Trufanova, E. O. Escapism: Escape in Search for Meaning

Abstract: The main subject under research is the problem of escapism and escapist consciousness and their role in human life. The author shows that as long as one of the most famous synonyms to escapism is the expression ‘escape from reality’, escapism is associated with the opposition of the ‘real world’ to the ‘escapist reality’ (the world of fantasy, dream, self-deceit, virtual world and subjective reality constructed by the individual consciousness. The author describes reasons, sources and types of escapism, singles out and defines terms that are ‘related’ to escapism such as sublimation, alienation and others. The author also offers a classification of escapism as ‘passive’ and ‘active’, ‘external’ and ‘internal’ and ‘moderate’ and ‘radical’. The main research methodology used by the author of the article is the interdisciplinary approach to the problem of escapism. The aforesaid approach allows to fully explore the concept. Scientific novelty is in raising the question about escapism and escapist consciousness as one of the fundamental features of human existence. The author suggests that we should view escapistconsciousnessas a form of human consciousness when the focus of activity is shifted from the real world perception to perceiving and experiencing events of the virtual or imaginary world. Theauthoralsodemonstratesthatescapistconsciousnessintends not only absorption in actions and events of the human inner world but also deliberate creation of the virtual world as the target of the ‘escape’. The author shows that the main reason of escapism is the absent or insufficient ‘reason for existence’ or ‘meaning of life’ and therefore escapism is the ‘escape’ in search for meaning.

Keywords: