Feeling More Alive When Confronting Death

Dear Editor,

There is much to learn when you look death in the eye. On January 28, 2017 some brave analysts did just that. They stood on the edge of the abyss, looked down, and this is what they saw. This look into the abyss was thanks to Paul Elovitz and his tireless efforts in organizing yet another Psychohistory Forum meeting at Fordham University. The title of the discussion was “Reconsidering Freud’s Death Drive in Our Era of Suicide and Suicidal Terrorism.” Inna Rozentsvit presented on our death instinct (Thanatos) and presented evidence of our drive toward death throughout our lives; Paul Elovitz argued that our destructiveness was based upon our basic aggression and used Karl Menninger’s work to ex-

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plain how aggression turned inward leads to problems. Jack Schwartz made comments on both presentations and shared his own thoughts on the subject. These three papers allowed the group then to embark upon a three-hour discussion about our wish to live versus our wish to die.

The beginning of the group work centered upon the debate as to whether, as Freud suggested, we are biologically driven to die with the realization that all animate things return to the inanimate. Much debate concerned the obvious fact that our species has survived for 70,000 years based upon its will to survive, not die; it is therefore common sense to posit that we all hold dearly to life and make every effort to stay alive. Dr. Rozentsvit pointed out that the death instinct is unconscious and therefore not readily available to observe.

The conversation drifted toward the topic of anomie. The term “anomie” was coined by Émile Durkheim in 1895 and refers to man as being in despair, disconnected, existentially alone, and without community. This adequately explains the more than one million suicides per year worldwide and the more than 30,000 suicides per year in America.

Over the next hour, the conversation touched upon the idea that modern culture is mostly bereft of a moral code other than greed, acquisition, and consumerism, perfectly symbolized by our new president. It may be that the nation’s love of all those walking dead movies and TV series may reflect our own feeling of deadness, hunger, and suicidal death wishes.

What is the antidote to all these woes of the modern world? The group touched upon the necessity for creativity, maternal love, intimate love, and a meaningful communal life. It seems to me that since the nation has neither a moral compass nor a sense of community, all we have left is love. But that’s a lot to ask of love. This may account for why so many turn to psychotherapists for support, guidance, and connection.

The frank conversation was difficult but of great importance. The general theme of death, pain, and despair reminded me of the Robert Frost poem “The Question,” which reads: “A voice said, Look me in the stars / And tell me truly, men of earth, / If all the soul-and-body scars / Were not too much to pay for birth.”

As for me, I would answer Robert Frost’s question in the following way: yes, life is worth the price of admission, partially thanks to my fellow humans: Paul Elovitz, Inna Rozentsvit, Ken Fuchsman, Jacques Szaluta, and all those other smart psychohistorians that show up for these meetings and make my life more interesting each and every time. Durkheim, Schopenhauer, Beckett, Frost, and Camus are most certainly right that we are surrounded by darkness, pain, fear, suffering, and confusion at every moment, but thank God there is also some light and good times in this community of ours.

Sincerely,

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Tom Ferraro

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