The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life

by Sheldon Solomon, John Pruden (Narrator)

More than 100 years ago, the American philosopher William James wrote that the knowledge that we must die is "the worm at the core" of the human condition - a universally shared fear that informs all our thoughts and actions, from the great art we create to the devastating wars we wage. Using data collected from human subjects, Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski show conclusively that the fear of death and the desire to transcend it inspire us to buy expensive cars, crave fame, put our health at risk, and disguise our animal nature. The fear of death can also prompt judges to dole out harsher punishments, make children react negatively to people different from themselves, and inflame intolerance and violence. But the worm at the core need not consume us.

This audiobook also reveals how human beings have come to terms with death and learned to lead lives of courage, creativity, and compassion. It infuses our lives with order, stability, significance, and purpose, and these anchors enable us to function moment to moment without becoming overwhelmed by the knowledge of our ultimate fate.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Death, Science, Sociology, Anthropology

Audiobook

Published May 5, 2015

Reviews

[Caren · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book is based on a William James quote to the effect that the knowledge of death is the 'worm at the core' of human existence. The three authors, all university professors of psychology, spent the last twenty-five years researching ideas first presented in a Pulitzer-winning book, "The Denial of Death", written by Ernest Becker in 1973. To boil their ideas down to the simplest points, they found that people cope with the "existential terror" the realization of death provokes by building their self-esteem (to feel that their lives matter in an individual sense) and by identifying with their group culture (which inspires a sense of continuity and purpose to their lives). This second point can go awry when people resort to an "us vs. them" mentality, in which the "other" is wrong and is to be feared and conquered. For me, I began to look at world news in a different light with these thoughts as a backdrop. The book takes a look at how death was perceived in past times, in other places, and how we can personally approach our own fears about death. At the end of the book they talk about two different cultural worldviews about death: the "rock" and the "hard place". The "rock" would be a black and white view that one's own culture provides the needed answers, which fosters a sense of security, but also lacks openness to other ideas. The "hard place" acknowledges shades of gray, but thus provides for a greater feeling of anxiety. To deal with the insecurity, some may turn to drugs, alcohol, or fads. So, each view has its difficulties. The authors' answer is: "Come to terms with death. Really grasp that being mortal, while terrifying, can also make our lives sublime by infusing us with courage, compassion, and concern for future generations. Seek enduring significance through your own combination of meanings and values, social connections, spirituality, personal accomplishments, identifications with nature, and momentary experiences of transcendence. Promote cultural worldviews that provide such paths while encouraging tolerance of uncertainty and others who harbor different beliefs." (page 225)
I am very glad to have read this book. First of all, it is well-written, easily understood, engaging, and profoundly interesting. Beyond that though, I just found it helpful and marked many passages to which I plan to return.

[Antonio Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a good review for this book in the FT and took it up without expecting the degree to which it would shake me up. It is one of the most perturbing reads I've ever made. The authors undertook to prove, over several decades, the insight of Pulitzer prize winner Ernest Becker, that people strive for meaningful and significant lives largely to manage the fear of death. So the fear of death is the worm at the core of our consciousness, the realization most of us sometimes have, consciously or unconsciously, that we exist only for a limited time and will eventually be gone from existence. Their experiments, of which they describe many, allowed the authors to prove that all of us practice "terror management" to soothe ourselves whenever the worm rears its ugly head to make our lives bearable. Consciousness, the distinguishing characteristic of humans, is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because it allows us to envision alternate scenarios, to anticipate events and to cooperate to become the dominant species on earth. It is a curse because we are the only animal species that is aware that its individual members will disappear into nothingness. According to the authors many human institutions (religion, war, art, civilization itself) are adaptations to this existential dread. Feeling vindicated by drawing faith in our cultural worldview is one way to manage terror. The authors show that judges who have been reminded of their mortality tend to be tougher on defendants than those who have not had intimations of mortality. Whenever we feel anxiety about our eventual oblivion we feel more drawn to loving our culture and hating its enemies. Another way is a feeling of personal significance or self-esteem. So, many people hate, punish or kill others because only in doing so do they feel able to bear the thought of their own intranscendence. The authors recommend better ways to manage terror by feeling a sense of belonging and personal significance, but without hurting others. They acknowledge, however, that these "soft" forms of self-validation are not as effective in deterring the fear of death as real "hard" religions. I found this book very perturbing because I had never reasoned as the authors do and resented their obvious disregard for religious faith. The book is deeply unsettling but well written and very informative.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب یه مدتی هست تموم شده منتظر بودم بشینم یه ریویو مرتب درست کنم براش چون بسیار کتاب خوبی بود و آنقدر چیز جذاب داشت برام حجم نوتی که برداشتم حین خوندنش برا اینجا گذاشتن زیاد بود؛ که متاسفانه مثلکه وقت نمیشه و هرچی بیشتر بگذره بیشتر بیخیال نوشتنش دارم میشم.

شاید به نظر برسه هر چیز با ربط و بی ربطی رو ارتباط داده به اضطراب مرگ ولی وقتی کل کتاب رو میخونی قشنگ می‌بینی حقیقتا خیلی منطقه و خیلی چیز ها به مرگ هراسی ربط داشته و داره.
نویسنده هاش هم واقعن آدم های درست حسابی ای بودن و رفرنس های مناسبی داشت کتاب.
چیزایی که ازش یاد گرفتم و تیکه های که باعث شد برم یه سری مقاله و داستان اون وسط براش بخونم و یاد بگیرم زیاد بود واقعن.

خلاصه که واقعن کتاب جذابی بود.

تیکه آخر کتاب رو بیارم فقط:

We cannot return to the Garden of Eden; we were never actually there. But the vast knowledge we have now about the pervasive influence of the awareness of death on human affairs may give us some purchase on how we can get better at living out our mortal lives.

Are you acting out of fear, or being manipulated to do so by others? Are you driven by rigid defenses, or are you pursuing the goals you really hold dear in your life? In dealing with other people, are you considering how their efforts to manage the terror of death are affecting their actions and how your own defenses are influencing your reactions to them? By asking and answering these questions, we can perhaps enhance our own enjoyment of life, enrich the lives of those around us, and have a beneficial impact beyond it.

