Institute of Philosophy SAS
Topic
Phenomenology of Despair
PhD. program
Year of admission
2026
Name of the supervisor
doc. Mgr. Jaroslava Vydrová, PhD.
Contact:
Receiving school
Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave
Annotation
The topic of the thesis develops a phenomenological account of despair as a distinctive form of lived experience that reshapes the subject’s relation to the future and to its possibilities. Although despair is widespread and closely related to depression, it remains poorly defined within psychiatric classification systems. The thesis is situated at the intersection of phenomenology and psychopathology and will also respond to the contemporary mental-health crisis. It will explore despair in relation to possibilities, epistemic and cognitive abilities, and embodiment and affectivity. By comparing despair with contrary and adjacent states such as hope, hopelessness, resignation, and depression, the project aims to offer a complex conceptual framework with implications for diagnosis and understanding how despair relates to depression.