The re-signification of the Self in the face of traumatic events: a hermeneutics of overcoming

Abstract

This study proposes a hermeneutic analysis of trauma recovery by articulating philosophical, psychological, and spiritual foundations. Drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s narrative hermeneutics, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Stoic philosophy, and Christological symbolism, it explores how suffering may be re-signified in a process of ontological reconstruction of the self. Trauma is understood as a rupture in narrative identity, demanding a symbolic reinterpretation of pain. CBT, in conjunction with Schema Therapy, provides tools for the restructuring of dysfunctional beliefs. Stoicism, through its ideal of amor fati, advocates an active acceptance of suffering as an ethical practice. The figure of Christ is approached as an archetype of the transfiguration of suffering—from the cross to the resurrection, from the fall to reinvention. This theoretical-reflexive research suggests that true healing does not lie in a return to a previous state, but in the capacity to transform pain into meaning. It ultimately proposes a clinic of symbolic listening, capable of welcoming suffering as a narrative in search of elaboration and transcendence.