یه سری چیزای دیگه ش رو دیدم یه جا دیگه نوشتم گفتم بیارم اینجا:
کنج ادبیات و دیگرچیزهای سارا:
Since the dawn of humankind, cultural worldviews have offered immense comfort to death-fearing humans. Throughout the ages and around the globe, the vast majority of people, past and present, have been led by their religions to believe that their existence literally continues in some form beyond the point of physical death. Some of us believe that our souls fly up to heaven, where we will meet our departed loved ones and bask in the loving glow of our creator. Others “know” that at the moment of death, our souls migrate into a new, reincarnated form. Still others are convinced that our souls simply pass to another, unknown plane of existence. In all these cases, we believe that we are, one way or another, literally immortal.


کتابه اولش میاد یه شروع مقدمه سازی می‌کنه که درک های ما از محیطمون و زندگی چطوری شکل میگیرن. اپروچ کتاب برا گفتن این حرف ها، زدن یه سری مثال بود که خوب بودن.

🔸 درک از کی و با چی‌شروع میشه؟ با نوزادی و حس امنیت و خانواده
کم کم میریم سراغ بزرگ تر شدن و با افراد بیشتری ارتباط گرفتن و ارتباطات یکم فراتر از تامین نیاز های روزانه مون از جمله خوراک و پوشاک میشه.
حالا فرهنگ و اعتقادات هم از محیط میگیریم؛ چه از خانواده چه از مدرسه چه از خیابون و امثالهم.

همین‌طوری که بزرگ میشی یه سری کانسپت خوب و بد رو به طور ناخودآگاه برا خودت طبق چیزایی که میبینی و آبزرو می‌کنی و محیط بهت میگه، تو ذهنت می‌سازی.

Cameron’s parents, and everyone and everything else around him, conferred on him a certain description of reality, one that Cameron, like all children, didn’t just passively accept but ardently embraced. When children learn to be good and feel valued as prescribed by their culture, the same psychological benefits that were originally afforded by their parents’ love and protection are extended and expanded. At every age, we humans need that sense of security to survive and flourish, because the terrors are legion.


🔸 حالا این بچه چطور می‌فهمه مرگ چیه و چه فکری می‌کنه راجع بهش؟
اومده طبق درک مغزی تو هر سنی یه سری چیز گفته:

Although infants and toddlers don’t know what they are afraid of or why, they react with distress to many potential threats to their survival
As children become aware of themselves, typically between eighteen and twenty-four months, their budding grasp of their smallness and vulnerability makes them increasingly terrified by even more real and imagined dangers. They are scared of the dark, strangers, big dogs, monsters, and ghosts. From their point of view, all are real threats to survival

و در نهایت در سن سه سالگیه که درک از مرگ کم کم براشون شکل میگیره.
By around age three, the grim handmaiden of self-consciousness—death awareness—begins to make her appearance. Rocks seem to last forever, but living things are impermanent and can disappear in death.

🔹 همینطور که میفهمی که وجود داری؛ در عین حال بیشتر متوجه میشی که میشد وجود نداشته باشی.
As children mature cognitively, their understanding of death deepens and the ways they manage their terror become more elaborate

[Ina · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a waste of time and paper.

The whole idea of the fear of death being behind most if not all of human behavior has always struck me as very psychoanalytical and simplistic in nature. Nonetheless, I decided to give the book a chance, because it was advertised as being grounded in "robust science".

It's not!

The pages are filled with unnecessarily lengthy descriptions of made up or embellished accounts of people's experiences. Someone was seemingly trying to cater to the unaccomplished fiction writer in themselves. The book is also littered with haphazard facts in an attempt to prove that the evasion of death is an overarching motivator in human life and society. Feebly and intellectually lazily linking these facts to death however does not prove the point and only makes for a very annoying and "jumpy" reading experience.

As for the claimed robustness of the science, you need only look at the references to get a sense of how inaccurate that claim is. The majority of the quotes are of philosophers and literary authors who may have a lot to offer human knowledge and thought, but are not the best place to get your data from. A large part of the quoted studies, related to death are in fact authored by the writers of the book themselves. And sprinkled here and there are some other studies on the role of death awareness in human behavior. Worst of all is that after one of these studies is quoted, the way it is interpreted by the authors is very, very questionable. It points to their obviously biased views on the topic, trying to prove their point through mental summersaults, instead of sound arguments.

For instance, on p.29 the authors quote a study on ethnocentrism and mortality salience in kids. They describe the way kids handle being confronted with the idea of death when relating to peers of other ethnic groups and the differences in response based on age group. So far so good. And then in the last sentence they say "Having realized that death is inevitable and irreversible, [the kids] pledged permanent psychological allegiance to their culture". No! The study doesn't in any way show that the kids realized that death is inevitable and irreversible, they were just reminded of the existence of death. Neither does it show that the allegiance they pledged to their culture (also sort of bold claim imo but a bit more accurate than the ones preceding and following) is in any way permanent or irreversible.

This is only one example and I won't bother myself with providing more but they are all over the book. A person who misinterprets scientific findings in this way shows a complete lack of depth of understanding. It raises the question how these authors even managed to conduct studies of their own and what the quality of those studies is.

Furthermore, the tone of the book is unpleasant. This is more subjective, so I won't go too much into it. In brief, I would describe it more as sensationalistic journalism relying on interesting facts and a bit of shock value, accompanied by a startling lack of understanding of the discussed phenomena, instead of a rational account of and reflection on available data.

To finish off, if I had to offer any words of advice to other readers, it would be don't get seduced by how interesting the title and the topic are. The authors ran them both into the ground. You won't get what you came for.

