Existential and psychological aspects of death
In the mass consciousness (and our culture is no exception), the topic of death is tabooed and presented as something unambiguously negative, and the process of dying, let's say, is treated without due respect. At the same time, death is an inevitable part of the life path, and has a huge semantic potential, many of the layers of which will be presented in this chapter.
As we noted earlier1, the attitude to death (unpacking its meanings) at a late age is one of the main existential tasks. Let's focus on it in more detail.
S.A. Belorusov considers the deep and hidden feeling of fear of death as what makes a person to be human, and overcoming it, meeting with it, as the way to a genuine, meaningful and fulfilling life. Meeting with this fear hidden in the depths of the soul always happens one-on-one; science, culture, ideology, "thoughtful" reasoning cannot save and help.
According to S.A. Belorusov, the world is fleeing from the meaning of life and death into "senseless mechanical acceleration with a complete blunting of the feeling of spiritual hunger"2, turning it into a problem, not a mystery, which it is. The outstanding philosopher M. Heidegger wrote about the mystical meaning of death: "Death causes anxiety because it touches the very essence of our being. But, thanks to this, there is a deep awareness of oneself. Death makes us individuals."3
S.A. Belorusov distinguish three types of death:
–biological (termination of physiological functions of the body);
–social (loss of place in society);
–spiritual (conscious rejection of oneself, the world and God).
The rupture of habitual ties (when our abilities, health, children, colleagues, friends are separated) in adulthood deeply hurts, but frees a person for inner growth, and the encounter with death (when beloved and dear people leave) pulls out of the abyss of everyday life, makes you think about life, its true secrets (for example, the antinomian truth spiritual sphere), to get closer to our true essence (that which is not subject to death is gaining strength).
V. Frankl wrote that a person should be open to everything that awaits him on the way, and without suffering and death, life is incomplete, flawed. S.A. Belorusov writes that conscious acceptance of the fact of one's own finiteness is a criterion of spiritual maturity, revealing four meanings of death:
1. it humbles a person, freeing him from pride and establishing a dialogue with the world and God;
2. ennobles life, not allowing you to drown (lose yourself) in the hustle and bustle, teaches you to accept all the gifts of being (which may be conditionally negative: failure, illness, loneliness, etc.);
3. death unites, makes it possible to realize the deep involvement in humanity and allows you to sum up, reveals the true, non-corruptible meanings of life. As V. Frankl wrote, who put the search for the wash of life by a person as the basis of psychotherapy: "In life a person is always in the process, in becoming. At every moment, one can only say about him that he "was", he is no longer the same as a moment ago. Only at the moment of death he "is". He is who he was in this life."