In most dictionaries a crisis is found to be some kind of problematic situation, e.g. Oxford
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, where the crisis is “a time of great danger, difficulty or
confusion when problems must be solved or important decisions must be made” (Oxford
Advanced Learners’ Dictionary 1995, 265). It is distinguished between medical, personal,
economical and political aspects (Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary 1995, 265).
However, they fail to express the chances provided by a crisis, a time of transition, an
opportunity to change. A rather neutral interpretation can be found in the medical or personal
context, where a crisis is a certain level in the development of a sickness. The resolution of
the crisis is to determine whether the patient recovers or dies (Holton 1987, 504).
The quotation „every transition is crisis, and isn’t crisis sickness?” of Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s apprenticeship depicts the idea of a crisis far more clearly.
By the first part, Goethe expresses the idea of a crisis as a transition.
When continuing his sentence, his initially rather neutral description receives a negative connotation, whereby one has to consider that this amendment has the character of a rhetorical question. In light of this expression, Goethe reveals the peculiarity of a crisis.
The crisis regarded to as a transition, has positive and negative aspects. Nevertheless, Goethe calls it also “sickness”, because it forces the involved subjects to act, which is a deviation of normality and depending on the degree of anomaly could be quite threatening and dangerous.
However, one has doubts about the nature of interpretation, saying such situations are only disadvantageous, especially when regarded to as speeding up a necessary transition, which is why Goethe phrased his assertion as a rhetorical question and leaves it open to interpretation.
So in general, a crisis is an unstable situation, in which subjects are forced to take decisions, which have substantial consequences for the agents or the involved, with a good or bad outcome. The process of transition itself is accompanied by uncertainty, pressure and in some cases danger.
Keeping Goethe’s definition of crisis in mind the economic, environmental, social and personal or psychic crisis can be understand as being the possibility of a transition, a change to a more just
The quotation „every transition is crisis, and isn’t crisis sickness?” of Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s apprenticeship depicts the idea of a crisis far more clearly.
By the first part, Goethe expresses the idea of a crisis as a transition.
When continuing his sentence, his initially rather neutral description receives a negative connotation, whereby one has to consider that this amendment has the character of a rhetorical question. In light of this expression, Goethe reveals the peculiarity of a crisis.
The crisis regarded to as a transition, has positive and negative aspects. Nevertheless, Goethe calls it also “sickness”, because it forces the involved subjects to act, which is a deviation of normality and depending on the degree of anomaly could be quite threatening and dangerous.
However, one has doubts about the nature of interpretation, saying such situations are only disadvantageous, especially when regarded to as speeding up a necessary transition, which is why Goethe phrased his assertion as a rhetorical question and leaves it open to interpretation.
So in general, a crisis is an unstable situation, in which subjects are forced to take decisions, which have substantial consequences for the agents or the involved, with a good or bad outcome. The process of transition itself is accompanied by uncertainty, pressure and in some cases danger.
Keeping Goethe’s definition of crisis in mind the economic, environmental, social and personal or psychic crisis can be understand as being the possibility of a transition, a change to a more just
and healthy society in harmony with nature, but this decision has to be made individually.
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