The Denial of Death
For some of us the fear of death manifests onlyindirectly, either as generalized unrest or masqueraded as another psychological symptom; other individuals experience an explicit and conscious stream of anxiety about death; and for some of us the fear of death erupts into terror that negates all happiness and fulfillment.
Irvin D. Yalom • Staring at the Sun
The basic motivation for human behavior is our biological need to control our basic anxiety, to deny the terror of death. Human beings are naturally anxious because we are ultimately helpless and abandoned in a world where we are fated to die. “This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feeli... See more
Ernest Becker • The Denial of Death
Although the physicality of death destroys man, the idea of death saves him.
Irvin D. Yalom • Existential Psychotherapy
“How does one conquer fear of death, that most primordial of terrors, which resides in our very blood, as in all life, beasts as well as men?”
Steven Pressfield • Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
had talked myself into the project in order to calm my fears rather than as something I was excited to work on. I committed to not making the same mistake again. American anthropologist Ernest Becker was convinced that most of our actions in life are driven by a fear of death. Behind my money fears was a longing to feel that my life mattered. I sus
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