Death Anxiety

Death is the silent background upon which all existentialist thought is built. If there is a most fundamental fact of being, it’s that there is also non-being. And so, here we are living life while knowing that that life is limited. How does this impact us? 

American anthropologist Ernest Becker (1924-1974) pointed out that part of being a person is both being mortal and knowing that we are mortal, or in his words “that death is man’s peculiar and greatest anxiety”. This awareness of our mortality creates what’s known in Existential Psychotherapy as death anxiety.

Death anxiety is humanity’s fundamental state of being. It is from this state that we accept or deny freedom, develop relationships with others, live an authentic or inauthentic life, and attempt to create meaning.

Because of how strong this anxiety is, we build up all kinds of defenses against death anxiety, going to pretty extreme lengths at times to ignore it, cover it up, comfort ourselves against it, or join into what feel like larger-than-death projects or groups to feel safe. None of this is at all bad or unusual in and of itself, and even to some extent necessary.

But, awareness of our own mortality can also bring with it so many benefits if we can find the courage to face even a bit of the anxiety that comes with this awareness. As existential therapist Irvin Yalom (b. 1931) has found, being aware of our own mortality can help motivate us toward change and transformation, remind us that life cannot be postponed, remember and appreciate the ordinary, and dis-identify with the trivial while focusing on what really matters to us.

As Existential Psychotherapy points out again and again, confronting our existential situation brings with it anxiety on the one hand, but also deep and transformational gifts on the other.

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