The Dynamism of Resolute Being

[Abstract] This study explored the question "What is the experience of tragic optimism in an existential-humanistic worldview?" The subjective nature of this investigation required a qualitative research method and employed the heuristic model of human science research. A review of the literature was completed to position the present study among relevant psychological works. The descriptive accounts of ten co-researchres were obtained and analyzed according to the heuristic processes of immersion, incubation, illumination, explication, and synthesis. The data from the interviews was filtered through the universal structures of phenomenology. Inter-subjective validation was included to further substantiate the data. The data was organized into two portraits, four depictions, and a composite depiction of the experience. Nine themes emerged from the transcribed interviews: 1. Self-reflection: observing ego as the foundation for integrating cognitive and affective involvement in response to suffering; 2. Courage: self-reliance, internal locus of control in actualizing self-directed possibilities for oneself; 3. Somatic response: heaviness and lightness, tension, dread, exhaustion; 4. Symbolic and ritualistic reflections and actions; 5. Loss of orientation to time: acknowledging impermanence and the value of "now"; experiences of flow; 6. Empathy, forgiveness & gratitude for self, others, and the challenge of suffering; 7. Interpersonal engagement and distancing; 8. Expansiveness and constriction perceived throughout various levels of consciousness; 9. Existential spirituality: tolerating ambiguity, faith in one's inner resources, self-transcendent sense of communion beyond oneself including one's lifework, children, family, nature, tragedy, identification with cosmic wonder, mystery and awe, existence as sacred ground. A creative synthesis was composed to illustrate the essense of the experience. Implications of the results for the disciplines of psychotherapy and spirituality are discussed.