[Maede · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memento Mori

چند سال پیش نمی‌دونم چطور بین کتاب‌هایی که در مورد مرگ می‌خوندم به این جمله‌ی لاتین بسیار قدیمی‌ رسیدم. معنی: یادت باشه که تو باید بمیری. جمله‌ای که رد پاش رو در هنر با نماد جمجمه، ساعت‌ و میوه‌های در حال فساد می‌بینیم و گفته میشه که در گوش افسران رومی در رژه‌های پیروزی زمزمه‌ می‌شده. حتی مانک‌ها با مدیتیشن در کنار جنازه‌ی در حال فساد به مفهومش ساعت‌ها فکر می‌کنند. اما چرا برام مهم شد؟

در سالی که در اوج حملات اضطراب و افسردگی زندگی می‌کردم، ذهنم به طرز عجیب به این جمله‌ی در در ظاهر تاریک دست انداخت و رهاش نکرد. جوری که در بدترین لحظات مثل یک ذکر یا مانترا در فکرم تکرار می‌شد. اما، و این قسمت عجیب ماجراست که، فکر کردن بهش و چرخیدنش در ذهنم آرومم می‌کرد. بعدها گشتن به دنبال چرایی این مسئله من رو با ایده‌های بسیار مهمی آشنا کرد

یکی از این ایده‌ها «نظریه مدیریت وحشت» هست. براساس این نظریه انسان در یک تعارض دائمی زندگی می‌کنه چون از غیرقابل اجتناب بودن مرگ آگاهه، اما میل به بقا بسیار قویه. ارنست بکر در کتاب انکار مرگ که منبع الهام این نظریه‌ست از این صحبت می‌کنه که بیشتر اقدام‌های انسان برای نادیده گرفتن یا دوری کردن از مرگ انجام می‌شه و وحشت نابودی مطلق چنان اضطراب عمیق و ناخودآگاهی در انسان ایجاد می‌کنه که فرد تمام عمرش رو صرف معنا بخشیدن به زندگی می‌کنه

کتاب «کرم در هسته» توسط جف گرینبرگ، شلدون سولومون و تام پیشزینسکی نوشته شده که ارائه‌دهندگان این تئوری هستند و در طول کتاب ایده و تحقیقاتشون رو توضیح میدن. شاید جالب‌ترین بخش کتاب آزمایش‌های زیادیه که نشان میده افراد بعد از یادآوری مرگ چطور رفتارها و نظراتشون رو تغییر میدن و این در سطح فردی و اجتماعی چطور تاثیرگذاره. این آگاهی ناخودآگاه از مرگ مثل کرمیه که از درون فرد رو می‌خوره و باعث میشه با اضطراب زیستن دست و پنجه نرم کنه

شاید به همین دلیله که بسیاری از ادیان و فلسفه‌های فکری انسان رو‌ وادار می‌کنند که با این حقیقت رو به رو بشه و اجازه بده مغزش آگاهانه به این مسئله بپردازه. مسئله‌ای که البته (فعلاً) قابل حل نیست اما فکر می‌کنم مثل هر چیز دیگه‌ای در زندگی تنها راه سر کردن باهاش اینه که بپذیریش و این شاید دستاورد تمام زندگیه

The only way out is through.

کتاب و صوتیش رو می‌تونید از اینجا دانلود کنید
Maede's Books

۱۴۰۴/۱/۲۸

[David Steele · Rating 2 out of 5]

A thoughtful and considered book, by people who have earned the right to be considered experts in their field.
I can't remember where I first heard about Terror Management Theory, but the concept seemed exciting, so here I am.
It seems much of this work is based upon books by Ernst Becker which became popular in the 1970s but didn't gain much traction. This book is the attempt to provide scientific rigour to Becker's theories, by augmenting them with more than 30 years worth of evidence-based research.
Which, oddly enough is why this book (for me) amounted to little more than a collection of missed opportunities.
In study after study, the authors reported experiments in two types of subject groups - those who were encouraged to think deeply about the nature of their own death, and those who were encouraged to think deeply about some other subject, such as their own experience of pain. The researchers then compared their test subjects' responses to a wide range of questions.
In just about every case study, the authors claim conclusive findings without providing any data to back up their assertions. Frequently unquantified expressions such as "This group preferred - " or "There was a tendency to - " filled the book with woolly factoids which, although probably true, makes no distinction between a significant number or a majority of one.
In one study which did quantify its results, the distinction is made between 10% of one group, and "over a third" of another. But no indication is provided relating to the sample size. If you're dealing with a dozen test subjects, this difference could be as small as three people.

Other missed opportunities relate to insights which were startling by their omission. Maybe these factors were edited out, but for a book which examines our relationship with death, I was baffled at their lack of inclusion.
Missed opportunity 1) The nature of sacrifice is discussed with no mention of the link between the "green man" of celtic mythology and the image of a "suffering Christ". This sacrificial narrative - of Jesus being sacrificed and conquering death at Easter - is fundamental to the West's relationship with death and, in turn, our place in the earth.
Missed opportunity 2) Lots of talk about the relationship between sex and death without any reference to ample studies documenting increased sexual activity / arousal / birth rates after exposure to death.
Missed opportunity 3) No mention of Ash Wednesday and the period of lent, in which Christians are reminded that they are from ashes - and to ashes they will return. The whole nature of lent is based on our reconciling our relationship with death. Similarly, no mention of Halloween or the Day of the Dead, which also acts as a Momento Mori for everyone to maintain a relationship with mortality. For that matter - no mention of Momento Mori, period.
Missed opportunity 4) A section on the meaning of life that mentions Victor Frankl with no reference to Man's Search for Meaning, and mentions Albert Camus with no mention of The Myth of Sisyphus, which is probably the most important work on embracing the pointlessness of life for its own sake. The book even goes on make a passing reference to Epictetus without ever once pausing to draw the reader's attention to the unquestionable value of Stoic philosophy to anyone struggling with grief.

A lot of this book relies on the significantly outdated (and largely debunked) theories relating to self esteem. If you're interested in that debate, I suggest you have a look at Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us. This book makes an oft-repeated claim that self esteem insulates us from the negative affects of death terror. Maybe it does, but in the experiment quoted, the elevated performance of the subject who had their self-esteem raised may well have been less worried about an electric shock because they were enjoying a dopamine hit from being told they did well. This is very different to having high self esteem.
Significant leftist bias
From a Structuralist point of view, you can also tell a lot about how authors see the world by the choice of language they use. It gives you an insight into the lens which determines their model of the world. To be fair, the authors cited Marx and Kierkegaard in their introduction, which should have been taken as fair warning.
Throughout this book, the repeated assertion is made that thoughts about death tend to make people more insular, less welcoming of strangers, more likely to favour people of our own heritage, and more likely to follow strong leaders. The underlying implication in all these examples is that conservative traits are negative traits.
Other research in this book shows that thoughts about death also lead to people doing more of what they value the most. For example, somebody who enjoys playing computer games is apparently more likely to want to play games after being reminded of their own mortality. Somebody obsessed with the guitar is more likely to play more after being reminded of their own mortality. Somebody who smokes 60 a day is more likely to smoke after the same experiment.
It would be interesting to see if the ubiquitous increases in levels of nationalism, racism, etc were replicated if the control group was a group of hard-line leftists. Would reminders of death actually make these people less liberal (since their identities and sense of value are built around that world view)? But the experimenters apparently had no interest in that experiment. Because, much like a goldfish, you can't see the water you're already swimming in.
As an example of this bias, the authors use masculine and feminine pronouns in the same paragraph - with feminine to discuss positive traits, and masculine to discuss the negative. Here's an example from page 60:

