Symbolic Immortality PDF

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Notes on Symbolic immortality...

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Symbolic Immortality: -

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Freud believed humans have a death instinct (thanatos), in which there is an instinct of all living beings to return to an inanimate state Carl Jung (Freud’s student) had a more positive view of humanity’s embrace of the notion of an afterlife - Humanity has a collective unconscious - Belief in the afterlife allows people to live life to the fullest rather than be consumed by the threat of death Lifton and Olson suggest 5 modes of symbolic immortality: - Biological immortality- extending one's own life through offspring, tribes, etc. - Creative immortality- extending the self through the creation of art, literature, and knowledge - Theological immortality- typical beliefs in resurrection, reincarnation, heaven/hell, or any continuity after death - Natural immortality- people are a part of an ongoing universal process of birth, death, and rebirth - Experiential immortality- psychological state; attempt to have an experience in which time seems to cease, of feeling beyond the limits and confines of ordinary life; sometimes through drug use, or through rituals...