Jenny Cruz

08/19/14 P.4
AP Psychology Summer Assignment; Tuesdays with Morrie
Tuesdays with Morrie, a memoir written by Mitch Albam, is bombarded with an abundance of
psychological relevance and connections. The characters in Tuesdays with Morrie, specifically
Mitch Albam and Morrie Schwartz, cope and reason with the concept of death in distinct ways,
for both individuals differ in mindset and mentality, and both have been cognitively programmed
a certain way, which is why both of them appear to deal with death in contrary, perpendicular
stand points. Morrie is faced with an impending death, due to his acquiring of Lou Gehrigs
disease, and he takes it upon himself to resort to consciously detaching himself from the
experience itself. The method of disconnecting and disaffiliating ones self from an approaching,
brewing unpleasant act or event is derived from a Buddhist philosophy, which claims that
dismounting ones self from abhorrent, troublesome case scenarios is the only way to go about
life, seeing as every aspect pertaining to life itself is impermanent and merely temporary.
According to Morrie, abstaining from clinging on to people or things present in life is
eventually going to be proven futile and fruitless, for it is solely a consumption of ones time and
potentially available, valuable energy to devote so much of ones self and become so attached to
a brief, ephemeral portion of life. Morrie finds himself capable of escaping the confinement of
his tangible surroundings, to which he has been unwillingly subjected to, and in turn enters into
his own sate of alertness and cognizance. Morrie begins to acknowledge and recognize his
impending death in a different light, rather than taking the easy way out of a difficult situation by
becoming a prisoner of ones own disillusionment and denial. Accepting death and omitting any
deep, insignificant, trivial thought on the subject of death allows Morrie to open up a new facet
of himself that he never knew existed, due to his narrow-minded, myopic perspective on life and
death; Morrie acquiesced that emerging into a state of consciousness and mindfulness is the only
way to truly appreciate life and all ventures, endeavors, and elements contributing to the essence
of life, and he also came to realize that a fear of death does not have any advantage and is an
obtuse perspective to have on it.
When Morrie begins to abide by and become incredibly adamant about the benefits of the
Buddhist philosophy of detachment, he begins to accept his future, rather than dismissing it or
wallowing in his own grief and horror; Morrie begins to fully understand the manner in which
his mind and emotions are intertwined, which initially brought him melancholy and woe, being
that his refusal to believe in his impending death only led him to neglect and disregard his own
consciousness. Morrie is only capable of controlling and managing his fear and discomposure
when he detaches himself from the life-threatening experience; otherwise he is rendered
impotent and incapable of awareness and composure. Whenever Morrie feels as though his fear
is approaching or prevailing, he retorts by alienating and isolating himself, disjoining himself
from the way he thinks he feels, so that he can attain the ability to accept the conciseness and
transience of his life; Morrie learns how to embrace death and openly welcome it through a
conscious nature. Morries consciousness allows him to conclude that death is inevitable and
unavoidable, and that it is ultimately impossible to escape it. Morrie originally found it
troublesome that he could not have full control over something, though he did not know that
death was simply a situation nobody can control, and that it is something we all must accept and
eventually succumb to in an aloof, composed manner. Death is all a matter of perspective, and
Morrie learns that grasping the proper outlook essentially authorizes one to put death in its
respective, proper perspective- a perspective in which one is utterly conscious and aware of
death, because it allows one to live a much more peaceful, harmonious, and fulfilling life.