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Elif Zapsu, University of Edinburgh, Üsküdar UniversityAbstract
The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship and importance of Love and Death within Sufi (Islamic Mystic) psychology, and to establish the extent to which these findings can be utilized in person-centered research on the self and psychotherapy. This study spanned four years and was supervised by the University of Edinburgh Counselling and Psychotherapy Department. Data was collected in various locations in Türkiye. The concepts of Love and Death were explored through writing as inquiry and integrated into the author's diary entries. Autoethnographic fiction enabled the ethical consideration of confidentiality, allowing the author to conduct literature-based research that blended with the colours of lived experience, thereby increasing the reliability of the findings. This presentation of results offers a distinctive insight into what it means to be human, highlighting the connection between love and death, which implies liberation from one's ego-based conditionings and indicates a state of existence beyond the physical form and the self. Suggestions are made for a new Sufi-inspired, holistic, therapeutic avenue. This includes cognitive work that focuses on deconditioning one’s database of conditions, associated judgments, and emotions to experience the true self.
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Conference: ACP2026Stream: General Psychology
This paper is part of the ACP2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Zapsu E. (2026) Being Love: Exploring Love and Death in Sufi Psychotherapy ISSN: 2187-4743 – The Asian Conference on Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences 2026 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 161-170) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2187-4743.2026.15
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2187-4743.2026.15
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