O możliwości odbudowy sensu życia ("Zapiski dla zjawy" Jerzego Stempowskiego)

Abstract

The article addresses the problem of maintaining (or reconstructing) the meaning of life after one had experienced a personal crisis. The author illustrates this problem with fragments of Jerzy Stempowski’s biography recorded in his texts (especially, in his private journal of mourning — untypical for Stempowski — writing of which he treated as means of his own psychotherapy). She is trying to prove to the contemporary reader that the notes of a man representing the world which no longer exists, include exceptionally valid and universal observations. From the chasm marked by illness, death of a beloved one, home loss and country bereavement and, as a result, the feeling of everything being taken away from him, Stempowski manages to emerge preserving his human dignity. Life after all the hardship becomes meaningful again due to the strenuous process of returning to the public and artistic activity.