ABSTRACT
A major means of dealing with death terror is belief in some kind of immortality, either literal (as in religious belief in an afterlife) or symbolic (leaving behind some legacy). This human ‘mortality burden’ provides a context for goal-related behaviour (Becker). What makes death awareness possible is higher-order consciousness (unique to humans); this both provides us with huge advantages over other animals – such as language, culture, and mental time travel – and represents a ‘curse’ (namely, the mortality burden). According to terror management theory (TMT), cultural world views (CWVs) have developed to keep death terror sufficiently in check to enable us to live our lives; they help us to believe that life has some purpose and meaning. Epicurus dismissed the fear of non-being in death as irrational: in death we return to the pre-birth state of ‘non-existence. Many therapists believe that death terror underlies many mental disorders, as well as being the root of all our normal functioning where self-preservation is key. Grief is a form of separation anxiety (Bowlby), while death terror is fear of separation (loss) from everything we value and which makes us who we are. Loss of one's child is often taken to be the most painful of all bereavements as it runs against the ‘natural order.
