Existential healing and the invitation of death: A depth psychological intervention for the crisis of aids. A theoretical study of a phenomenological approach to the clinical treatment of death angst

This theoretical study attempts to provide a clinical intervention for those who are confronting death angst. In this effort, we suggest crisis as conversion: the anxiety experienced in the effort is directed to seeking the transcendent, in whatever form makes sense to the patient, in order to achieve an experience of self-realization and thereby create a relationship with eternal life. A framework of understanding is presented in the form of depth and existential psychology. A biblical hermeneutic is presented in order to create a bridge between the patient and the semblance of eternal life in the Christian tradition, framed by depth psychology in order to relate to the patient regardless of religious orientation. The chapter containing phenomenology serves to provide clinical evidence of this process for those who may choose to apply this work to interventions among death-angst populations.