Terror in patients in the terminal stages of cancer

Maria Rogiewicz

Vol 7, No 3 (2008)

Review articles

Published online: 2008-10-10

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Terror in patients in the terminal stages of cancer

Maria Rogiewicz

Advances in Palliative Medicine 2008;7(3):123-126.

Vol 7, No 3 (2008)

Review articles

Published online: 2008-10-10

Abstract

The terminal stages or terminal periods are a period of transition, described by Van Gennop as “the autonomy of the borderline”. The borderline between life and death is dying, when the game is performed on two stages simultaneously. One of these games is the struggle of the patient with themselves, while the other is a game between the patient and his or her environment (family, health care professionals). Unlike animals, which have an instinct that responds to the direct threat to life, people have the ability to think, imagine and anticipate death as a future event. However, such ideas are vague, and death constitutes an unverifiable signal. The accompanying emotions vary from anxiety, through fear to terror. Terror is a paralysing fear, resulting from the expectance of a coming disaster of an event with an unknown course.