The fear of death
Gertrud Mander
April 17, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9780429473838-15 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the capacity to face death depends on the state of an individual's internal world: when that world is populated by good objects, thoughts of one's own death arouse regret and sadness rather than fear of chaos, agony, and nameless dread. The author also proposes that Freud's death instinct is best read as a regression, a wishful fantasy of peaceful non-being rather than self-destructiveness. |
Abstract
Even very old people are afraid of death, and the example of people with near-death experiences, who tell afterwards that they had seen a light, is instructive as a form of denial, as they are still alive then. Analysts come closest to describing this mortal fear, when they talk of the unconscious anxieties of annihilation and disintegration, from which Freud&s;s controversial death instinct can be considered a regression, a wishful fantasy of peaceful non-being rather than self-destructiveness. The capacity to face death is closely linked to the state of an individual&s;s internal world: The inescapable fragmentation, loneliness and abandonment, which characterise the beginnings of people&s;s psychic functioning re-emerge cyclically in the course of people&s;s life. The more an individual&s;s internal world is peopled by good objects, the more the thoughts of one&s;s own death can arouse regret and sadness, but not fear of chaos, agony and nameless dread.