Psychological and Existential Content of Self-Description During Dying Process Through Terminal Illness

Self-Description is regarded by various psychological schools as one of the sources of reflection and self-knowledge. In modern society death is regarded as a taboo topic, nevertheless self-descriptions published as blogs or as books arouse interest among huge number of readers. In this contradiction of modern perception of death in self-description one can see a person in his intimacy as well as in his influence on public sphere. In the present paper will take place an attempt to find out psychological and existential contents which are contained in the texts of self-descriptions. Self-description of person with terminal illness in modern society might be regarded as a current way to remind about the mortality and urge readers of these texts to have an intention to look upon their own perception of life, death and meaning. Despite the uniqe character of each of the regarded stories, some general observations might take place. It seems, that sepf-perception might be quite a useful source of support for people with terminal illness. Self-perception might be expressed through professional identity, interests, hobbies or life-style. Gaining personal meaning in life could help to find an attitude towards oncoming death.