Abstract
This paper will focus on chance happenings and man's struggles to make sense of those random events that occur in everyday life. There is a readiness to deny chance happenings as powerful mediators in our life course and to transfer the guidance of the world to divine providence, to anthropomorphize fate, to search for blame, and to create conspiratorial theories out of natural disasters. Emphasis will be placed on understanding chance happenings from an exploration of coincidences, experiences perceived beyond coincidences, scientific predictors of causality, and developmental perspectives, as well as the individual's psychological strategies for coping with a fateful event, an acute traumatic moment in which there is sudden awareness of a perceived threat of injury and to life itself. The role of chance and environmental happenings in psychotherapy will be discussed with clinical vignettes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-12 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Psychiatry |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 2009 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychiatry and Mental health
Cite this
Chance happenings in life and psychotherapy. / Shaw, Jon.
In: Psychiatry, Vol. 72, No. 1, 01.03.2009, p. 1-12.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Chance happenings in life and psychotherapy
AU - Shaw, Jon
PY - 2009/3/1
Y1 - 2009/3/1
N2 - This paper will focus on chance happenings and man's struggles to make sense of those random events that occur in everyday life. There is a readiness to deny chance happenings as powerful mediators in our life course and to transfer the guidance of the world to divine providence, to anthropomorphize fate, to search for blame, and to create conspiratorial theories out of natural disasters. Emphasis will be placed on understanding chance happenings from an exploration of coincidences, experiences perceived beyond coincidences, scientific predictors of causality, and developmental perspectives, as well as the individual's psychological strategies for coping with a fateful event, an acute traumatic moment in which there is sudden awareness of a perceived threat of injury and to life itself. The role of chance and environmental happenings in psychotherapy will be discussed with clinical vignettes.
AB - This paper will focus on chance happenings and man's struggles to make sense of those random events that occur in everyday life. There is a readiness to deny chance happenings as powerful mediators in our life course and to transfer the guidance of the world to divine providence, to anthropomorphize fate, to search for blame, and to create conspiratorial theories out of natural disasters. Emphasis will be placed on understanding chance happenings from an exploration of coincidences, experiences perceived beyond coincidences, scientific predictors of causality, and developmental perspectives, as well as the individual's psychological strategies for coping with a fateful event, an acute traumatic moment in which there is sudden awareness of a perceived threat of injury and to life itself. The role of chance and environmental happenings in psychotherapy will be discussed with clinical vignettes.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=66149096119&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=66149096119&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1521/psyc.2009.72.1.1
DO - 10.1521/psyc.2009.72.1.1
M3 - Article
C2 - 19366291
AN - SCOPUS:66149096119
VL - 72
SP - 1
EP - 12
JO - Psychiatry
JF - Psychiatry
SN - 2158-8333
IS - 1
ER -