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For some people life is very simple. They decide that this is good, that is bad, this is wrong, that’s right. There is no right in wrong, no good in bad, no shadings and grays, all blacks and whites…. Now others of us find that good, bad, right, wrong are many-sided, complex things; we try to see every side, but the more we see, the less sure we are.
The Wolf Man, 1941
Biosocial transcendence is derived from the literal connection to future generations by passing on one’s genes, history, values, and possessions, or by identification with an ancestral line or ethnic or national identity that perseveres indefinitely.
The theological mode entails faith in a soul and the possibility of literal immortality; it can
From a terror management perspective, it seems to us that there are two viable approaches to foster better living with death. First, we can become more aware and accepting of the reality of our mortality. Second, we can strengthen our sense of death transcendence in nondestructive ways.
Some thirty years and more than five hundred studies later, there is now overwhelming evidence confirming Becker’s central claim that the awareness of death gives rise to potentially debilitating terror that humans manage by perceiving themselves to be significant contributors to an ongoing cultural drama. We found, as Becker posited, that self-esteem buffers anxiety in general and anxiety about death in particular. We discovered that subtle, and even subliminal, reminders of death increase devotion to one’s cultural scheme of things, support for charismatic leaders, and confidence in the existence of God and belief in the efficacy of prayer. They amplify our disdain toward people who do not share our beliefs even to the point of taking solace in their demise. They drive us to compulsively smoke, drink, eat, and shop. They make us uncomfortable with our bodies and our sexuality. They impel us to drive recklessly and fry ourselves in tanning booths to bolster our self-esteem. They magnify our phobias, obsessions, and social anxieties.
Examining history, the sciences and the humanities, findings from laboratory experiments, and people’s day-to-day struggles would expose death as the worm at the core of the human experience.
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We may take for granted that the fear of death is always present in our mental functioning…. For behind the sense of insecurity in the face of danger, behind the sense of discouragement and depression, there always lurks the basic fear of death, a fear which undergoes most complex elaborations and manifests itself in many indirect ways…. The anxiety neuroses, the various phobic states, even a considerable number of depressive suicidal states and many schizophrenias amply demonstrate the ever-present fear of death which becomes woven into the major conflicts of the given psychopathological conditions.
—GREGORY ZILBOORG,
“Fear of Death”