Megélés

Megélés is a Hungarian noun used primarily in the social sciences and humanities to denote the subjective experience of an event, phenomenon, or process. It refers to how an individual or group perceives, interprets, and assigns meaning to what happens to them, including emotions, values, and personal context. The term emphasizes the internal dimension of experience rather than just objective facts.

The word derives from the verb él (to live) with the prefix meg-, signaling having lived through or felt something. In scholarly use, megélés is distinguished from élmény, which often means a specific experience or impression, and from tapasztalat (experience as knowledge gained through practice). Megélés focuses on meaning-making, interpretation, and the personal or collective sense-making surrounding an event.

In research and pedagogy, megélés is used to describe how people experience and cope with various phenomena such as migration, illness, education, or social change. Qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and narrative analyses, are common for studying megélést. Terms like megéléstörténet (a narrative of lived experience) and descriptions of subjective megélés are typical in Hungarian phenomenological and ethnographic work, aligning with broader concepts of the lifeworld (életvilág).

Examples in everyday and academic language include phrases like "a diákok megélése a tanulási környezetben" or "a menekültek megélése a segítségnyújtás folyamatában." The concept underscores not only what occurs but how it is experienced, interpreted, and given meaning by individuals or groups, making it a key lens for understanding human experience in context.

See also: élmény, tapasztalat, életvilág, lived experience.