ABSTRACT
In this short paper Freud offered a strong argument for the acceptance of transience, that we need to accept the passing and destruction of all things including of course ourselves . . . Freud then goes on to say that the transience of beauty does not detract from its worth – ‘transience value is scarcity value in time’ – but it is precisely this very element that makes it more precious to us. In addition, one might wonder about Freud’s own struggles with personal transience and the contrary wish to be remembered: a feeling that personal annihilation means the death of the capacity to experience the beauty of the world, which might make it paradoxically easier to accept its transience.