For example, a narcisist who fancies himself a great runner might be at the track every day with casual joggers from the neighbourhood. He goes to great lengths to ensure the joggers know he can run faster than they can, and he works hard to solicit their admiration, but he's not likely to be found anywhere near the track when aspiring Olympic athletes drop by. Facing more able competition would paint a much less flattering picture of his actual skill and would fail to elicit the adulation that comes from zipping past the locals. In contrast, a runner secure self-esteem would be proud of her accomplishments but more interested in self improvement than winning. She would be eager to run with Olympic athletes; that way she could get inspired, learn from them and get an accurate gauge of her skills.

The book takes a mostly fair look at non-western cultures, but occasionally fetishizes these as models of enlightenment and wisdom in ways that would convince you that their shit never stank. I've nothing against a healthy admiration for any culture, but this narrative was so blanketed in the myth of the Noble Savage that it was almost comedic.
By the way, according to this book, men also hate women because women make them hard, and that reminds men that they are animals, which in turn means that men realise that they are going to die. I'm glad we got that cleared up.
Somebody wrote that with a straight face.

[John Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. The book is a restatement, confirmation, refinement, and elaboration of Ernest Becker’s 1973 classic The Denial of Death. The authors of “Worm” were so taken by the earlier book, they committed the next thirty years to conducting experiments and collecting evidence to confirm Becker’s thesis.

The worm at the core is the awareness of death that only we humans experience. This creates an existential fear of death that other species don’t suffer. Living with this fear would be an evolutionary barrier.

Terror management theory says that humans evolved two psychological mechanisms to stave off this fear. First, we have collectively developed cultures, and individually maintain faith in those cultural worldviews of which we are part. Culture imparts a sense of order, meaning, and permanence, and faith in it provides a sense that we are part of something greater than ourselves. Second is self-esteem, a feeling that we are personally significant within the culture in which we are embedded. We combat mortality by striving for significance.

We are consumed with “maintaining confidence in our cultural scheme of things and satisfying the standards of value associated with it.” We live up to our roles and values, whether parent, employee, professional, believer, artist, etc. To the extent we fulfill our roles in the broader culture successfully, the better we are able to keep the terror of death at bay.

The authors describe how different cultural institutions evolved as responses to death terror. Most obviously and most significantly was religion and ritual. Religion, a sense of the supernatural, was an “adaptive and imaginative leap” to stave off the fear of death. Most religions placed humans as central to the transcendental drama, and provided a sense of control over death and a meaning to life. Religion “gave our ancestors a sense of community and shared reality, a worldview, without which coordinated and cooperative activities in large groups of humans would be difficult, if not impossible, to sustain.” Other cultural institutions discussed by the authors include art, architecture, monuments, , even clothing and food.

They also discuss how failure to adequately fulfill our social roles and develop self-esteem can lead to various psychological issues. To avoid self-awareness and the coincident recognition of their finitude, people squander their lives in trivial pursuits, or are obsessed with greedily accumulating money or stuff or blindly lusting for power and honor. If our defenses are insufficient, we may demean those whose values or lifestyles are different from our own. This can result in stereotyping, discrimination, and even war. Death anxiety can also lead to other psychological disorders such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sociopathy, phobias, anorexia, depression.

Two fundamental responses to our death anxiety are characterized by the authors as the “rock” and the “hard place.” Rock worldviews provide clear and simples bases of meaning, self-worth, and immortality, and they afford psychological security for those who sustain faith in, and feel valued within, them. However, they can foster a tribal mentality that breeds hatred and intergroup conflict.

The “hard place,” by contrast, is more complex and nuanced. There may (or may not) be an ultimate meaning or truth out there, but we can never fully grasp it because we are finite, limited beings. Meaning and values are essentially human creations. Meaning, self-worth, and immortality are never certain, so anxiety prevails. Those living in the hard place often take refuge in drugs, alcohol, hedonism, self-help books, spiritual fads, etc.

They summarize by saying “The rock provides psychological security but takes a terrible toll on those victimized by angry and self-righteous crusades to rid the world of evil. The hard place yields perhaps a more compassionate view of the world, but is less effective at buffering death anxiety. Somehow we need to fashion worldviews that yield psychological security, like the rock, but also promote tolerance and acceptance of ambiguity, like the hard place.”

What to do? We need to come to terms with death. We need to seek enduring significance through our own “combination of meanings and values, social connections, spirituality, personal accomplishments, identifications with nature, and momentary experiences of transcendence.” We also should “promote cultural worldviews that provide such paths while encouraging tolerance of uncertainty and others who harbor different beliefs.”

[Parnian · Rating 5 out of 5]

دلیلی که اینقدر طولش دادم تا براش ریویو بنویسم، این بود که میخواستم دوباره بخونمش، اودیوش رو هم گوش دادم. واقعا کتاب خیلی خوبی بود و یکی از بهترین نان‌فیکشن هایی بود که خوندم، فکر می‌کنم قسمت های حیلی زیادی ازین کتاب رو هایلایت کردم که توی یه ریویو جا نمیشه، احتمالا توی برنامه‌ام باشه که حتما دوباره امسال این کتاب رو ریرید کنم و یه ریویوی مفصل تر براش بنویسم.

[Jt O'Neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death was fascinating but his assertions had not been proven so the book lost some of its impact. Ten years after its publication, the three authors of The Worm at the Core decided to undertake research to provide evidence that our unconscious fear of death does, in fact, drive much of human behavior. The results of their research are presented in a readable and clear fashion in this book. Some of the assertions seem obvious (how religion calms fears of death, for example) but the authors do show , by culling through over 250 experiments from around the globe, that Ernest Becker was on the right track. The authors introduce terror management theory. This comes directly from Becker's work and the followup research. It says that humans are unique in the animal kingdom because they have both the desire to live and the knowledge that death is inevitable. This conflict then is how to manage the terror of death and the solution rests in cultural connections. Cultural values can give meaning to life and that meaning and those connections can help people manage the terror of death.
There's a great paragraph towards the end of the book that exhorts people to come to terms with death by following some strategies that will give meaning to your own life and will enhance the community. Very thought provoking book.

