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Before reading
this chapter please start with chapters:
First Concepts.
WOB is Optimal
Death is inevitable. And “since I cannot escape death” said Epictetus: “am
I not to escape the fear of it? Am I to die in tears and trembling? For trouble
of mind springs from this, from wishing for a thing which does not come to
pass" (The Discourses of Epictetus, translated by P. E. Matheson
[Heritage, 1968].
However, for the last two millennia Death turned into a dreadful metaphor.
Western religions and particularly Christianity perpetuated the notion that
death is the consequence of the Original Sin. It originates in Adam’s corruption.
Christianity associated death with the Evil. Ever since the Original Sin
was conceived, Death in the form of a human skeleton holding a scythe accompanied
the terrified and lonely dying person in her last moments.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
The Swiss born American physician Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (1926-2004) demolished
this evil metaphor. Death is natural, and because death is a part of nature,
it is only rational to accept it. "Acceptance of death is the most realistic
thing that a person can work through since all of us have to die sooner or
later." In her book Death and Dying, she suggests that patients
should accept "the reality of their own finiteness." Above all she
attempted to rescue the patient from his loneliness and isolation.
Dr. Kübler-Ross identified five stages that many people go through :
- Denial -- "I can't be dying. Not me."
- Anger -- "Why me?"
- Bargaining -- " Can I put off death for a while?"
- Depression -- When hope is lost
- Acceptance -- "I accept my fate and am ready to die."
Mind-death
The loss of hope is the price that the patient pays for being rescued from
her loneliness. Actually the physician is instructed to enlighten the patient
and explain to her what she is up to. From the present perspective, despite
the good intentions of Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, she actually initiated
in the patient a mind-disease, called here
mind-death.
One begins contemplating death when WOB sends signals of dis-ease. Particularly
in a chronic disease like cancer. However dis-ease is not a death
signal. It is a message to the mind that WOB needs help. For WOB
death is meaningless, only the mind may take dis-ease as a death
indicator. Why should the mind expect death when its major role is to
assist WOB in sustaining life? The notion
of death is inspired by the society and its culture.
Voicing the society, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross noted: “In listening to our terminally
ill patients, we were always impressed that even the most accepting, the most
realistic patients left the possibility open for some cure, for the discovery
of a new drug or the "last minute success in a research project."
. . . No matter the stage of illness or coping mechanism used, all
our patients maintained some form of hope until the last moments..
. . Yet Dr. Kubler-Ross always attempted to maneuver the patient to the
stage of acceptance.
These five stages obviously do not apply to a patient in coma whose life is
sustained by WOB. Here death is utterly meaningless since
WOB is not concerned with it Instead of perpetuating mind-death, the physician
ought better to assist WOB in sustaining life.
In her attempt to rescue the individual from the curse of the Original Sin,
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross joined Darwin who regarded death
as a natural phenomenon.
Further reading: Religion and Mind disease