Through the Eye of Crisis

Dear Friends,

In Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters: one signifies "danger," and the other is commonly translated as "opportunity." In reality, the first indeed denotes danger, while the second, if we strive for accuracy, means "decisive moment," "turning point," or "trigger moment." Thus, in Chinese, a crisis is a trigger moment leading to danger.

In 1917, Freud wrote the paper "Mourning and Melancholia," introducing the concept of "grief work," later expanded to "crisis work." He stated that a crisis is such work that no one but the individual himself can perform. Experiencing a crisis is an absolutely personal effort.In this work, Freud nominally distinguishes three phases. Initially, the organism encounters the news of a crisis—internally or externally. There is no strength left, and fate throws a challenge. (Pardon me for simplifying greatly to avoid delving into psychoanalytical depths.) Thus, the first reaction is shock and denial…