From >Denial< to >Staring< – A Study on the Idea of Death and Its Historical Development in Analytical Psychotherapies, Doctoral dissertation, Philosophy, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China 2023.

  • [Chinese abstract not available] Death, as the opposite of life, constitutes the inevitable fate and even destination of life in the world. It can be imagined that since the birth of human self-awareness, the fact and phenomenon of death have generally attracted human attention and thinking, thus forming different ideas of death. A systematic analysis shows that the consciousness of death and the anxiety it causes is one of the most intrinsic and essential spiritual dynamic forces in human life, and have always been one of the fundamental themes that thinkers, including philosophers, have devoted themselves to thinking about. In a specific sense, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato defined philosophy as the practice of death. In the context of modern philosophy, Heidegger has a deeper insight that death is the most authentic possibility of existence of every individual as Dasein. As long as Dasein exists, it is actually dying, although in a sinking way, thus revealing the essence of life in the world, which is born towards death. In the knowledge background and practical life of the modern world, if there is a scientific discipline that directly focuses on the daily life of specific individuals, it is psychotherapy as an applied branch in psychology. Therefore, according to its essential meaning, psychotherapy should consider death as one of its basic themes, and the concept of death should constitute the fundamental category of psychotherapy both as thought and practice. However, within the scope of psychotherapy as a professional discipline, the theme of death has been largely ignored due to the constraints of the naturalistic path of mainstream psychology. My professional field is psychotherapy and adheres to the Humanism tradition of psychotherapy, so I pays special attention to psychoanalytic therapy and existential analytic therapy, because these two theoretical orientations are precisely based on the overall understanding of human being. Therefore, how to use these two theoretical orientations as materials to form a comprehensive understanding of psychotherapy as a human cause is the theoretical goal pursued by me for many years; and only through this holistic understanding can various naturalistic psychotherapy methods and their local effectiveness be given a reasonable basis for explanation. In the process of this pursuit, inspired by Heidegger’s philosophy and his profound insight into the theme of death, the research theme of my dissertation was established and the research ideas were formed. It is logical to have a unified understanding of various existential-analytic therapies based on the concept of death, as they are either directly or indirectly based on Heidegger’s philosophy. But psychoanalysis seems to lead us into an awkward situation, as its surface characteristics suggest that psychoanalysis adopts a rejecting attitude towards the theme of death. Deep analysis shows that, especially in Freud’s classic psychoanalysis, the theme of death plays a more fundamental and decisive role in the deeper darkness. The spiritual structure and process he interprets with life as the theme turned out to be different strategies for dealing with death. Therefore, not only did Freud have to passively propose the concept of death instinct in his later years, but the theme of death was increasingly emphasized in various systems of new psychoanalysis, thus showing a general trend towards existentialism. Taking the concept of death as the basic theme, the general trend of transition from psychoanalytic therapy to existential analysis therapy can be summarized as from >denial< to >staring at<. The unified understanding of this theme also promotes us to reveal the essential connection between existential analytical therapy and psychoanalytic therapy in methodology, that is, although various analytical methods are skillfully used in various systems of psychotherapy, these methods are mainly developed from psychoanalytic therapy. Only by using a unified theme of death as a conceptual tool to analyze the internal connections between various psychoanalytic therapies and various existential analytical therapies can we gain a unified understanding of psychotherapy at the meta-theoretical level, and collectively refer to these two theoretical orientations as analytical psychotherapy from a methodological perspective. In a word, in the sense that Philosophy of psychology serves as the Philosophy of science basis for psychotherapy, adhering to the Humanism orientation of psychotherapy, accepting the influence and inspiration of Heidegger’s philosophy, the dissertation highlights the concept of death as the basic theme of psychotherapy, and thus forms the overall understanding of psychotherapy as a human cause. For this purpose, the dissertation will proceed in accordance to the following chapter structure. Chapter 1 provides a detailed explanation of the topic selection basis in the form of an introduction, and summarizes the relevant literature background and research significance. Chapter 2, with a brief explanation of Freud’s theoretical contributions and historical status, mainly introduces the theoretical background of Freud’s >death instinct<, and discusses the mutual influence between Freud’s view on death and his various theoretical constructions, as well as his own attitude towards life. This chapter, in particular, combines Becker’s analysis of Anthropology of religion to clarify Freud’s goal of life and personality motivation in pursuit of becoming a great person. It is this goal and motivation that determines the theoretical nature of the compatibility of truth and error in his psychoanalytic system, which further clarifies his view of death. From his direct >disregard< in the early stage to his ambiguous proposal of the death instinct in the later stage, it reflects his denial of death. This chapter’s argument also implicitly expresses that even in this attitude of denial, we can vaguely see the embryonic ideas of existentialism and its impact on Freud’s view of death. Chapter 3 mainly examines the death view of early neo psychoanalysts represented by Frank and the breakthrough trend of Freud’s view. Although the influence of Freud’s rejection of death is profound due to his authority, on the other hand, whether viewed from the macro level of social history or the micro level of personal life, the phenomenon and theme of death cannot be avoided by any theory. Therefore, after Freud proposed the >death instinct<, Fromm combined humanism with the basic concepts of >syndrome of decay<, and Rank combined religious existentialism with the concepts of >fear of life< and >fear of death<, respectively, to extend and develop the meaning of >death instinct<. Chapter 4 plays a transitional or bridging intermediary role in the overall structure of the dissertation. Both theoretical analysis and historical development are sufficient to prove that psychoanalysis, as a theoretical framework, is a limiting factor for the development of psychotherapy and the expansion of death themes. So, after World War II, influenced by Heidegger’s philosophy, the founders of the existential analysis school, such as Binswanger and Boss, launched a transformation movement towards psychoanalysis. The essence of this movement was to inherit the methods of psychoanalysis, but abandon the spiritual structure of the unconscious and instead use it to analyze the real existence of people in the world, thus shaping the dominant direction of post-World War II psychotherapy and achieving an existential turn in the field of psychotherapy. Only in existential-analytic psychotherapies does death become one of the fundamental themes of psychotherapy. Chapter 5 focuses on the analysis of the concept of death and its theoretical construction of the famous representatives of contemporary existential analytical therapy school, including Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, Irvin Yalom, etc., who highlight and emphasize the basic importance of the theme of death for life practice and psychotherapy, either because of their personal experience of life or because of the systematization of theoretical views. As a result, a positive attitude towards facing death in the sense of analytical psychotherapy has been formed and widely advocated, which is mainly reflected in Aaron’s metaphorical expression of >staring at the sun< in his view of death. This positive view of death not only guides visitors or us in overcoming death anxiety in practice, but also lays the foundation for the formation and argumentation of the overall idea of this article. Chapter 6 serves as a conclusion, summarizing the entire research work and extending its significance appropriately. [Translation: www.cnki.net, 7/2024]

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Author:Leilei Xing
Document Type:Dissertations
Language:Chinese
Year of first Publication:2023
Release Date:2024/11/29
Format:no copy existent / keine Kopie vorhanden
IdNo:Xing_Leilei_2023
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Dissertations / Dissertationen
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Dissertations / Dissertationen
Licence (German):no access / nicht zugänglich
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