Between Survival and Growth… The Pandemic-Diaries and Human Development

This paper presents an original study grounded in narrative and existential approaches to human development. The study aimed to identify strategies individuals used to balance the losses and gains experienced during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, as represented in diaries. A repository of 60 personal documents underwent multifaceted semantic analysis, which examined content, form, and meaning-making levels. This analysis was guided by categories developed in two original Coding Sheets. As a result, two distinct types of diaries were identified: Survival Diaries (S-D), featuring references to pure growth and Growth Diaries (G-D). The G-D set was further divided into two subtypes: Compulsive Growth Diaries (G-D-C) and Texistence Growth Diaries (G-D-T). The primary distinction between authors of S-D and G-D lies in their experience of loss-waiting versus liberation-opening, which depends on the positive or negative evaluation of the pandemic and their openness to new, uncertain events. The more detailed components of this distinction include: (a) self-reflection; (b) narrative competencies; and (c) commitment to personal projects. The differentiation between G-D-C and G-D-T was established based on: (a) private concepts of development (media-mediated versus highly personalised); (b) ergodic persistence in deepened intertextual storying experiences; and (c) existential saturation of textualised experiences.