Spiritual Concerns (continued)

The following will be included in my book "Atonement Focused Therapy":

Also, look for my book "Healing Stories" coming out this May.

As part of a discussion I began in July 2009, I have added to following as a continuation of the ideas of that posting:

Specialness and Rescuer
Ernest Becker stated “The irony of man’s condition is that the deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death and annihilation; but it is life itself which awakens it and so we must shrink from being alive”. In his book “Existential Psychotherapy”, Irvin Yalom describes two forms of death avoidance: “Specialness” and the need for an “Ultimate Rescuer”. Specialness is a defense against death, especially when someone is faced with it [death]. A person who is dying, or has someone close to them who is dying, may begin to believe that in some way they are different and that death can not touch them, I have even heard once: “God will save me from this death… Maybe I will be translated” and the client wasn’t being facetious. But personal specialness can be more elusive as well: A client, I will name Dave, in his avoidance of death, created a shield of specialness around him. Although, he himself was not dying, nevertheless, he wanted nothing to do with aging. Robert Frost reflected: “Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee/And I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me.” At the end of treatment with Dave, when he was responsive towards his patterns, he stated that this quote by Robert Frost was his theme, but that he “merely wasn’t aware of it”.

Fear of Death
There have been many writers on the subject of the fear of death, one such writer was Heidegger. He wrote of the fear of death as the “impossibility of further possibilities”. Essentially, this was one of Dave’s issues. As stated previously, he didn’t want to limit his possibilities by making a decision, thus having an impossibility of further possibilities. Kierkegaard discussed these concepts explicitly throughout his writings. He discussed the fear of death as “non-being”. Furthermore, Kierkegaard made a clear distinction between fear and anxiety; “he contrasted fear that is fear of some thing with dread (anxiety) that is fear of no thing” (Yalom, Existential Psychotherapy, 1980). Kierkegaard added “not—a nothing with which the individual has nothing to do.” One dreads becoming nothingness, and this anxiety does not have a location, it is almost a free floating dread. Rollo May states, “it attacks us from all sides at once—a fear that can neither be understood nor located cannot be confronted and becomes more terrible still” (May, The Meaning of Anxiety, 1977). So how does a person defend against a fear of “no-thing”? Well, you could avoid the subject all together and develop a perception of personal specialness, or look for someone to rescue you in a negative way, or the healthy options rally assistance from God to overcome it. Truly, faith is the polar opposite of fear and as a person displaces their fear for a faith in Christ, fear is extinguished.