ABSTRACT
The existential mix of human existence couples the celebration of life with the awesome awareness of the eventuality of death. Death and the awareness of death are products of evolutionary history. Thus, death anxiety is a significant motivating factor for all manner of emotionally relevant mental and interpersonal or behavioural defences in human beings. The intimate connection between death and defence is sustained throughout evolution, including our own species, Homo sapiens sapiens. An essential feature of adaptations designed to improve chances of survival for both individuals and species is some type of awareness of the awesome danger of death. In addition to intensifying predatory death issues, language has created the basis for existential death anxieties—the universal human recognition and dread of eventual personal demise. The death-related threat of self-harm highlights the mixture of external and internal factors in death anxiety in humans—environmental threats lead to inner responses that may ultimately lead to self-destructive behaviour.
