Curing the Dread of Death

The dread of death has appeared throughout recorded human history in art, literature, song, myth, and ritual. In both ancient and modern societies, the spectre of death has always been with us, stalking the terrified living who seek to avoid its inevitable arrival. Our attempts to respond to the finitude of life range from ancient burial customs such as mummification to computerised chatbots which imitate the personality of those who have departed.Such efforts speak to the uniqueness of humans in their awareness of their own mortality.Yet death is not to be feared. Indeed, it may hold the key to living a vital, authentic life. The many authors of this volume argue persuasively that we cannot live fully without complete acceptance of the fragility and finiteness of life. This unique book explores the dread of death and its management from a wide range of perspectives with researchers and writers from a variety of cultures, academic traditions and disciplines across the globe. The fields covered are broad - including palliative care and grief, psychodynamic theory, social, developmental and clinical psychology, sociology and anthropology, counselling practice as well as history, art, and philosophy.Not only is this book a fascinating journey into the very core of the human psyche, it is also a guide to our psychological health. The challenge we all face is to discover pathways to an acceptance of death that enables a life of significance and meaning.Read, learn, and explore what an examination of the dread of death can bring to one's life.

Section 1: Theoretical Issues1 Impermanence and the human dilemma: Observations across the agesRachel E. Menzies2 Fear of death: Nature, development and moderating factorsRoss G. Menzies and Rachel E. Menzies3 Beyond the dread of death: Existentialism's embrace of the meaninglessness of lifeGerard Kuperus4 Love, death, and the quest for meaningMario Mikulincer5 The death instinct and psychodynamic accounts of the wound of mortalityRoss G. Menzies and Rachel E. Menzies6 An intelligent design theory of the origins, evolution and function of religion: Toward an integration of existential and evolutionary perspectivesTom Pyszczynski and Sharlynn Thompson7 Death anxiety and psychopathologyLisa IverachSection 2: Treatment approaches8 Death in existential psychotherapies: A critical reviewJoel Vos9 Cognitive and behavioural procedures for the treatment of death anxietyRachel E. Menzies10 Death acceptance and the meaning-centred approach to end-of-life carePaul T. P. Wong, David F. Carreno, and Beatriz Gongora Oliver11 Continuing bonds between the living and the dead in contemporary western societies: Implications for our understandings of death and the experience of death anxiety pp. x-xEdith Steffen and Elaine Kasket12 Treating low self-esteem: Cognitive behavioural therapies and terror management theoryPeter J. Helm, Jennifer E. Duchschere and Jeff Greenberg13 Therapeutic interventions for the dread of death: Personal and clinical reflectionsThomas Heidenreich und Alexander Noyon