The Souls Death

It is irrational to assume that the idea of a soul is manifested in development through any other means but the collective processing of the material world.

The ‘proof’ of a soul is reliant on one's expression of it. If we consider ourselves to be inherently animals with souls and testify that non-human creatures are soulless, then what is the defining criterium that separates us from animals and divinity? Is it our ability to restrain ourselves from emotional impulsivity? Is it our prudent intelligence that led us to conquering the animal kingdom? Truthfully, the soul is an umbrella term for a variety of subjective interpretations, none objectively wrong due to its abstract nature. However, in this context, the soul will be referred to as the paradigm that holds: Our beliefs (faith or societal), our emotions and the epistemological processing of the material. Its development is based on: External processing, the childhood, and its capability to express or facilitate its potential. This is not to say that those who were born in a vegetative state or act out of impulse are soulless. One only needs a single of the preceding factors to be considered truly alive. Even microbial bacteria react and express its potential biologically through reproductive or expressive means, even without a higher form of consciousness. 

The soul's metaphysicality associated with it through history can be rationally reduced down to psychological development. If we were to apply epistemological logic and trace it to the source of information's origin, then the soul is nothing more than the accumulated processing of the world presented to us. This applies to divine gnosis as well, understanding that nothing outside of the concepts and constructs of the world can be seen in the mind's eye, then all divine prophecy is reduced to amalgamated philosophical madness. To observe the irrational by coiling it to infinity, is to strip divinity of its metaphysicality. 

If we believe that all ideologies are inspired and crafted from the world around us, what becomes of our God? What becomes of the metaphysical other than the mental realm of the absurd, ethical, hypothetical and faithful? To assume a divinity outside of our empirical existence is not only illogical, it is fallacious.

Given the contextualization, let's discuss how the soul withers, what constitutes it, the reactions of its flowery stem in its dissipation and what environment induces its decay. Contemporary psychology can systematically theorize why we lose touch with our souls and society despite the acculturation we’re subjected to since birth.

Here are the following approaches

1. Psychoanalysis- Approaching this dilemma using a Freudian perspective would possibly suggest that by neglecting the primal desires of the ID, we unconsciously neglect the ego and drown out the conscience of the superego. In a psychoanalytic perspective, the ID is the only core personality that is intrinsic at birth. It's conceptualized to be the aspect of ourselves that desires hedonia, especially in the form of immediate gratification. The ego is developed during childhood and serves as a foundation for what's socially acceptable vs what isn’t. Simultaneously guiding the ID to act in a more restraint and appropriate manner according to societal expectations. The ego is what stops a man from fulfilling his ID desire to be obscene (assuming there's no consequences to doing so). The superego is the internalized moral standard to what we should do and why according to society, our parents and ourselves. It's what serves the role of conscience and guilt, creating a sort of internal panopticism that ignites regret of one's past actions.

2. Behavioralism- Considering that we are constantly learning and adapting to new things, it's natural to consider how our early development ideals may change with time and experience. In example, if a child grows up learning that stealing and murder is bad then he will follow his life through those very principles. However, if later in life he is exposed to a glorification of stealing and murder, through perhaps the medium of technology or a violent environment, then he is more prone to act on his new perspective given the presented circumstances.

3. Cognitive Perspective- From this approach, losing touch with the soul is usually tied to a form of rumination produced by an event that triggered a certain pattern of negative thought. Though commonly confused with a philosophical reflection, it is extricable by the continuous lurch into often meaningless and irrational sorrow.

4. Biological Perspective- If the soul is heavily associated with the psyche then we can diagnose its withering using the brain chemicals present. If someone is depressed chemically then it is likely to alchemize and merge into their psychological processing. Our happiness certainly affects our perspective on the aesthetic and meaning in life, if our happiness is scientifically nothing more than an influx of biological neurotransmitters; than using that line of reasoning, one can conclude that the apathy and disconnection of the soul can be rationalized through a chemical imbalance and its infringement on the cognitive process.

5.  Cross Cultural Perspective- Cultures are usually starkly different from others and this could be said about the soul as well. Since a key component of the soul's development is the environment around it (including the contemporary hyperreal digital one) then through the absorption of another culture and its aspects, we can lose touch with our psychological ‘roots’. It is also deceiving to invalidate the nature of a psyches foundation through the analytical lens of your own. This is because we cannot label one culture or subjective experience abnormal to the soul since it is the development itself that carves one's own ideals.

6. Evolutionary Perspective- This perspective cannot really be applied unless under very specific circumstances. Evolutionary psychology typically refers to why the soul processes in the way it does rather than how we lose touch with it. However whenever we include genetics, we can entwine the biological perspective with it and reason how prone one may be to a depression that leads to the severing of its connection. Though if we are to look at it in a curated hypothetical circumstance in which our environment and development isn’t aligned with the way our ancestors and brain evolved to endure then this approach becomes applicable.

7. Humanist Perspective- Using the humanist perspective may include referencing both the development of the soul and how satiated it is now using the prevalent Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. If a psychologist works with a patient to find an imbalance and cross reference its lack of relevance in someone's life to the needs presented in Maslow's Hierarchy, then a reasoning behind the souls deterioration could be theorized.

While these approaches are credible I believe there can be a more philosophical approach given the individual subjectivity on the matter. When someone is exposed to the current of death, be it metaphorical or even physical. A strange phenomenon occurs in the individual. It's as if they've suddenly contracted an illness, after living most of their lives simply flowing down its river and trying to evade the rocks and sticks they're suddenly confronted by a dominating and primal force. Festering in the shadows of time and existing primordially in the beginning of it, death and its transformation stops a man in their tracks. Forcing one to contemplate and exist outside of life's frivolous detail for even a small amount of time. Its scythe can appear in many forms, in the tongue of others, in the depths of intelligent contemplation or even physically in the material. However, they all are defined by loss or transformation. Depending on the severity and its accumulation, it can cause delirium in the individual. Plaguing themselves with a suffocating sense of rationalism, questioning their every move and leaving nothing to the preceding mercy of ignorance. The world is stripped of its brilliant rays and the fruit that comes to life is turned to dust when faced with its serpentine sickle. The world no longer makes sense and because it cannot make sense to the intellectual all that remains is meaningless insipidity. The loss of ourselves is swiftly stolen by a patient thief, a servant to the psyche's ignorance. 

Not all individuals are subjected to this realization. In fact, most do not face it until they lie alimp on their deathbed. Some people, however, die multiple times before their physical death.