ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors argue that death is a universal and inherently unresolvable adaptive issue, and conscious and unconscious forms of death anxiety are ever-present. The widespread effects of death and death anxiety similarly infiltrate virtually every aspect of the psychotherapy situation. The authors explore the ways in which death issues arise in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, terms they use interchangeably. The ubiquity of death-related expressions and conflicts in psychotherapy calls for an expanded approach to these problems by psychotherapists. There is a growing literature on the subject of death and psychotherapy, much of it rooted in Freud's writings on the death instinct and Becker's well-known book, Denial of Death. The deep unconscious system's responses to death-related triggers can be addressed and worked with in ways that lead to improvements in adaptation that conscious-system efforts cannot achieve. Death with its accoutrements appears to be one of the most difficult aspects of psychotherapy—and of human life as well.
