Surviving death: how to refute termination theses

When deciding how ‘death’ should be defined, it is helpful to consider cases in which vital functions are restored to an organism long after those vital functions have ceased. Here I consider whether such restoration cases can be used to refute termination theses. Focusing largely on the termination thesis applied to human animals (the view that when human animals die they cease to exist), I develop a line of argument from the possibility of human restoration to the conclusion that in many actual cases, human animals continue to exist after they die. The line of reasoning developed here can be extended to show that other organisms survive death in many actual cases. This line of reasoning improves on other arguments that have been offered against termination theses. And if my argument regarding human animals surviving death is successful, then assuming that human persons are animals, we can also conclude that human persons in many actual cases continue to exist after death.     

Poetic closure, psychoanalytic termination, and death

Our pull to grasp narrative structures--including beginnings and especially endings--applies not only to the intentional craft of fictions, but to life as lived, as it is in psychoanalytic termination. Remarkable parallels, for instance, exist between thematic closure in poems and the conscious and unconscious signals of closure that develop in pretermination and accelerate in termination proper. A case illustrates this point: the slow crescendo of cues begins months before the first "pretermination dream." It is the patient's emerging awareness of greater health and freer functioning that likely gives rise to these phenomena, yet this awareness is often warded off because of the grave task of ending that it implies. Literature and psychoanalysis share concerns with how an ending is borne. Fictive closure and apocalyptic narratives allude to or imply finality (i.e., death), and lesser "endings" in daily life may not escape the specter of that linkage. But Kermode asserts that "ending" confers significance on an entire narrative and may thereby console us. Coltart links the realities of mortality and psychoanalytic termination, yet falls short of consolation. Clues to the role of beginnings (in final matters) and how they may help emerge from considering Basho's last days and poems. Nonetheless, the power of narrative has its limits in helping us bear the burden of a real ending, as of an analysis. Joining present to future, as through normal hope, or joining present to past through normal nostalgia, works toward a "bearing of the burden"--but only within the context of health achieved through the analysis.     

Art in support of life: Caravaggio and the plague

In the struggle with COVID-19, art offered a way to face the solitude of the lockdown. The focus of this paper is primarily on Caravaggio’s painting The Seven Works of Mercy, with references to other paintings to amplify some aspects of the artist’s approach to life and his uniqueness in the artistic landscape of his time. Darkness was part of Caravaggio’s research for spiritual truth and by entering the stories of his life and exploring the tales told through imaginative expression in his paintings, it is possible to understand his process of exploration of ancestral darkness. The author uses her imagination to reflect on how art can help to contact the profound fears buried in the unconscious which are now being awakened by the pandemic. The contemplation of this painting facilitated the emergence of emotions related to the darkness of our time, with the discovery that empathy and mercy offer a way to come to terms with the pandemic. This approach demands a different understanding of reality with Caravaggio’s dark creative world becoming a companion that permits the exploration of what is not yet thinkable in daily life. Images accompany the author’s research that relies on her imagination and amplifications.     

A case study approach to support needs following the death of a loved one

Abstract

The loss of a close relational partner, whether a family member, friend, spouse, or romantic partner, is one of the most difficult, and at the same time predictable, situations that individuals can experience. Although the grieving process is very individual, one's support network can either facilitate or hinder the coping process. This article utilizes a case study approach to consider the ways that one's social network provides emotional and instrumental support following the death of a close relational partner. A 21-year-old female whose fiance was killed in a traffic accident participated in three separate interviews at 4, 9, and 16 months after the accident. Interpretive analyses support the assertion that, as individuals progress through the various phases of bereavement, their needs for specific forms of social support change, as do their perceptions of what is helpful and unhelpful.     

Zombie states: reconsidering the relationship between life and death instincts

Where the dialectical relation of life and death instincts has become dissociated, zombie states result-in which individuals inhabit deadness as if it were a full experience of aliveness. Bypassing reservations about the speculative nature of these instincts, this paper reconsiders their relation in order to highlight certain types of clinical phenomenology that could otherwise be lost to current ways of conceptualizing aliveness and deadness. A clinical vignette illustrates particular countertransference difficulties associated with dichotomizing issues of psychic aliveness and deadness, as well as the powerful contagion associated with what the author terms zombie states.     

The interpretation of life experience and well-being: the sample case of relocation.

Social psychological theories of the self postulate mechanisms through which individuals interpret their life experiences to ensure positive self-evaluation. This framework was applied to a sample of aging women (N = 120, M age = 74.9 years) who had experienced community relocation. The authors measured their reasons for moving (push factors), reasons for selecting the new setting, (pull factors), and interpretive mechanisms, including how they compared with others in their new setting, how they were viewed by significant others following the move, how their behaviors changed following relocation, and whether the above evaluations occurred in life domains central to their sense of self. Regression analyses showed that push-pull factors and interpretive mechanisms accounted for substantial variance in multiple aspects of psychological well-being, particularly environmental mastery, purpose in life, and positive relations with others.