SURVIVAL

1.Why this subject:

1. the characteristics of human condition (a temporary existence in a
vulnerable organic structure) and the presence of numerous
aggressive factors at work in our inner and outer environments;
2. the remarkable efforts people make in order to stay alive:
- amputation: Aron Ralston
- head transplant: Robert J. White – 1973; Sergio Carravero
3. suicide cases: the complexity of the decision-making process
leading to self-termination and the reaction of the public coming
into contact with suicidal behaviour news, a reaction characterised
in many cases by dogma, ignorance and prejudice.
 54 percent of people who took their lives didn’t have a previously
known mental health disorder, according to a CDC study.
4. people’s interest in survival tv shows, thrillers, horror movies, road
traffic crashes: they like to watch dangerous situations affecting
others while they are safe, at home, in their armchairs.

2.Linguistic description
 Etymology: ME surviven < OFr survivre < L supervivere < super-
= above, beyond; vivere = to live.
 Definition: survival
1. The act or fact of surviving, esp. under adverse or unusual
circumstances.
2. A person or thing that survives or endures, esp. an ancient custom,
observance, belief, or the like.
 Synonym: continuation, endurance.

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 Definition: to survive
1. To live or exist longer than or beyond the life or existence of; to
outlive.
2. To continue to live after or in spite of.
 Synonym: to outlive, to last, to persist, to exist.
 Word family: 1. survival (n), 2. survivor (n), 3. survivability (n), 4.
survivorship (n), 5. survivalism (n), 6. survivalist (n), 7. to survive (v),
8. survival (adj), 9. survivable (adj).
E.g.:
1. Among the majority of patients with advanced stage disease so treated,
immune response augmentation appears to prolong survival.
2. The survivors of the fire were taken to a hospital.
3. Survivability is the ability to remain alive or continue to exist; Title:
Developmental competence and post-thaw survivability of buffalo
embryos produced in vitro.
4. Survivorship is the condition of being a survivor; brain tumour
survivorship involves much more than the label “survivor.”
Survivorship is an ever-changing process, an experience of living with,
through, or beyond brain tumour disease.
5. Survivalism is a commonly used term for the preparedness strategy
and subculture of individuals or groups anticipating and making
preparations for future possible disruptions in local, regional or
worldwide social or political order.
6. Survivalists often prepare for this anticipated disruption by learning
skills (e.g., emergency medical training), stockpiling food and water,
preparing for self-defense and self-sufficiency, and/or building structures
that will help them to survive or "disappear."
7. Few survived after the holocaust; He survived the operation.
8. Survival techniques.

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9. Would an atomic war be survivable? A survivable, but very serious,
illness.
 Phrases: survival of the fittest; survival analysis; survival tips / tricks /
techniques / skills; survival gear / equipment / kit / tools / supplies;
wilderness survival / tropical island survival / outdoor survival;
torture survivor /war survivor / lung cancer survivor.

3.Related notions: life (characterized by growth, adaptation and

reproduction), life expectation, life span, pro-life, pro-choice, death,
suicide, euthanasia, immortality, anti-aging, NDE (near death
experience) – Flatliners.

4.Factors that determine the need to survive and those creating the
tendency to self-destruction:
 Biological and psychological life preservation motivations vs.
decision to commit suicide and to request euthanasia; eugenics and
death penalty as means to protect society;
 Sigmund Freud’s life and death wish theory;
- Ernest Hemingway's Death Wish: “I spent a hell of a lot of time
killing animals and fish so I wouldn't kill myself. When a man is
in rebellion against death, as I am in rebellion against death, he
gets pleasure out of taking to himself one of the god-like
attributes; that of giving it.”
 Suicide as rational decision (e.g.: soldiers – avoid capture, avoid
revealing information under torture; extermination camp prisoners –
avoid suffering by drinking tobacco tea or learning to slow down the
heart rate);
 Media and the suicide epidemics.

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 - A review of recent events in Austria and Switzerland indicates
that suicide prevention organizations can successfully convince
the media to change the frequency and content of their suicide
coverage in an effort to reduce copycat effects.
 The role of education in favour or against self-inflicted death (e.g.:
Christian dogma vs. Japanese traditions and radical Islamic
teachings).
 Our understanding of the purpose of existence (philosophical,
religious, and subjective points of view and the idea of purpose, given
or created by us).

5.Factors that shorten or prolong life:

 Individual level: biological, psychological, social and cultural
identity and lifestyle.
 Community, national and international levels:
- time and space co-ordinates + social, political, economic
and environmental systems, health care systems,
prohealth education, including respect for others;
- war, natural catastrophe, epidemics and pandemics,
accidents.
- population growth;
- increase in elderly population;
- depletion of natural resources;
- pollution of air, water and the soil;
- species dying out;
- climate change;
- the perspective of famine;
- financial instability and unemployment;
- conflicts escalating into local or regional wars;

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 - negative impact of science and technology (computer
addiction; large scale use of food additives; loss of
privacy due to electronic surveillance; theft of personal
data including credit cards data; iatrogenesis (adverse,
unintended outcomes: iatrogenic illness and iatrogenic
death); genetically modified foods; the arms race ).

6.Types of survival:
 Physical, psychological, social, moral, intellectual, cultural, linguistic,
and spiritual.

7.Levels of survival:
 Individual (human, animal, vegetal), community, planet (Gaia theory
= planet as a complex self-regulating system; Solaris), universe (death
of the universe theory).
 The Romanian case.

8.The survivor type

 Characteristics and examples; Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe vs.
superheroes (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and X-Men).
 The student survival guide.
 Survivor stories.
 How to survive an epidemic?
 Are you a survivor?