Professor Zenomena Płużek has been acknowledged as one of the pioneers and leading scholars in Poland in both the psychology of religion and pastoral psychology. Referring to her research in the area of psychological and psychospiritual crises, this article addresses the issue of the emptiness experienced during psychotherapy as a “dark night”. The case of one particular patient/client will be analyzed from both psychological and religious perspectives, with the aim of answering the following questions: What do such “dark nights” (...) look like in a clinical context? How should they be conceptualized in clinical terms? How ought they to be dealt with? (shrink)

Personality development takes place through mutual interactions involving the person and their environment. It can be analyzed and described on three levels: basic dispositions, characteristic adaptations, and personal meanings. The phenomena and processes involved are different on each level. Analyses of this are concerned with what promotes and/or inhibits developmental changes of personality. This article introduces the notion of reasons for great life changes, as well as Zenomena Płużek’s conception of personality development.