Content area
Full text
ABSTRACT: The author summarized research on the nadir experience, the experience of one of the very lowest points of life. Although a sense of disintegration, powerlessness, and emptiness marks its immediate aftermath, survivors of rape, bereavement, and maritime disasters have shown that a nadir experience can also be an opportunity for personal transformation and psychological growth. Severe trauma is more likely to lead to positive change, and reflection seems to play an important role in this process. Among the positive changes observed are increases in personal well-being, sense of meaning in life, spirituality, inner wisdom, and compassion. The author described how he experienced such positive changes following a nadir experience in his own life. Therapists dealing with persons undergoing the nadir experience should encourage reflection oriented toward the future as well as the past. The author has suggested mindfulness meditation as a useful technique to encourage such reflection.
KEYWORDS: nadir experience, posttraumatic growth, trauma therapy, reflection, rumination, mindfulness, meditation, spiritual assessment.
Half a century ago, Thorne (1963) introduced the term nadir experiences to describe the very opposite of peak experiences, the highly positive experiences that transcend everyday life (Maslow 1964/1970). While peak experiences are worthy of study, so too are the deep emotional traumas such as bereavement, depression, loss, or a crisis of existence that Thorne was referring to. Despite their devastating effect on a person's quality of life, nadir experiences that challenge core beliefs and offer the opportunity for reflection can become opportunities for personal transformation and psychological growth.
Thorne (1963) defined the nadir experience to be the "subjective experiencing of what is subjectively recognized to be one of the lowest points of life" (p. 248), and claimed that both peak and nadir experiences could give valuable information for clinical personality studies. He set about obtaining data about such experiences in a systematic way, by asking subjects to write about the three best and three worst experiences of their lives. He then created a detailed classification scheme for the peak experiences, and observed that the nadir experiences usually involve "death, illness, tragedy, loss, degradation or deflation of Self " (p. 249). Although he noted that his research was ongoing, Thorne never published further information on the nadir experience. In a preface to...