- Title
- Tragic Optimism: A Psychobiography of Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.
- Creator
- Harry, Tinashe T, van Niekerk, Roelf
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- text
- Type
- book chapter
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434439
- Identifier
- vital:73060
- Identifier
- ISBN 978-3-031-28826-5
- Identifier
- https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-28827-2_5
- Description
- For many Zimbabweans, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (1952–2018) became the face of courage and hope during his political career. Tsvangirai was subjected to and witnessed political violence, physical abuse, brutality, emotional humiliation, unlawful detentions, and persecution. He challenged the ruling party in Zimbabwe, and his leadership gave many people hope for the future. In the context of living in a colonial era, poverty, and having to endure the brutality of the Mugabe era, he lived a meaningful life that saw him becoming a Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (2009–2013). This single-case study explores and describes Tsvangirai’s life and interprets it in terms of Frankl’s existential theory. More specifically, Tsvangirai’s life is interpreted from the perspective of Frankl’s three triads, the fundamental, meaning, and tragic triads, as well as the noetic dimension. Tsvangirai was selected through purposive sampling based on his important role in Zimbabwean politics. The primary source of data was biographical and autobiographical publications. The findings indicate that Tsvangirai shifted emphasis within the meaning triad in living a meaningful life and that he was able to use the human capacity of self-distancing/detachment and self-transcendence to find meaning in his life. This chapter sheds light on how individuals make sense of their circumstances and search for meaning and purpose in adverse conditions. It also contributes towards the development of psychobiographical research among non-WEIRD samples.
- Format
- 16 pages, pdf
- Publisher
- Springer
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Harry, T. and van Niekerk, R., 2023. Tragic Optimism: A Psychobiography of Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. In Beyond WEIRD: Psychobiography in times of transcultural and transdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 67-83). Cham: Springer International Publishing
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the SpringerLink Terms of Use Statement ( https://link.springer.com/termsandconditions)
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Collections
Harry, Tinashe (Dr)
RU Department of Psychology
SDG 03. Good Health and Well-Being
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Tragic Optimism.pdf | 821 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |