What Is ‘Tragic Optimism’ and Can It Help Us Make Sense Of This Moment?

Well hello! I’m so glad you’re here. A version of this article also appeared in the It’s Not Just You newsletter. Sign up to get a new edition every Saturday. After another week of searing headlines about just about everything—global climate issues, the unfurling tragedies in Afghanistan, in Louisiana and parts south, the pandemic—all of it left me sleepless and sad and cynical. The latter is the most corrosive emotion I can think of right now, and when I’m not that ditch, it’s getting harder to imagine what our future looks like as the sands continue to sink and shift beneath our tired feet. It’s a disorienting helpless feeling that we are powerless and that there’s no escape from these looping circles of anxiety. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] I pawed around the internet looking for some good news to share here, and it became clear I’m not the only one struggling to stay out of the ditch here. There were not one but two pieces circulating (from the BBC and The Atlantic) advocating for something called “tragic optimism.” It’s a concept you might know if you’ve read Austrian psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl. Anna Gotlib, a moral philosopher, defines it best for our times in a paper published earlier this year: “Frankl argues that we can make suffering meaningful, view guilt as an imperative to improve ourselves, and interpret the fragility, unpredictabilit...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized It's Not Just You Source Type: news