Attitude towards death in civil population living in the armed conflict zone in the context of existential fulfillment

Introduction. In the conditions of living in an armed conflict zone, the attitude of the civilian population to life and death may acquire its characteristics. Their study is of particular importance for the implementation of psychological assistance. Existential fulfillment is defined as living at the same time the correspondence of what is happening in life to one’s inner values and the circumstances of the outside world. In this regard, the authors consider the issues of psychological consequences for people living in armed conflict zones for people in connection with existential fulfillment.

Goal. Determination of the attitude to the death of civilians living in the zone of armed conflict in the context of their existential fullness.

Materials and methods. The study used a content analysis of the concept of “death” and the causes of fear of death, as well as the technique of Diagnostics of Existential Fulfillment" (V. B. Shumsky, E. M. Ukolova, E. N. Osin and Ya. D. Lupandina). The significance of the differences was checked using Fisher’s φ-criterion.

Results. The majority of respondents are not so much afraid of the approach of death as the probability of injury and becoming disabled or that their children will be orphaned due to the death of their parents. The respondents living in the area of the SVO have medium (55.3%) and low (44.7%) levels of existential fulfillment. People with a pronounced fear of death or the consequences associated with it have a lower overall level of existential fulfillment than those who are not afraid of death, are philosophical about it, or do not think about it.

Discussion and conclusion. The attitude to death and the level of existential fulfillment are closely related and depend on many parameters. The main reasons for the lack of existential fulfillment are traumatization, a sense of uselessness, unfulfillment in life, the insignificance of the process of life as a whole, and loss of meaning due to living for a long time in conditions of military operations, a low percentage of life prospects, lack of basic conditions for life. The general personality value–semantic orientation can be considered through the prism of its attitude to death.

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