Finding happiness and wellbeing in the face of extreme adversity

ABSTRACTThis paper examines how people find happiness and create wellbeing when confronted by extreme adversity. Utilising the Dialogical Self Theory for an analysis and visual material, it investigates two case studies, Nick Vujicic of published autobiographies, who was born without limbs, and Austrian author Barbara Pachl-Eberhart, who narrates creating a fulfilled life after losing her whole family, her husband and two young children. Drawing on the DST process of positioning and repositioning to renew the self, this research investigates positions that allow the authors to work through their adversity to establish happiness and wellbeing. The aim of this study is to contribute knowledge to research on individual well-being, in particular following adversity.