Being from Death

Mourning is simultaneously the process by which the spirit of the dead survives in the living and the primary way the living become spiritually vivified. Death ends human biology but originates human biography, acting as a transcendental function that negates life in an alternative way. This argument, called the Thesis of Animating Mourning, is developed through an orbital model of the person drawing on Ortega's tectonics, Zubiri's concept of appropriation, and Pelegrina's notion of mentality, with additional support from neurophenomenology and logic. The thesis is then applied to anthropological psychiatry.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article interprets a fragment of Paul Ricoeur's posthumous text, Living Up to Death, proposing the Thesis of Animating Mourning. According to this thesis, mourning is simultaneously the process of the survival of the spirit of the dead in the living and the primary form of spiritual vivification of the living. Death is the end of human biology, but the origin of its biography, acting as the transcendental function of the alternative negation of human life. To justify this thesis, we propose an orbital model of the person inspired by Ortega's tectonics, Zubiri's concept of appropriation, and the notion of mentality described by Héctor Pelegrina. Some notions of neurophenomenology and logic are also used. Some applications of this thesis in anthropological psychiatry are presented.