#non-closure

Non-closure is closure is something many of us have to grapple with. How we get to a certain point successfully, depends on whether we can have closure or not. Not everything that happens to us will be explained. Not everyone will have closure in their lifetime, particularly if something is allowed to continue over a period of years and they have no explanations for them to draw the necessary conclusions for closure. If that is the case, it's not something they need to worry about.

Non-closure and introspection

But non-closure can prompt us to reflect and to find our own understanding. Introspection (reflection) can lead to personal growth and a deeper understanding of a situation, resulting in closure that is unique to that individual's experience. Closure is a personal journey that requires time, patience and self-reflection. It cannot be forced or rushed, but something that comes with self-awareness.

Non-closure and unresolved feelings

To have non-closure can lead to lingering questions and unresolved feelings, which can contribute to ongoing stress. It is important for individuals to recognise when they need closure and to seek out healthy ways to find resolution so that they can move forward in a healthy and productive manner.

Non-closure and our emotional wellbeing

Losing a loved one through trauma can bring non-closure and feelings of unresolved grief, leaving us struggling to make sense of what has happened. Trauma around illness and death can leave those left behind feeling overwhelmed, with questions that may never be resolved. Validating your emotions is important.

It is important to acknowledge the impact that not having closure can have on your emotional wellbeing. Closure is deeply personal and subjective and finding closure in the absence of answers, or resolution can be challenging. However, through self-reflection, and practicing self-care, you can work towards finding your own sense of closure and healing. Just remember to check in with yourself.

Non-closure doesn't have to be a thing and the way to bring closure of course, is for everyone to work together.

A brief technical discussion is in order. We have here three related terms: a system of reflection, a term within the system which indicates the system's non-closure, and the Real (the excess of the domain over the system's power of reflection). Taking these in turn:

A "system of reflection" is a collection of terms, together with rules for their combination, which maps onto some domain: for example, a collection of primitive names, together with rules for generating compound names, which maps onto a universe of named things. The system "reflects" the domain, insofar as relations within the system (e.g. between two primitive names and the compound name that is formed out of them) correspond to relations within the domain (e.g. between two named things and a third that combines the properties of both). The system's "power of reflection" is the extent of its ability to reflect its domain faithfully: to name everything under the sun with Edenic innocence and authority, whilst at the same time seeking to "carve nature at the joints".

An exceptional term such as "the unnameable" does not reflect anything in the domain, but indicates that faithful reflection of the entire domain is impossible: the system's power of reflection is limited. One cannot exchange the world of words for the world of things, or vice versa: there is an excess on the side of the world of things. A "closed" reflective system is entirely adequate to the domain it reflects, always equal in power to the complexity of that domain. The exceptional term, to which nothing corresponds, is supernumerary, an "illogical" addition to the system which marks its non-closure.

The Real is identical to the domain itself, but in particular it is identified with the domain insofar as it does not fall under the system's power of reflection: the index of its "reality", its inconvertible separateness from the system, is this undominated excess. In another sense, the Real does not belong to the domain at all, precisely insofar as the latter is a domain (and hence the domain of some reflective system, reflected by and convertible with the terms of that system). We had better say that the domain belongs to the Real (as, in the last instance, does the reflective system - this is the lesson we take from Laruelle).