Personal Experience of Suffering

Abstract

Using elements of K. Wojtyła’s philosophical anthropology, I make an attempt to look at the phenomenon of suffering through the experience of the suffering subject, through the uniquely personal experience of ‘I am suffering.’ The personal experience of suffering involves the inclusion of the phenomena of pain and suffering within the domain of self-consciousness, i.e. within the field of experiencing oneself, the sense of one's own identity, including the striving for fulfilment. In this perspective, the experience of suffering has to do with the person-specific openness to transcendence, which makes it possible to show the positive side to the experience of suffering. Both in the field of self-consciousness and in the personal experience of self-determination, the experience of ‘I am suffering’ can serve the person in the realisation of personal truth (about the good), involving and stimulating actions towards fulfilment.