Abstract

The concept of inner death has a long and interesting history. Various concepts of this notion have been presented in philosophy, literature and psychiatry. One of the most important views is this promoted by Bruno Bettelheim. It is known in the scientific discourse as the “life in living death.” Many people have experienced this phenomena at some stage of their lives and, depending on the circumstances, this condition may last for a shorter or longer period of time. In some cases, the state of living death can build up and become repeatable; in others it passes quickly and finally fizzles out. Nonetheless, it always causes great desolation and destruction to our psyche. It is an extremely traumatic existential experience that cannot be fully understood or described by means of language. Frida Kahlo was one of the people who experienced this phenomenon throughout her life. It was annihilating the internal structures of her existence from the early years of her life up to its final stage. Frida’s works, treated as an attempt to overcome this state of soul, became her existential reaction to the havoc caused by living in death. With this kind of transgression she tried to defend herself against the invasion of nihility. Her paintings often reveal the narration of internal decline, being at the same time a record of her fight against it. The reflections presented in the article are of innovative character, since the case of Kahlo has not yet been considered in the aspect of life in living death from the philosophical perspective, nor described by phenomenological or existential language.

Keywords: life in living death, nihility, transgression, painting, mask