Scrooge Is My (Existential) Hero - Part 3

In my previous two posts on existential hero Ebenezer Scrooge, we looked at the first two steps of his three-part transformation: reviewing the losses of his past, and opening his senses to the present. The third part of his journey, looking into his future, is arguably the scariest and darkest step he takes, but also wildly transformational. 

The future that is shown to Scrooge is a future after his own death, where he is confronted with the reality of his own mortality, as well as the lasting impact his life will have on others after he is gone.

Existential psychotherapist Irvin Yalom (b. 1931), who literally wrote the book on Existential Psychotherapy, puts it this way:

“Many of us forget that Scrooge’s transformation was not simply the natural result of yule warmth melting his icy countenance. What changed Scrooge was a confrontation with his own death...Dickens’s Ghost of the Future used a powerful form of existential shock therapy” (Existential Psychotherapy, p. 160)

After opening his heart to himself through his own past and to others in the present, Scrooge is ready to whole-heartedly face one of the most fundamental facts of what it means to be: at some point, we will no longer be.

This awareness of our own mortality is deeply unsettling and causes intense death anxiety. Because of this anxiety we spend an enormous amount of energy turning away from the fact of our mortality. And yet, there are transformational lessons in the unyielding fact of our ultimate limits, if we are able to find the courage to consider them.

We are reminded, like Scrooge, that our life as a whole has impact, and we are asked to consider what that impact is. We are reminded that life cannot be postponed, but is available in front of us while also steadily running out. We are given the chance to more deeply appreciate the ordinary when realizing that it cannot be taken for granted. And we are allowed to dis-identify with the trivial while refocusing on what really matters to us.

Paradoxically, it is through the confrontation with his death that Scrooge finds his ability to really live again. His self-protective guard opens up enough for him to connect with others, feel joy, laugh, be generous, and appreciate his life in light of the knowledge that such a gift will not always be available.

This transformed version of Scrooge is the result of a heroic journey through his own past, present, and future, a journey of transformation made available to each of us in our own lives.

To learn more about Existential Psychotherapy, sign up to get email updates on new blog posts.

To learn more about what it means to use Existential Psychotherapy in your own life, sign up to get weekly Existential Psychotherapy reflections by email.