[Markus]

Der Mensch ist wahrscheinlich das einzige irdische Lebewesen, dessen Verstand so weit entwickelt ist, dass er über das Wissen und die Antizipation seines eigenen Todes verfügt. So sicher dieser Tod ist, widerspricht er diametral dem Überlebenstrieb - oder wie immer man dieses tief verankerte Prinzip der Selbsterhaltung nennen mag, das schon in jedem Einzeller biologisch verankert ist.

Wie kann ein vernünftiges Wesen diesen unauflösbaren Widerspruch zwischen Biologie und Einsicht bewältigen, ohne zu verzweifeln oder verrückt zu werden? Kann es sein, dass die Menschheit einen Gutteil ihrer Kreativität darin investiert, dieses Dilemma durch Selbstbetrug zu lösen?

Religionen versprechen ewiges Leben, manche körperlich in anderen Welten, andere als Seele, die als überirdische Existenz unabhängig von Materie existiert. Auch symbolisches Überleben kann ein Trost sein, sei es im genealogischen Erbe einer Familie, sei es in Werk und Namen eines Künstlers oder Berühmtheit, die als Marmorblock oder in Geschichtsbüchern überdauert, oder womöglich im Heldentod, den der Patriot für das Vaterland stirbt und darin tausend Jahre fortlebt.

Ernest Becker, amerikanischer Kult-Anthropologe der 1980er Jahre war der Meinung, dass praktisch alle soziokulturellen Errungenschaften der Menschheit den Zweck hatten und haben, das Skandalon des eigenen Verlöschens zu negieren und dem Überlebenswillen seinem, in das Genom eingeschriebene Recht zu verhelfen. Ein Vorgang, der durchaus im Sinne der Evolution als erfolgreiche Anpassungsleistung zu bewerten ist!

Nach dem viel zu frühen Tod Beckers entwickelten S. Solomon, J. Greenberg und T. Pyszczynski seine Lehre zur "Terror-Management-Theorie" weiter und versuchten in zahlreichen Versuchen auch Beweise vorzulegen. Das vorliegende Buch ist eine Zusammenfassung dieser Arbeit.
Rituale, Religionen, Kunst, politischer Extremismus und alle möglichen sozialen Erscheinungen werden daraufhin abgeklopft, wie sie durch den Schein von realer oder symbolischer Unsterblichkeit die Bedrohung des Todes relativieren und durch die ihnen eigene Gruppendynamik Sicherheit, Zusammenhalt und damit einen Überlebensvorteil bewirken. Gerade auch im Hinblick auch auf zeitgemäße Phänomene, von der beliebten Selbstoptimierung über Verschwörungstheorien bis zum Transhumanismus, erscheint es mir sehr plausibel, dass es sich, wenigstens teilweise, um adaptive Wahnsysteme handelt.

Das Bestreben der Autoren war es ganz offensichtlich, ein möglichst breites Publikum zu erreichen. Inhalt und Schreibweise wurden dafür auf ein sehr niedriges Niveau heruntergebrochen. Vielleicht hätte ich besser das Original von Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death gelesen, dieses ist jedenfalls vorgemerkt.

Die grundlegende Idee finde ich faszinierend und wichtig, auch die zitierten Experimente und Studien sind teilweise sehr interessant, nur die Form der Präsentation fand ich zu dünn. Das Thema selbst ist ja uralt, schon Gilgamesch suchte nach Unsterblichkeit, und es macht Sinn sich das im Licht moderner Wissenschaft anzusehen. Vielleicht unterschätzen wir das Thema heute, vielleicht hat die Verdrängung der Todesfurcht unbewusst mehr Einfluss auf unser Handeln als wir wahrhaben wollen.

[Nicolas Name · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arguably speaking, the most important theoretical work of the latter 21st century has largely been ignored by many in academia and beyond. I am talking, of course, about Ernest Becker's seminal work, The Denial of Death. The authors of this work, sensing academia's refusal to accept the work due to it's lack of experimental research, set out to provide said research on the subject. After 30+ years and 500+ research studies on Becker's conclusions (now renamed Terror Management Theory), the authors of The Worm at it's Core present their research in a clear, groundbreaking, lucid terms.

Overall, the book was a joy to read. The authors, following Becker's writing style, employ clear argumentation with beautiful, captivating, rhetorical flourishes to sustain the argument. One such flourish is found at the end of one of the beginning chapters, where the audience is specifically addressed. Notes about the book: I would personally not recommend this book to be read by those unfamiliar with Becker's work first-hand, as this book is best read as a modern update on Becker's theories. Second, I would not buy this book as a Christmas present for anyone outside of yourself. In my opinion, after having lived with Becker's theories for some time, is that most individuals are not necessarily ready to hear the conclusions of the book, and it will make the readers who accept the claims and premises much more pessimistic about life. It will, however, allow you to understand human motivations and the modern state of art, philosophy, psychology, and politics better than any other book available (Woody Allen, Existentialists, Irvin Yalom, and Bill Clinton, respectively).

Overall, I loved this book, the authors, as it was exactly what I was searching for. Thank you for taking the trouble to write this incredibly difficult work. I, and I'm sure many other readers as well, are incredibly grateful for your work.

Next stop, application of proposed theoretics/the grave.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this book as assigned reading for a Social Psychology course I teach. I've long been a fan of Terror Management Theory (TMT) and was excited to read this long-awaited codified book by social psychologists Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski. Their theory stems primarily from Ernest Becker's Pulitzer winning Denial of Death, which they then based hundreds of experiments as the empirical evidence for many of Becker's brilliant ideas.

It is accessible but stimulating, with exquisite writing.

As grim as it may sound as a topic, it's enlightening and creates a beautifully hopeful and resolute state for an earnest and open reader. By confronting death, life has more meaning and vigor.

TMT is essentially the theory that our unique understanding of our impending death as humans leads us to have terror about our mortality, which in turn leads us to seek for meaning in life (e.g., religion, family, offspring, career, and other worldviews) as a distraction from this terror. We look for ways, both consciously and unconsciously, to manage our terror of death. It's a theory that has a lot of empirical backing and can explain a myriad of human behavior and phenomenon.

