Abstract

A dialogue with Freud, Heidegger, and Kierkegaard evokes the conclusion that the key and core of being genuinely human is the ultimate exodus of kenotic incarnation. ;Kenosis and incarnation are constituent aspects of a single dynamism. Kenosis is a relinquishing, emptying, or "dying to," the fraudulent apotheosis of omnipotently structured defenses that subject one to a less than fully human existence in a resistance to contingent, vulnerable human being. Incarnation is the coincident embrace of finitude and one's concrete, embodied existence. As an integral dynamism, kenosis and incarnation is at once individuating and social, clearing space for relationships grounded in reality, beyond self-distorting illusions. ;This exploratory anthropology, integrally philosophical, psychological, and religious, opens with an investigation of Beyond the Pleasure Principle that unites with an examination of Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety to recognize that humanity eschews its embodied finitude through repression and defensive flight. Securing the evasion, Eros aggressively impels the organism to become ever greater and fortified against the vicissitudes and vexations of human contingency, creating competitive hegemonies that prove antithetical to living relationship. ;A first resolution to this crisis of being human is offered in the thesis of Heidegger's Being and Time that authentic, finite Being is retrieved through an encounter with death. A scrutiny and reinterpretation of Freud's earliest cases cautions, however, that an encounter with death can precipitate a more profound and pathological evasion. ;Nevertheless, the heuristic potential of Kierkegaard's transformation into maturity through an ongoing "dying away" from illusions has been highlighted by these considerations. ;This promising dynamic is tested and amplified through select works of Heidegger's later authorship, which culminates in a disclosure of the self-effacing Event that grants space to all in a celebration of the new autochthony of a shared world. ;Through contributions from Kierkegaard, these possibilities receive personal embodiment in the self-emptying kenosis that embraces the earth of our humanity, transcending narcissistic defenses and illusions of hegemony