Death, Badness, and the Impossibility of Experience

Some have argued (following Epicurus) that death cannot be a bad thing for an individual who dies. They contend that nothing can be a bad for an individual unless the individual is able to experience it as bad. I argue against this Epicurean view, offering examples of things that an individual cannot experience as bad but are nevertheless bad for the individual. Further, I argue that death is relevantly similar.     

Re-Collection in Existential Psychotherapy with Couples and Families Dealing with Death

Re-collection is a treatment dynamic in existential family therapy in which the client family is helped to remember and honor meanings that family members have previously actualized and deposited in the past. This shrinks the family meaning vacuum and those symptoms and problems that grow and flourish in a family meaning vacuum. In this article, an existential orientation to re-collection with families who are dealing with the death of a loved one is presented, described, and illustrated with case material.     

Book Reviews

Sudhir Kakar, The Colors of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion, and Conflict
Paul Kivel Uprooting Racism Benjamin P. Bowser and Raymond G. Hunt (eds.), Impacts of Racism on White Americans, Second Edition
Michael S. Lund, Preventing Violent Conflicts: A Strategy for Preventive Diplomacy
Marc Howard Ross, The Management of Conflict: Interpretations and Interests in Comparative Perspective
Amos Kiewe (ed.), The Modern Presidency and Crisis Rhetoric
Sarah Sanderson King and Donald P. Cushman (eds.), Political Communication: Engineering Visions of Order in the Socialist World
Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice     

Orpheus and Eurydice: a creative agony

The archaic story of the Thracian musician Orpheus and his bride Eurydice is heard first as an ancient myth of marriage and death, wedding and separation. The mixture of expectation and dread in its sentiments is sounded still today in the contemporary wedding songs and funeral laments of the Mediterranean and the Balkans. Similar sequences of engagement and withdrawal, ascent and descent, change and metamorphosis are found in the adventures and vicissitudes of other mythic figures. Its premise of the soul's transmigration and its promise of psychic transformation inspired the religious ruminations and philosophic speculation of many centuries. The shifting keys in the songs of Orpheus and the cries of Eurydice score the shocking emotions of epiphanal moments, the creative 'agon', and a depth psychological passage. With its crescendos and denouements, the Orpheus/Eurydice phenomenon suggests the range of experience as one both engages reality and reaches toward meaning.     

新冠肺炎疫情影响下的死亡心理质性探究

在新型冠状病毒威胁下,人们不得不思考一些终极的存在问题,比如生命与死亡。本研究采用扎根理论,探索新冠肺炎疫情影响下人们面对死亡威胁时的心理机制。抽取18名成年被试进行深入访谈,对资料依次进行开放式编码、主轴编码和选择性编码。结果发现,随着时间发展死亡心理分为疫情前的平静期,疫情爆发后的死亡威胁期以及应对期。从物理现实、社会现实和精神现实层面,死亡威胁带给人们的影响有控制感丧失、关系断裂以及意义危机三个方面,应对策略为控制感应对、关系应对及意义应对。     

恐惧管理理论的争议及其对死亡心理研究的启示

死亡心理是人类面临死亡及相关事件时所产生的认知、情感和行为意向的复杂心理状态。目前, 研究死亡心理较为全面和科学的理论是恐惧管理理论(Terror Management Theory, 简称TMT)。但该理论存在以下争议: (1)在死亡的基本认知方面, 恐惧管理理论呈现出不一致的研究结果, 如死亡是否与不确定性无关, 死亡是否导致恐惧情绪, 寻求个体生存是否为人类的核心议题; (2)在社会文化层面, 恐惧管理理论提出者的文化背景对待死亡的普遍态度是呈否认的, 但是跨文化的研究显示其他文化背景对待死亡的态度却呈现出接纳或蔑视; (3)在恐惧管理理论的研究结果方面, 呈现出较多的矛盾性, 表明研究中有重要的调节因子未被涉及。基于此, 死亡心理可能的研究方向拟从认知、行为和社会三个层面进行梳理。未来死亡心理研究需秉承科学与文化并重的原则, 并结合死亡心理的内容与过程, 关注群体面对死亡时的心理规律, 开展死亡心理影响下的身心健康干预研究。     

THE SORROWS OF YOUNG WERTHER AND GOETHE'S UNDERSTANDING OF MELANCHOLIA

The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Elizabeth Mayer and Louise Bogan. 167 pp. In The Sorrows of Young Werther, and Novella. New York: Random House, 1971.     

The implication of the sadistic superego in anorexia

Based on our clinical experience with anorexia, we propose to distinguish two paradoxical aspects of this disorder. On the one hand, anorexia may serve as a shield and support to open up a space for subjectivity, promoting a separation from the mother. Eros is responsible for this defense of subjectivity and of the assumption of one's own wish. But the anorexic individual may, on the other hand, be subjected to the death drive and to the voice of a sadistic and ferocious superego that demands immediate obedience. The death drive, present in different combinations with Eros, is an obstacle to the work of the psychoanalyst.     

Death anxiety among New Zealanders: the predictive role of gender and marital status

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate attitudes of New Zealanders towards death and dying. We administered an online version of Collett–Lester Fear of Death Scale and Concerns About Dying Instrument subscales to a representative sample of the New Zealand population. In total, 1001 people responded to the survey. Women reported more anxiousness concerning their own death (p?=?.001) and dying at a young age (p?>?.001). Women also showed more agreement towards spiritual aspects of dying (p?>?.001). Single female respondents worry more about dying (p =?.02) especially when young (p?=?.003). Single participants (p >?.001) aged 18 and 29 (p?>?.001) reported higher anxiety for Items relating to the death of others especially concerning never being able to communicate with the person again. Our findings show that marital status and gender strongly predict higher levels of death anxiety among New Zealanders. This is probably due to the cultural identity of those sampled.     

Impact of On-Site Personal Experience of Violent Death on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder of Bereaved Japanese Family Members in Forensic Autopsy Cases

The present study investigated the influence of direct on-site experience of violent death on the symptoms involved in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of bereaved Japanese family members (n = 367) in forensic autopsy cases, using a questionnaire survey. Factor analyses of three core symptoms of PTSD confirmed the factor structure. In general linear modeling, the major effect of direct on-site experience of violent death on PTSD score was significant, while manner of death alone did not have such an effect. These findings suggest that direct on-site experience of violent death is essential in the clinical assessment of PTSD-related symptoms of bereaved family members.