As a social-cognition researcher and professor, this is without a doubt my most cherished of psychological concepts and theory. It uniquely ties together my love for philosophy, evolution, and social-cognition, incorporating some of my favorite philosophers of all-time (e.g., Nietzsche, Camus, Schopenhauer, Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius, et al.)

For fans of philosophy (particularly Existentialism), psychology (particularly social and evolutionary), evolution, anthropology, archeology, sociology, and many other fields. This book will change your life.

[Eliza Marin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mi-as fi dorit sa vorbim mai mult despre moarte înainte sa se întâmple. Absenta conversației naște o amorțeală asupra morții atât pentru copii cat si pentru adulți. Dar mai ales teroarea de propria moarte este ceva cu care ne confruntăm in umbra si care ne consuma sa fim mai puțin toleranti, intelegatori, raționali, si iubitori. Ne lasa prada consumurilor, violenței, ideilor fixe, dogmelor religioase, viciilor si unei stime de sine nefericite, care in timp erodează potențialul nostru.
Si nu, nu este o constatare filozofica a la Fight Club, este rezultatul a 3 decenii de cercetare academică dintre raportul de managementul terorii mortii si cum ne comportăm in viata.
Mi-ar fi placut sa fi citit si discutat si subiectul, cine știe, și tradus cartea aceasta în română. Cred ca România se luptă tare greu cu teroarea de moarte.

[Travis Rebello · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few years back, I gave a presentation as a graduate student at the University of Cape Town’s Philosophy Department, with the title “Do we live in denial of death?” In my presentation, I mentioned some ideas from Terror Management Theory, the cluster of hypotheses which form the core of The Worm at the Core. Terror Management Theory formalizes the ideas of Ernest Becker’s bestselling The Denial of Death. It posits that we perceive our mortality as a threat to the meaningfulness of our lives, and that our efforts to cope with the anxiety this produces exert a profound influence our mental lives, shaping our thoughts, emotions and behaviour. Fear of death, the theory says, makes us who we are, from our religious beliefs to our attitudes to foreigners.

In the discussion after my presentation, one of my professors summarized his doubts about Terror Management Theory in a single word: “Replicability.” Lo and behold, only a few years later, it looks as though Terror Management Theory may have fallen prey to the so-called replication crisis, which is laying waste to some of the more eye-catching, headline-worthy, and cute results that the social sciences have churned out. (See the links below.)

In the introduction of The Worm at the Core, the authors recount a story about their first, failed attempt to publish a paper developing Ernest Becker’s ideas. One publisher advised them that no one would take their views seriously unless they could provide evidence for them. This prompted the authors to develop empirical tests that would build the case for Terror Management Theory. In light of the failed attempts of other labs to replicate the results of these experiments, this story can now be read in two ways. Either, optimistically, as the dawn of a fruitful research program that is experiencing some temporary setbacks — or, cynically, as the beginning of the authors’ attempt to produce evidence for claims they believed independently of evidence. Worse still, the optimistic scenario isn’t so optimistic; increasingly, Terror Management Theory faces opposition from psychologists who accept the empirical findings that motivate it but dispute its explanations of them.

A few failures to replicate and the arrival of some rival hypotheses needn’t spell the end for Terror Management Theory, but it certainly means that one can’t take everything from The Worm at the Core at its word.

------------------------------------------------
https://www.cos.io/blog/many-labs-4-f...
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
https://osf.io/uhnd2/download
https://psyarxiv.com/ejubn/download/?...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a nice, accessible summary of work on Terror Management Theory (TMT) by three of the main researchers working on it. My main problem with the book is organizational, in that they don't address one of the public's main objections to this research--"but I don't think about death all the time"--until very late in the book. They address this objection fairly well, but I think it would have been much better, from an appealing-to-the-general-public perspective, to do so earlier, rather than building up their entire body of research first. I am also a bit skeptical of some of the research methodology of TMT, but the issues I have with it are (mostly) not things that could be easily addressed in a popular-audience book like this one. While I also think some of the authors' points about the impact of death thoughts to be overstated, this is also not something that can be easily addressed in a popular text. As a popular-science book, it's compelling, accessible, and understandable. The tone is a bit odd, mostly because they occasionally seem to be trying too hard to insert humor into the book. And the authors do seem to get unnecessarily partisan at times. But on the whole it's a thorough, well-written introduction to / review of TMT research that makes some interesting philosophical points.

[David Becker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awareness of death obviously plays a huge role in the human psyche, but it felt like the authors were constantly overstating their case here, trying to make it almost the entirety of the human psyche. The research cited, while novel and revealing, also seems stretched, with definitive conclusions wrested from often ambiguous results. It adds up to an overheated bout of philosophizing with nowhere to go at the end. Perhaps I just have a different sense of what “terror” means than the authors, but the extent to which they push their arguments just doesn’t ring true.

[Lukas · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read. The theory of terror management explains so much of what is happening around us - nations, wars, egos, celebrities, religions, art… Don't expect to get many answers on how to deal with it though 😅

[Gary Siebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book in the midst of a global pandemic helps shed some light on the various actions and reactions people have undertaken in response to the disease and in response to the responses. The research conducted by the authors is very interesting in its design and conclusions, with implications for a wide array of human interactions and institutions. I personally found the book beneficial in pointing toward ways one can live a more meaningful life while grappling with mortality in the context of losing one's religious faith. The final chapter is especially helpful in pointing toward further exploration of philosophy in this regard. The authors conclude that humans face mortality through two contrasting worldviews called "the rock" and "the hard place", certainty and uncertainty. Each has its strengths and weaknesses that warrant further exploration, and possible integration. I will be reading much more on the philosophy and scientific research underlying this book. This book may be especially helpful for those who have lost faith in religious certainties about immortality and are looking for new ways to make sense of life.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like most folk-psychological explanations of human behavior, Terror Management Theory offers an intuitively appealing account of the role that the fear of death plays in human personality and culture. The problem, though, is that modern neuroscience has completely undermined the sort of quasi-Freudian "belief-desire" explanatory framework central to the Authors' argument. I would suggest anyone interested in these subjects read Paul Churchland's Plato's Camera: How the Physical Brain Captures a Landscape of Abstract Universals, as well as some of the literature on the neurobiology of Cotard's syndrome and similar self-negating delusions.

