DEATH- A PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL REASON FOR THE DEATH OF PEOPLE

Today we will talk about Death. Because we get afraid of death when we talk about it but we don’t need to get afraid. Because it’s part of our life.

We need to do work which we love so we don’t regret our death bad that I have never done things which I love.

So what is death?

Death is an irreversible process where someone loses their existence as a person. And without it, our life can’t be completed.

Without suffering and death, our life can’t be completed.

Viktor E. Frankl

Death is classified into 3 parts.

Biological death: Biological death refers to the vital organs ceasing to function. As a person goes through the active process of dying, the body goes through the process of shutting down.

Sociological death: Social death occurs when others stop visiting or calling on someone who is terminally ill or in the dying process. Even health care providers may spend less time with their terminally ill patients.

An informal description I’ve heard when referring to terminally ill patients is that they are “circling the drain” meaning they are on their way out. Most social death occurs because people feel uncomfortable around those who are dying.

What do you do for those who are dying? The number one answer is to be there and listen. No one expects someone to turn it around or offer a solution.

Psychological death: Psychological death occurs when the person begins to accept their death and to withdraw from others psychologically. They may be less interested in normal activities, world events, and social relationships. This can occur much sooner than biological death. [1]

We will discuss 2 areas of death. Which are the sociological and psychological reasons.

The psychological reason for the death of people

So here what Carl Jung — a well-known psychiatrist talk about death when an interviewer asks him.

Interviewer: Well, now you told us that we should regard death as being a goal and to stay away from it is to evade life and life’s purpose. What advice would you give to people in their later life to enable them to do this when most of them must believe that death is the end of everything?

Carl Jung: It disregards it. Life behaves as if it were going on and so I think it is better for old people to live on, to look forward to the next day as if he had to spend centuries and then he lives happily.

But when he is afraid and he doesn’t look forward; he looks back. He petrifies. He gets stiff and he dies before his time, but when he’s living on, looking forward to the great adventure that is ahead, then he lives. And that is about what your conscious is intending to do.

Of course, it is quite obvious that we’re all going to die and this is the sad finale of everything, but there is something in us that doesn’t believe it, apparently, but this is merely a fact, a psychological fact.

Doesn’t mean to me that it proves something. It is simply so. For instance, I may not know why we need salt, but we prefer to eat salt, too, because we feel better. And so when you think in a certain way, you may feel considerably better. And I think if you think along the lines of nature, then you think properly.

There are many psychological theories for the death of people [2]. These are,

• Thanatophobia
• Wisdom: ego integrity vs. despair
• Terror management theory
• Being, time, and Dasein
• Meaning management theory
• Personal meanings of death
• Religiosity

But we will discuss only two of them.

1. Wisdom: ego integrity vs. despair

Developmental psychologist Erik Erikson formulated the psychosocial theory that explained that people progress through a series of crises as they grow older. The theory also envelops the concept that once an individual reaches the latest stages of life, they reach the level he titled “ego integrity”.

Ego Integrity is when one comes to terms with their life and accepts it. It was also suggested that when a person reaches the stage of late adulthood they become involved in a thorough overview of their life to date.

When one can find meaning or purpose in their life, they have reached the integrity stage. In opposition, when individual views their life as a series of failed and missed opportunities, then they do not reach the ego integrity stage. Elders that have attained this stage of ego integrity are believed to exhibit less of an influence from death anxiety.

2. Terror management theory

Ernest Becker based this theory on existential views which turned death anxiety theories towards a new dimension. It said that death anxiety is not only real but also it is people’s most profound source of concern.

He explained the anxiety as so intense that it can generate fears and phobias of everyday life — Fears of being alone or in a confined space. Based on the theory, many people’s daily behavior consists of attempts to deny death and to keep their anxiety under strict regulation.

Sociological reason for the death of people

Orlando Patterson first defines slavery as “one of the most extreme forms of the relation of domination, approaching the limits of total power from the viewpoint of the master, and total powerlessness from the viewpoint of the slave.”

Social death had both internal and external effects on enslaved people, changing their views of themselves and the way they were regarded by society.

The beginning of social death comes from the initial enslavement process, which would most likely come from capture during a battle.

A captive would be spared from death and created a slave, although this was a conditional commutation since death was only suspended as long as the slave submitted to his powerlessness.

This pardon from death was replaced with social death, which would manifest both physically and psychologically [3].

The “socially dead” is an increasing section of the global population who are effectively dead. Their hearts still beat, their lungs still breathe, so technically, and physically, they are still alive. But this isn’t living as such — it is mere existence.

Physical death, the degradation, and eventual cessation of their ability to function as a body comes later. Social death is the degradation and eventual cessation of your ability to function as a social being. It happens when there are set apart from the rest of humanity.

Their inter-generational relationships along with their spiritual faith and hope diminish while their physical condition deteriorates.

Most importantly, they have lost all meaningful social relationships and are considered valueless in the eyes of society.

It is a reality faced by many experiencing profound poverty, chronic illness, homelessness, advanced dementia, and forced migration. And by its very nature, it is a reality that is widely ignored [4].

So here are the 2 reasons for people’s death. I just need to aware of these things.

Because sometimes we did not think about the end thing in our life. Which is as much important as other things for all of us.

Conclusion: Do the things which you love because, at end of the day, you need to answer yourself that you lived your life completely and faithfully or not? As you read about social death then try not to give harmful emotion or words to others. It can cause their life.

Share your thoughts in the comment section.

Thank you

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