Author: Maximillian V. Kutch,* BS (1)
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Brief Excerpts:
…In the medical professions and most societies, death is a distant abstraction while navigating life. Although many people purchase life insurance and adaptively ponder their own death, those who fail to do so are often overwhelmed with manifestations of existential death anxiety. These thoughts of death can invoke a sense of powerlessness and undermine happiness. This may result in thanatophobia, the fear of the dying process or death.
One approach to death anxiety, for both physicians and patients, is the love of one’s fate (amor fati). This was popularized by the prominent Greek Stoic philosopher, Epictetus. He counseled, “Demand not that events should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do happen, and you will go on well”…
…We are all going to die, but only some of us will live our best possible lives, and Stoic philosophy provides us a path to navigate the chaotic modern world with intention and virtue.
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Affiliation:
1. Texas A&M University
*Previous member (medical) of the Marine Special Operations Team (12 years active duty)