[Megan Hermen · Rating 1 out of 5]

the worm at the core is death and reading this book made me want to die

[Morgan Imirowicz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would actually give this book zero stars. It was the worst thing ever

[JCJBergman · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Watch my interview with Sheldon Solomon here: https://youtu.be/R1E9n4u3RrY )

An exceptional follow up to Ernest Becker's "Denial of Death". It perfectly encapsulates the best parts of its inspiration and builds upon its flaws - whilst the former can be accused of being largely conjectural, this book cites numerous studies when extrapolating its thesis.
It should be read in tandem with Becker's book - one is its origin and the other is its advancement through introducing Terror Management Theory ... watch here to hear my review and analysis of the ideas within.

https://youtu.be/XlFsXaKaTqA

[Manu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A big theme of my reading in 2024 was around answering "why am I like this?" The Worm at the Core has given that understanding a paradigm shift. The basic premise of the book is that the awareness of our own mortality is the hidden engine of human thought, emotion, and culture. The title is based on William James' framing of this awareness (more poetic than the scientific neurocortical version)
and the origins of the book are courtesy cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. Further work on the latter led to the Terror Management Theory (TMT) conceived by the authors, which suggests that because humans are the only animals aware of their inevitable death, we have developed sophisticated psychological defence mechanisms to manage the resulting "terror".

A core contribution of TMT is the idea that cultural worldviews and self-esteem act as psychological defence mechanisms against death anxiety. Culture worldviews are beliefs we create to explain the nature of reality to ourselves. Rituals, art, myth, religion all make it possible for us to construct, maintain and concretise our 'supernatural' concepts of reality. They provide meaning and permanence, offering a roadmap for how to live, regulate social behaviour and, crucially, provide a path and systems of value to either literal immortality (through religion and soul, probably the first cultural invention in this context) or symbolic immortality (through systems like nationalism or legacies, art, or children who will carry forward DNA as well as worldviews). By viewing ourselves as significant contributors to a meaningful universe, we buffer the anxiety that would otherwise arise from the realisation that we are merely biological organisms destined to decay.

The narrative moves smoothly between rigorous experiments and real-world illustrations. For example, one set of studies had participants write about either their own death or a neutral topic, then measured how this influenced attitudes toward others. Those reminded of mortality tended to defend their cultural beliefs more fiercely, show greater in-group favouritism, and react more negatively to outsiders. This pattern suggests that cultural defence mechanisms strengthen when we feel most vulnerable.

Self-esteem plays a complementary role. It starts right from our birth - because of our helplessness and vulnerability, we are prone to anxiety and need our caregivers to provide us psychological security. Over time, being a 'good' child becomes associated with protection and well-being, and feeling valued. As we grow up and slowly realise the mortality of people who provided this, we shift to culture as the primary source of psychological equanimity.

Thus, in adulthood, when people feel they are living up to the standards of their culture, they experience high self esteem, a buffer against death anxiety. Achievements, relationships, and social status aren’t just ego gratification, they are markers of symbolic survival. To feel valued by one’s community is to feel part of something bigger and longer-lasting than oneself. High self-esteem acts as a protective shield against death anxiety. Low self-esteem leaves an individual vulnerable to the "worm at the core," leading to increased anxiety and existential dread. To note that self esteem is not just a mental abstraction - we feel it deeply in our bodies. The authors suggest that one way to acquire more self-esteem is to cultivate diversified self-concepts. i.e. psychological eggs in multiple baskets and not be overly reliant on one.

Collectively, thus provides a plausible explanation for two of the biggest political problems now - the popularity of strongmen, and the rise of large scale conflicts around the world, be it around nationalism, racism, religion or any ideology including a lifestyle. If our psychological stability depends on the validity of our worldview, then anyone who can manifest that with confidence is someone we favour, and anyone holding a different set of beliefs is a direct threat. Animals fight for food, water and mates, only humans fight for symbolic concepts, derogating 'enemies' and seek to assimilate or annihilate.

The book is a succinct examination of examining how subconscious death anxiety influences everything from the pursuit of wealth (if you can pay for finer things, people pay attention to you, and self esteem rises) to shopping habits (fundamentally to distance ourselves from animals to deny that we share their fate) to idolisation of celebrities (imperishable fame), and political choices (self esteem from belonging to the 'chosen group' and eternal continuity through survival of the worldview). Schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, PTSD are all maladaptive responses to mortal terror, when previous meaning systems have been inadequately formed in youth or undermined in adulthood.

In the final sections, the book also suggests ways to manage our 'terror of death' (because curing seems impossible). They propose that awareness of death can be transformative by making life richer. It can sharpen priorities, deepens relationships, and promote creative expression, helping us lead more authentic lives. From a lived experience, I am in agreement with this, though the journey is always WIP.

The narrative is very accessible and crisp - the book is just 225 pages. I found it to be very insightful, because it provided me a different lens to study and understand my motivations. Absolutely recommended.

Notes
1. "We build character and culture in order to shield ourselves from the devastating awareness of underlying helplessness and terror of our inevitable death." Ernest Becker

2. The evolution of the human brain led to two particularly important human capabilities: a high degree of self-awareness, and the capacity to think in terms of the past, present, and future. Because we are aware we exist, we also know that someday we will no longer exist. This awareness is the downside of the human intellect.

3. Reactive attachment disorder shows up in traumatised children who don't have an opportunity to bond with their very first caregivers - usually their mothers.

4. Göbeklitepe's archaeological evidence challenge the view that agriculture brought permanent dwellings to humans. It could be the reverse. Living around monuments constructed for ritual and religion might have encouraged people to farm. Digging grabes tilled the soil and removed weeds, and burying grains with the dead might have been the first seeds, with decaying flesh providing nutrients to fertilise the seeds.

5. Similarly money originated in religious rituals as consecrated tokens with immortal connotations. The sacred value of the exchange was the primary purpose. Bulls were sacrificed (capital originates from the word for cattle) and the 'surplus' meat was called 'obelos' (related to "obligation" and the word origin of 'coin') made from metal. Outsiders could use these to join the feast and thus goods were exchanged for it.

6. Sophisticated mathematics began in ancient Greece, courtesy Pytahgoras' attempts to confirm soul migration! Pyramids were also connected to death. Chemistry and physics came from alchemists' observation and experiments

7. We have two distinct psychological defence mechanisms against death - proximal (based on conscious awareness, and quelled by rationalisation methods) and distal (from unconscious thoughts, subdued by culture, self esteem).

