Hamlet’s crisis of meaning, mental wellbeing and meaninglessness in the War on Terror

Pupavac, Vanessa

Abstract

Drawing on Shakespeare, and in particular Hamlet's psychological crisis, this paper examines the relationship between emotions and meaning, a key theme in artistic work, but, it is argued, neglected in social psychology. Hamlet's psychological crisis is caused by the storng competing frameworks of meanings, which confronted individuals emerging from traditional society. Conversely the twenty-first century psychological crisis arguably relates to meaninglessness or the weakening of earlier sources of meaning. Studies exploring the crisis of meaning are applied to the War on Terror and international terrorism.

Citation

Pupavac, V. (2008). Hamlet’s crisis of meaning, mental wellbeing and meaninglessness in the War on Terror. Mental Health Review Journal, 13(1),

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Jan 27, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 27, 2012
• Journal: Mental Health Review Journal
• Print ISSN: 1361-9322
• Electronic ISSN: 2042-8758
• Publisher: Emerald
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 1
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1016006
• Publisher URL: http://pierprofessional.metapress.com/content/121406/?p=fab37db01a2044cebc4bc1f7156d776a&pi=0
• Additional Information: An earlier version of this paper appeared in the Mental Health Review Journal: Vanessa Pupavac, Hamlet, the state of emotion and the international crisis of meaning, Mental Health Review Journal, 13(1), 2008, 14-26.