Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
PhD in Arabic Language and Literature, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
2
Associate Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
10.30465/afg.2025.52688.2210
Abstract
Being disorders constitute one of the most significant challenges faced by the contemporary human being amid cultural transformations, the collapse of traditional authorities, and the increasing sense of anxiety, absurdity, and loneliness. This research raises a central question: How can Western and Islamic thought offer two different-yet possibly complementary-approaches to understanding these disorders? It draws upon Irvin Yalom’s theory of the four existential concerns (death, freedom, isolation, and loss of meaning), alongside Jafari’s insights grounded in a rational–faith-based ontology. The study adopts a descriptive–analytical method with a comparative approach, examining the ideas of Yalom and Jafari through the text of the novel “Show Yourself to Me That I May Look at You”, with the aim of highlighting points of convergence and divergence in their understanding of existential crises and the mechanisms for confronting them. The findings indicate that “Malik,” the main character, experiences the four being disorders through an inner struggle between despair and hope. He oscillates between Yalom’s concept of death anxiety and Jafari’s view of death as a spiritual stage. He suffers from the tension of freedom, which places full responsibility on him, while seeking faith as a path to true awareness. He withdraws into contemplative solitude, reflecting a positive form of loneliness that fosters spiritual growth, and seeks to reconstruct the meaning of his life through connection with the supreme truth. Thus, Malik’s experience represents a complex journey of psychological and spiritual transformation that bridges Western thought and the Islamic perspective.
Keywords: Being disorders, Yalom, Jafari, “Show Yourself to Me That I May Look at You”.
Introduction
Existential psychology, emerging as an extension of existential philosophy, reacted against positivist approaches like Freudianism and behaviorism, focusing on death, freedom, meaning, and isolation, and portraying humans as free, responsible beings (Yalom,2009:24). Key philosophical influences include Kierkegaard (anxiety as a product of freedom), Nietzsche (nihilism), Heidegger (“Dasein”), Sartre (“bad faith” and escape from freedom), and Jaspers (“limit-situations”), while figures such as Binswanger, Boss, May, Frankl, and Yalom developed existential analysis and therapy approaches.
In contrast, Jafari emphasizes the innate spiritual dimension of humans, arguing that ignoring fiṭrah, rationality, and piety leads to incomplete understanding of existential anxiety (Jafari, 2009:412). Effective psychotherapy, he suggests, requires integrating religious values with psychological knowledge within an Islamic anthropological framework.
Discussion & Result
In Hamdi’s novel, Malik experiences Reem’s death as a mirror of his own, reflecting existential emptiness and tension between fear of annihilation (Yalom,1389:70) and spiritual growth toward the soul’s continuation (Jafari,1388:2000).
Regarding freedom, Yalom defines it as authenticity and self-determination, inseparable from personal responsibility, with values created individually (Yalom,1394:154;1389:311,392–395). Jafari situates freedom within moral and divine purpose, where conscious choice leads to transcendence, while misused freedom causes spiritual emptiness (Jafari,1386:167; Nasri,1396:393). Malik’s retreat into solitude-«I need solitude…»-illustrates confrontation with existential freedom (Yalom,1980:9) and, for Jafari, alignment with higher purpose (Jafari,1388:2296;2777). His deliberate abandonment of prayer-«You chose not to pray…»-represents a boundary situation between radical authenticity (Yalom,1980:229) and the risk of alienated freedom (Jafari,1390:447).
Existential loneliness, per Yalom, is unavoidable and peaks when daily life is disrupted, producing deep fear but also enabling personal growth and self-discovery (Yalom,1997:163;Sartre,1956:620;Al-Qayyumi,1983:110). Jafari, however, frames loneliness as a bridge to spirituality, distinguishing negative loneliness—separation from God and truth, akin to Yalom’s view-from positive loneliness, which fosters spiritual elevation.
When first facing loneliness, Malik chooses isolation as a necessary act for self-restoration, seeing it as a means to regain balance and listen to his inner voice rather than mere social detachment: "I need seclusion and to withdraw from all influences until I find my balance again" (Hamdi,2020:153). Yalom identifies three types of loneliness-interpersonal, intrapersonal, and existentialthe last being fundamental and unavoidable. Confronting existential loneliness sincerely can lead to profound transformation (Yalom,1980:355).
From Jafari’s perspective, conscious loneliness directed toward meaning is constructive. Seclusion allows access to the true self, intellectual and spiritual growth, and liberation from imitation and negativity (Jafari,1378:112). Malik’s embrace of solitude, though arising from doubt, is a free and authentic act of self-revival.
At the intersection of Yalom and Jafari, Malik’s experience is therapeutic and necessary solitude: a confrontation with existential anxiety (Yalom) and a path to reconnect with the chosen inner self (Jafari). Yalom argues that in a world without absolute structure or answers to metaphysical questions, humans face absurdity and meaninglessness.
Jafari, drawing on Islamic knowledge, views existence as meaningful, ordered, and purposeful. Humans, as chosen and conscious beings, must elevate themselves from instinctive life to rational life to discover true meaning and proper direction (Jafari,1388:1424).
Malik experiences emptiness as his future, on which he had built his identity, collapses. The pain of this bitter failure marks the beginning of separation from his former self and entry into a crisis of meaning: “When I was deprived of continuing my studies, and I saw my future hopes shattered into pieces, bitterness overpowered the taste of illusory heroism. Behold, I had spent the precious years of youth to reap dubious signs on my body and deep wounds in dignity, a continuous bleeding of hope. After I was a lion roaming freely in the university courtyard, I became an idle, dull man who does not leave his room. Does life still have meaning after that?” (Hamdi,2020:24). Here, the taste of bitter failure replaces the dream of past heroism.
The novel employs poetic and bitter language to depict Malik’s existential stagnation and self-lostness, highlighting isolation as a space for contemplation, transformation, and engagement with deeper layers of existence. While the narrative begins in despair, it also offers the possibility to reconstruct meaning-through Yalom’s lens, via personal responsibility and meaning-making, and through Jafari’s, via connection to the ultimate truth.
Conclusion
Khawla Hamdi’s “Show Yourself to Me That I May Look at You” portrays Malik’s experience of the four existential concerns-death, freedom, isolation, and meaning-through a dual lens. Death combines Yalom’s “mirror death” and Jafari’s view of spiritual transition; freedom reflects existential responsibility versus rational and faith-based awareness; isolation contrasts inevitable anxiety with positive, growth-oriented solitude; and meaning emerges through existential reconstruction, blending Yalom’s vacuum with Jafari’s reason and revelation. The novel highlights that confronting these concerns is not merely a crisis but an opportunity for psychological and spiritual transformation.
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