ABSTRACT
T error management theory is derived from some of Ernest Becker’s basic ideas proposed in his book The Denial of Death (1973). In brief, Becker states that all of our activities, our accomplishments, our hopes and dreams, our social and political institutions, and even the construct of the self act as buffers and insulation against the cold reality of constant change, uncertainty, and unreliability in daily life and the one certainty of death. If we look closely enough behind the protective veil of our experience, it is hard to argue with this conclusion. Yet can this very platform be the springboard for a different perspective altogether? Is there a way to swim upstream against the current of denial that might lead to another way of managing the terror, which indeed might lead to a path that deconstructs the terror itself?
