Marc Gafni: Pre-Tragic, Tragic, and Post Tragic

Marc Gafni: Pre-Tragic, Tragic, and Post Tragic

From Parallax by Andrew Sweeny

January 12, 2026 · 15 min

About this episode

Dr. Marc Gafni discusses the framework of pre-tragic, tragic, and post-tragic as stages of human experience.

DescriptionIn this talk, Dr. Marc Gafni introduces a central framework of his teaching: pre-tragic, tragic, and post-tragic as recurring stations of human experience. These are not developmental stages or psychological categories, but existential positions we move through repeatedly in love, desire, power, intimacy, creativity, meaning, and our relationship to God.Pre-tragic clarity gives way to rupture. Desire becomes complicated. Power distorts. Intimacy fractures. The question is not how to avoid this passage, but how to understand it—and how a different kind of clarity can emerge on the other side. Post-tragic clarity is not a return to innocence, but a second clarity that includes uncertainty, depth, and lived complexity.This video serves as an orientation to a three-week course that explores these stations in depth, with particular attention to wounding and how unintegrated wound shapes desire, power, and intimacy.InvitationThe course includes three weekly recorded lectures with Q&A and three weekly Digital Campfire sessions, where practices and inquiries are introduced and the material is reflected on in community.Start date: Sunday, January 25Time: 8:00pm CET · 2:00pm…

People in this episode

Host: Andrew Sweeny

Guest: Marc Gafni

Topics covered

  • existential positions
  • human experience
  • clarity
  • desire
  • intimacy
  • power
  • wounding

Keywords

  • pre-tragic
  • tragic
  • post-tragic
  • clarity
  • intimacy
  • desire
  • power
  • wounding

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Parallax, Parallax Media

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