The Application of Zhuangzi's View on Death to the Philosophical Counselling

Death is an individual predicament and relates to anxiety. Irvin Yalom advocated the primary source of an individual’s anxiety is death. Also, Martin Heidegger’s being-towards-death guided existence to find authentic self through death anxiety. Hence, death anxiety is a common individual predicament in philosophical counselling. Yalom’s existential psychotherapy researched different death anxiety cases to guide counsellors in dealing with people’s death anxiety. However, existential psychotherapy lacked Eastern philosophies to support philosophical counsellors while dealing with counselees who are from Eastern cultural backgrounds. Daoist
philosopher Zhuangzi had unique insights into death. He eliminated the confrontation between life and death by interpreting death’s nature from a natural perspective. Zhuangzi’s attitude towards death guides individuals to embrace and accept death, and it reduces death anxiety, which benefits the philosophical counsellor in dealing with Eastern death anxiety cases. Zhuangzi’s attitude toward death has been discussed with Heidegger’s being-towards-death and Yalom’s existential psychotherapy.