Loss of meaning, spirituality, and self-transcendence in postmodernism: Psychotherapeutic perspectives on Karl Nowotny's Mediale Schriften (Medial Writings)

Abstract

The postmodern era is described as a period of a “loss of meaning and transcendence,” in which traditional religious and spiritual systems of order erode, thereby rendering basic trust as well as one’s relation to self and world fragile. This development leads to ontological insecurity and fosters withdrawal into materialistic or everyday‑centered life-worlds, which can manifest clinically in diffuse meaninglessness, chronic boredom, and inner alienation. As a compensatory strategy, an experience‑oriented consumption is identified, which ties happiness and meaning primarily to external stimuli and pushes intrapsychic processes of reflection, integration, and maturation into the background. Although there is a growing interest in practices perceived as meaningful (e.g., yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, self‑experience seminars, esoteric and scene‑based forms of spirituality), their sustainable effectiveness in terms of enduring changes in attitudes, behavior, or personality structure remains questionable.