| Abstrakt: |
Human suffering is a salient theme in psychology, but the construct itself remains undefined and opaque. Suffering, in psychology literature, is often difficult to tease apart from pathology. It is often assumed to be inherently bad, thus the emphasis on alleviating the suffering through various therapeutic and medicinal techniques. There is a wealth of literature, however, which indicates that people grow through the experience of suffering. Therefore, suffering, although painful, may prove to be beneficial to the sufferer in the end. I hope to provide a theoretical outline of how a radical relational approach in therapy may not only afford a unique understanding of suffering that may be unavailable from other therapeutic orientations but also influence the therapist’s response to the sufferer in a transformative and healing way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
