從臨終照顧的領域對生命時光的考察

Reflections on the Ultimate Meanings of Temporal Living: A Phenomenological Investigation

如果把生死學的範圍界定在活著的人如何面對自己有關死亡的各種識智，那麼這個識智的發生涉及宗教、哲學、歷史、護理、醫學、社會學與心理學等諸種領域。對心理學來說，心理學家如何對終極關懷進行研究，是個相當陌生的領域。根據作者在臨終病房的現場研究，我們對活著的人看待即將去世的人之心理歷程，提出「瀕臨」的心理概念，作為生死學的心理研究的探討的基礎。「瀕臨」是指個人進入生死共在的狀態，這個狀態的特性是當個人的活著出現裂隙，使個人無法以長遠的生命計畫為期待視域，以致時間的無限縮短成當下的活著。活著的裂隙發生在我們遭逢即將去世者的一切，使我們發現日常性本身遮蔽了死亡的顯現；當我們對即將去世的一切身體毀敗與關係的斷裂現象涵攝到自身，我們進入了「瀕臨」的狀態，時間感出現縮短的切近，整個人在事情裡的活著轉換到某種另一種活著的狀態。

Through phenomenological reflection on the bedside care of terminal patients, we arrive at the ultimate meanings regarding the temporality of life: (1) Living itself is problematic, as revealed through the terminal patients' conditions, which reveals the concealed nature of everyday life. (2) Every moment of living should be regarded as a residual of life time, aging is being unconsciousness of living, and we find that ''Being in the World'' is constituted by what happens around us and relations in the world. Thanks to Levinas, the phenomenology of living reveals that the world is ''otherwise than being,'' by which we escape the anonymous existence (II y a). Nevertheless, the dying person always shows us the vulnerability of these beings, or the non-fundamentality of existence. (3) The dying person also shows us the proximity of living and dying, or the ultimate temporality. We are able to suspend the world by invoking the historical profundity of life.