Being taken out of oneself can occur in such experiences as immersion in one's work, identification with society or with any wider cause, and in the contemplation of vistas of nature. The relief and pleasure at contemplating

the vastness of the universe on a starry night and one's nothingness in relation to it would appear to require the theory of a death instinct in its explanation. There is relief from envy of things and persons in the reflection that nothing is of any importance when viewed against endless space and time, but there also appears to be a libidinal effect to which the death instinct serves as booster.