecimento do espírito do tempo, chapter 2 in O conceito de modernidade nos escritos primeiros de Kierkegaard, p. 40. Thesis to the Interdisciplinary Program in Human Sciences of the Federal University of Santa Catarina UFSC, 2012. Available at https://repositorio.ufsc.br/bitstream/handle/123456789/106733/310359.pdf?sequence=1. (Kierkegaard and the recognition of the spirit of time)
[7] Karl Löwitt. De Hegel a Nietzsche: La quiebra revolucionaria del pensamiento em el siglo XIX, trans. by Emilio Est. Buenos Aires: Katz Editores, 1939/2011, p. 17. (From Hegel to Nietzsche).
[8] Sören Aabye Kierkegaard. On my work as an author. In The Point of View. Trans. by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. USA, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1851/1998.
[9] Sören Aabye Kierkegaard. The sickness unto death: A Christian psychological exposition for upbuilding and awakening. Trans. By Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1849/1980.
[10] Sören Aabye Kierkegaard. The concept y of anxiety: A simple psychologically orienting deliberation on the dogmatic issue of hereditary sin. Trans. By Reidar Thomte in collaboration with Albert B. Anderson. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1844/1980.
[11] Rachel Gazolla, Para não ler ingenuamente uma tragédia grega, São Paulo: Edições Loyola, 2001.
[12] Bruno Snell, The Discovery of the Mind, trad T. G. Rosenmeyer, New York: Dover Publications, 1982.
[13] Roberto Machado, O nascimento do trágico, Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 2006.
[14] Aristóteles, Poética, trans. Ana Maria Valente. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2008. (Aristotle, Poetics).
[15] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Cursos de Estética, vol. IV. Trans. Marco Aurélio Werle e Oliver Tolle. São Paulo: EDUSP, Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, 1835/2004. (Hegel's Lectures on Aesthetics).
[16] Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings. Trans. Ronald Speirs. New York, USA: Cambridge University Press, 1872/1999.
[17] Sören Aybe Kierkegaard, La época presente. Santiago do Chile: Editorial Universitária, 1846/2001. (Two Ages)
[18] Maria Jose Binetti. El estadio estético de Kierkegaard en las categorías lógicas de Hegel: inmediatez, reflexión y posibilidad forma. In Enfoques, vol. 22, no. 1 – Libertados San Martín, otoño 2010, p. 31-51.
[19] Ana Maria Lopez Calvo de Feijoo & Myriam Moreira Protasio. The Rescue of the Aesthetic Character of Existence in Kierkegaard’s Philosophy, J Relig Health (2015) 54:1470–1480. DOI 10. 1007/s10943-015-0026-5.
Author Information
  • Post-Graduate Program in Social Psychology, Psychology Institute, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

  • Post-Graduate Program in Social Psychology, Psychology Institute, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

  • Philosophy Center (CFUL), School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

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    Myriam Moira Protasio, Ana Maria Lopez Calvo de Feijoo, Elisabete Marques de Sousa. (2018). Kierkegaard, the Spirit of Time and the Individual: Implications for Clinical Psychology. Journal of Health and Environmental Research, 4(3), 84-90. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20180403.11

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    ACS Style

    Myriam Moira Protasio; Ana Maria Lopez Calvo de Feijoo; Elisabete Marques de Sousa. Kierkegaard, the Spirit of Time and the Individual: Implications for Clinical Psychology. J. Health Environ. Res. 2018, 4(3), 84-90. doi: 10.11648/j.jher.20180403.11

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    AMA Style

    Myriam Moira Protasio, Ana Maria Lopez Calvo de Feijoo, Elisabete Marques de Sousa. Kierkegaard, the Spirit of Time and the Individual: Implications for Clinical Psychology. J Health Environ Res. 2018;4(3):84-90. doi: 10.11648/j.jher.20180403.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jher.20180403.11,
      author = {Myriam Moira Protasio and Ana Maria Lopez Calvo de Feijoo and Elisabete Marques de Sousa},
      title = {Kierkegaard, the Spirit of Time and the Individual: Implications for Clinical Psychology},
      journal = {Journal of Health and Environmental Research},
      volume = {4},
      number = {3},
      pages = {84-90},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jher.20180403.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jher.20180403.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jher.20180403.11},
      abstract = {The aim is to analyze how Søren Kierkegaard, by the voice of his pseudonym “A”, in the chapter the tragic in ancient drama reflected in the tragic in modern drama from Either-Or. Part I, discusses time and the individual, namely by contrasting Zeitgeist, as the spirit of time, and Zeitgeist, as the spirit in time in his presentation of two existential situations of Antigone, namely, the modern character he creates and the Greek character. Kierkegaard claims that the lamentations of the modern Antigone show less sorrow but more pain than the classical Antigone. This difference allows him to posit modern spirit as ready for reflection and in tension with the ancient spirit which is more prone to action. Hence, the tension between the ancient tragic and the modern tragic keeps the universal character without abandoning the individual and, thus, brings to light the individual in history, and this is exactly what is enhanced in this article as of great interest for psychologists, in particular, in clinical existential practice. After an introduction mapping the question, there follow 4 sections focused on the spirit of time, the tragic, Antigone, and Antigone and the spirit of time; and, finally, section 5 presenta the final conclusions, focusing on the relevance of the discussion of the idea of the spirit of the time, and of Kierkegaard’s questioning of this idea, for psychology.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

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    AU  - Myriam Moira Protasio
    AU  - Ana Maria Lopez Calvo de Feijoo
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    VL  - 4
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