Analysis of Existential Crisis through Language-Mediated Suffering and Hopelessness: A Systematic Review

Análisis de la crisis existencial a través del sufrimiento y la desesperanza mediados por el lenguaje: una revisión sistemática

This article addresses the existential crisis as an experience mediated by suffering, hopelessness and language. The contributions of the Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective and Franklean logotherapy are analyzed, in order to construct a comprehensive paradigm of this crisis. This theoretical articulation is enriched by the thought of existential philosophy, through Emile Cioran and Albert Camus, whose reflections give depth to the central question: Does life have meaning? The article explores the implications of an affirmative answer and the ways in which this meaning is constructed, as well as the consequences of a negative answer, considering the processes through which the subject can resignify his or her existence. Finally, the role of language in the constitution of the Self and identity as key elements in the search for meaning is examined. Objective: To analyze the ways in which language modulates the experience of meaning (or its absence), in contexts marked by suffering and despair. The systematic review methodology was used, following the PRISMA protocol, of research published in the last five years in the Web of Science database, Redalyc and SciElo; In the results, a difference is observed between the psychoanalytic and logotherapeutic positions regarding the existential crisis. Only field studies with logotherapy techniques are found. The convergence in studies that suffering is a path to meaning, and a means to forge lived experiences, is highlighted.