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“She looks back without bitterness”: Wisdom as a developmental opposite of embitterment?

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Embitterment

Abstract

Wisdom is a highly complex construct that integrates several different facets. Tus, there may be many different ways of being “unwise,” including foolishness (Sternberg 2005), rigidity, self-centeredness, and, perhaps, embitterment. The other way round, there are many different ways of not being bitter, and wisdom, which we seldom observe anyway, is probably among the rarer ones. Tus, it might not be particularly obvious that wisdom research could inform embit-terment research in a useful way. However, consideration of the ontogeny of the two constructs suggests that it might actually be useful for both fields to look at bitterness and wisdom as opposite outcomes of similar life experiences. In some of our wisdom studies, participants were asked to report on experiences with wise individuals. Interestingly, some of these people also talked about bitterness when they talked about wisdom:

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, Universitätsstraße 65-67, 9020, Klagenfurt, Austria

    Judith Glück

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  1. Judith Glück
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral and Psychosomatic Medicine, Rehabilitation Centre Seehof, Teltow/Berlin, Germany

    Michael Linden

  2. Department of Psychopathology and Clinical Intervention, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Andreas Maercker

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Glück, J. (2011). “She looks back without bitterness”: Wisdom as a developmental opposite of embitterment?. In: Linden, M., Maercker, A. (eds) Embitterment. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-99741-3_6

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