Abstract
Han is a destructive feeling in Korea. Although Korea accomplished significant exterior growth, Korean society is still experiencing the dark aspects of transforming han as evidenced by having the highest suicide rate in Asia. Some reasons for this may be the fragmentation between North and South Korea. If we can transform han then it can become constructive. I was challenged to think of possibilities for transforming han internally; this brings me to the correlational method through psychological and religious interpretation. This study is to challenge and encourage many han-ridden people in Korean society. Through the psychological and religious understanding of han, people suffering can positively transform their han. They can relate to han more subjectively, and this means the han-ridden psyche has an innate sacredness of potential to transform.
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Notes
It would be an oversimplification, therefore, to say that Tillich's ideal courage is grounded in God, whereas Kohut's is grounded in the self. Maybe Tillich places a high value on self-affirmation and self-acceptance, while Kohut recognizes the benefits of believing in an external omnipotent being (self-object function/experience). Courage is still the energy that empowers the self to face threats of danger and even death, but Kohut expands the ‘self’ by depicting a battle within the psyche of various selves fighting against the essential nuclear self, while Tillich broadens ‘death’ into a larger concept of non-being that includes the threat of moral death caused by guilt and the threat of spiritual death caused by emptiness.
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Oh, W. Transforming Han: A Correlational Method for Psychology and Religion. J Relig Health 54, 1099–1109 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9944-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9944-x