There is certain distinct characteristics unique to the sick man’s mind, which are deducible from a phenomenological analysis of the content of his experience, both while within the sickness, and in the mode of Being which follows its alleviation. Abstract functions and rumination on non-personal content are markedly reduced in the state of sickness, to be replaced with a predominantly selfish, life preservation concentration. We forfeit abstract relations for the purely practical alleviation of psychological suffering, based upon the physical condition of bodily distress. The brain, the totality of the organism, and thus, our own conscious intentionality, becomes pointed more predominantly upon the content of the present moment, and bodily experience, over the unnecessary excessive thought stream we normally find ourselves in. The normal anxieties and anticipatory reflections which plague our normal state of being, those thought patterns stemming from desire towards future states become effectively replaced to a higher degree by the death anxiety and the future state desired becomes almost universally dominated by the desire for health. The sick mind may attempt to distract his mode of being away from that directed towards health and alleviation of suffering, and may succeed in doing so, but it is only a layer above the mode which calls for intentionality to be directed towards alleviation of suffering. As physical wellbeing of the survival machine holds the most significance to the genetic material which our body is preconditioned to propagate to the future, the recognition of a problem in the survival machine and the conscious mode of being and its modification are in relation to the body’s interpretation of the threat to the system, and rightfully so. The perceptive bodily interpretation of an un-optimal physical condition thus arises into conscious awareness for the purpose of intentionality of the totality of the Being to be directed towards “fixing” the problem.

While our “normal” mode of being has been forged by the same biological necessities that are presupposed in the sick man’s Being, it oftentimes has evolved to desires and concentration on cultural and societally informed actions and activities, being, in themselves, deduced as being conducive to the wellbeing of the individual (also formed through a biologically grounded value system). While these “normal” desires, whether it be a pleasant emotional state, career advancement, fame, family, social dominance, or any other rising in societies hierarchies, it is one step removed from the closest to home biological desire or imperative, the survival of the organism’s genetic material. Thus, we may normally be absorbed in drama with friends or family, in career dilemmas, in bettering ourselves in terms of education, wealth, standing, or merely directed towards pleasure and entertainment. Sickness calls us, in fact, it pushes us, towards the recognition of our own Being, and its current state, whether we are engulfed in foreign content or not. This very push towards self-reflective intentionality arising in conscious awareness, necessarily is a change from the “normal” mode of being, which is conditioned by linguistic conceptualizations and societal influence, and is transmuted into the merely personal, “primitive”, self-awareness and desire for health. The marked change may be noticed in this way of highly unproductive, unindustrious, less conducive to conscious goals and values, a diversion from our dreams and aspirations, but, it holds within it the potentiality for further growth, is fully analyzed.

This growth I speak of isn’t merely the growth that stems from survival, in the immediate concentration of removing the sickness, but growth individually in virtue and in psychological health, in abstract thinking and philosophical improvement. But how can sickness produce this? How can the mode of being that distracts us from our aims move us further towards them? This sounds counter intuitive, but if the mode of being which follows the alleviation of sickness is adequately phenomenologically analyzed, the conclusion I have come to will be made clear.

Immediately following the alleviation of the sickness, as the mind reorients itself to its aims and aspirations in line with conscious value structures, its reformulation necessarily rekindles from a mode of being that is no longer over encumbered by the anxieties and stressors that have built up consciously prior to the sickness. While problems still exist, and anxieties and aspirations that were held beforehand may still be held, their complexity and our anxiety toward them is effectively reduced by the acquisition of the aim of our previous mode of being’s desire, that of health. In the mode of being sick we are entirely focused upon alleviating sickness, almost to the exclusion of everything else. Once this singular aim has been reached, the mind becomes predominantly free of anxiety and “sees the world afresh” in that the problems beforehand that were perceived as “large problems” have effectively been reduced in size as the coming face to face with death, at least perceptively, has reduced their influence. It seems as if sickness has brought sanity from the depths of our unconscious to illuminate the distraught conscious. As sickness diverted our aims and conscious experience, it simultaneously provided us with the opportunity to pursue our aims afterwards with a reinvigorated, and “clear” consciousness.

Being sick is unfortunate and unpleasant in the subjective experience of its effect on the body and psyche, but the post product always presents itself as a mode of being whose previous concerns had been wiped away by the concentration of the welfare of the body, producing afterwards a “clear mind” of sorts which is able to produce novel intuitions and embark upon fresh explorations without being encumbered by the prior mental formations. The buildup of prior mental formations clouded the conscious experience in their range and influence, but upon their extended removal, it opens us up to a new mode of being. This new mode of being following sickness can be directed towards previous aims, but from a starting point that is better equipped to intuit novel solutions, to more clearly see, in new ways, which are unhindered by prior mental formations, towards the success of those aims. While we retain knowledge and memory, conscious experience itself has been removed of unnecessary anxieties. While these anxieties, and formations, are likely to be replaced by new ones as time compounds, we notice a renewed existence after sickness has been cleared up, producing a starting point upon which we left, yet is markedly more peaceful, and less distracted by anxiety and unpleasant emotion, as the health acquired in alignment with the desire to alleviate sickness produces the reward in its resolution.

The old thought patterns, worries, and ideologies show their insignificance any time we are confronted with an experience that threatens our existence, as sickness surely reminds us of our temporal nature. Thus, we become grounded, and renewed after the sickness, if only to be replaced by new thought streams and the ordinariness of everyday consciousness within days or hours. But in that window of sickness, and immediately after, there are subjectively unique states of mental experience which can be noted, and I have described here one perspective of their nature and how I experience them personally. Whether this is universal or not remains to be examined, but I tend to see the periods of sickness as a psychologically positive occurrence, in the cleansing of long ruminated thoughts, and the ability to be more concentrated on new content afterwards. From a philosophical standpoint, this is highly useful, in that sometimes thought patterns and goals can become overthought, over considered, and expounded upon till they become more of an impediment than progressive. Whether this effect of sickness in removing this towards the fresh conscious experience which can move in novel directions, not in direct alignment with previous formations, is unique, or solely beneficial in regards to scientific and philosophically minded individuals, remains to be verified externally. In the phenomenological analysis of different types of personalities, and in domains of different interests, it has yet to be reported that sickness has a similar benefit to the individuals who come out the other side, but for me, personally, in my temperament and interests I see a conscious benefit and distinct characteristics in the mode of being sick and its following alleviation, in which I intuit as being positive towards the creation and articulation of novel ideas, and the removal of long held “overthinking” of “less than optimal” anxieties and aspirations.