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Review
. 2022 Jun 24:13:790300.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.790300. eCollection 2022.

Defining Transformative Experiences: A Conceptual Analysis

Alice Chirico  1 , Marta Pizzolante  1 , Alexandra Kitson  2 , Elena Gianotti  3 , Bernhard E Riecke  2 , Andrea Gaggioli  1   4
Affiliations
Review

Defining Transformative Experiences: A Conceptual Analysis

Alice Chirico et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

The concept of transformative experience (TE) has been widely explored by several disciplines from philosophy to neurobiology, and in different domains, from the spiritual to the educational one. This attitude has engendered heterogeneous models to explain this phenomenon. However, a consistent and clear understanding of this construct remains elusive. The aim of this work is to provide an initial comprehensive interdisciplinary, cross-domain, up-to-date, and integrated overview on the concept of TEs. Firstly, all the models and theories on TEs were reviewed to extract and analyze TEs' main components emerging from different disciplines. Then, this preliminary analysis was integrated with an in-depth examination of redundancies and particularities across domains and disciplines, to provide an integrated theoretical framework of TEs and a preliminary interdisciplinary operational definition of TEs. This examination, in turn, can help organize current research and theories, thus providing suggestions for operationalizing TEs as well as encouraging new interdisciplinary research endeavors.

Keywords: complex emotions; conceptual analysis; psychological change; transcendence; transformative experiences.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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