8. People with high self esteem are less fearful of death, so are optimisitic people, the opposites of both would seek distraction of some kind.

9. The key to forging good relationships that reduce feelings of existential isolation and loneliness is to have the goal of getting to know another person rather than the goal of meeting your own needs.

10. Robert Jay Lifton's five modes of death transcendence - biosocial (literal connection to future generations through genes, history, values, possessions), theological (faith and literal immortality or spiritual connection to an ongoing life force), creative (innovations, teachings), natural (identifying with all life, nature or even the universe), experiential (sense of timelessness accompanied by a sense of awe and wonder, say through meditation, drugs, rituals etc)

11. Cultural worldviews can be the rock type (black and white - us vs them, for example) or the hard place (malleable and accepting ambiguity). Former provides psychological security but at a cost to self and others, and the latter provides a compassionate view but is less effective at buffering death anxiety

[Viktor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Besvikelse. Detta långrandiga pladder kunde sammanfattas på en sida utan det överambitiösa spekulativa narrativet eller de absurda slutsatser som dras från de cringe ass experiment som framställs som absolut sanning. Skulle säkert ha gillat den för fem år sedan när jag var en ännu större idiot och edgelord än vad jag är idag.
Helt ok skriven.


2/5

[B. Rule · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't disagree with the fundamental theses of this book on terror management theory: that death fears drive huge swaths of human behavior, and that we are insulated from those fears by investing in our self-esteem and adherence to cultural institutions. Stated broadly, we flee from the fear of death by seeking meaning in personal and trans-personal endeavors, achievements, and worldviews. But the (sorry) worm at the core of the account laid out here is that I just didn't find their account to have much explanatory power beyond the generalizations of dorm-room philosophizing. Sure, fear of death drives people: but how? Specifically, why channel that fear into certain paths and not others? To say, "it's all thanatos, even eros is just thanatos" is simply too broad to really tell me anything about the human condition.

This book is really a restatement of Ernest Becker's ideas, and the value-added, if you will, is that the team of authors have supposedly provided empirical support for his theories. Several of their experiments are described throughout the text. While several were interesting, there were many where I was highly dubious that the lines of causation were as clear as the authors proposed. They just didn't seem very rigorously designed to eliminate other variables or preclude other interpretations.

This isn't really intended to be an academic book, though. I enjoyed the fact that the authors ranged widely in their quotes and in making connections to philosophical or religious traditions. Montaigne, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Nabokov, Epicurus and others all make appearances in the text. That said, it's obvious that these authors do not come from a humanities background. The readings of those authors are at about an undergraduate level (at best). Still, nice to see scientists trying to incorporate a more humanistic approach!

Overall, this book contains an interesting if broad hypothesis, but it's padded out and overstretched from what it likely needed to be. Not bad but don't expect to be wowed. And I guess it might be uncomfortable reading if you lack a morbid streak, but I wouldn't know anything about that!

[Addy · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What does it mean that it’s some day of the week, some month, some year? Isn’t that all an illusory structuring of your conscious experiences, provided for you by your culture to help you impose order and permanence on something chaotic and fleeting? If this is a Thursday, how comforting an illusion it is that there will be another Thursday, and another one after that.”

“Maintaining a psychologically comfortable Cartesian distance from our bodies is much easier when we present ourselves as appropriately clothed parishioners at church, or hedge fund managers at the office, rather than as naked, pulsating pieces of fornicating finite species meat.”

“The fleeting reminders of death we encounter on a daily basis instigate proximal defenses to banish death thoughts from consciousness, followed by distal defenses to shore up faith in the cultural scheme of things and boost self-esteem. The ongoing operation of these defenses keeps existential terror at bay, but it does not foster coming to terms with mortality. This requires a more sustained and intentional, emotionally arduous and tumultuous confrontation and eventual acceptance of the simple fact, as psychoanalyst Harold Searles portrayed it, that for every individual, the whole complex business of living—this whole fascinating, agonizing, thrilling, boring, reassuring and frightening business, with all its moments of simple peace and complex turmoil—will someday, inescapably, end. To facilitate acceptance of this fact, existential psychotherapists sometimes guide clients through sustained contemplation of death in efforts to desensitize them to it. Consistent with this approach, people who have had close brushes with death and elderly folks who acknowledge that their remaining time on earth is waning, reported greater appreciation of the present moment, placed more importance on close relationships than material possessions, and report being less fearful of and defensive about their own mortality.”

“The hard place means accepting that meaning and values are human creations. We each combine bits and pieces of our experiences with the ideas and "truths" that we encounter to construct the reality in which we live and to become the kind of people who can make the best of that world. Perhaps there is an ultimate meaning and truth out there, but we can never fully grasp it, because our awareness is constrained by the limits of our sense organs, our mental capacities, and our cultural blinders. This can be a disturbing realization, but it can be a liberating one as well. We do not have to accept the vision of reality that others have given us. Rather, we can strive to fashion meanings that maximize what we can get out of life and minimize the harm we do to others. […] Yet because meaning, self-worth, and immortality are never unambiguously certain, the hard place is a challenging place to be, psychologically speaking. Anxiety prevails. […] So we are caught. The rock provides psychological security but takes a terrible toll […] The hard place yields perhaps a more compassionate view of the world but is less effective at buffering death anxiety. Somehow we need to fashion worldviews that yield psychological security, like the rock, but also promote tolerance and acceptance of ambiguity, like the hard place.”

“For Epicureans, including Lucretius, the way out of this psychological conundrum was straightforward. First, we must become aware of our fear of death; then, we must recognize that it is irrational to be afraid of death. After all, the Epicureans argued, bad things can only happen to those capable of sensation. Dead people are devoid of all sensations, just as we all were before we were conceived. Being dead is thus no different from never having existed. No one is terrified of the time before they were born, so why fret about death, since it is precisely the same insensate state that prevailed for eons before our time? Once we realize this, death anxiety will be eliminated and we will no longer yearn for immortality. This, Epicurus proposed, will in turn make "the mortality of life more enjoyable.”
[…] The lilies of the field and the birds in the sky are spared our existential excruciations. Yet they are also denied the unique awe and delight of finite self-reflective creatures. "It is from some obscure recognition of the fact of death," wrote Scottish essayist Alexander Smith in 1863, "that life draws its final sweetness." As children we have hours of fleeting fun […] but as adults we have "serious joy ... which looks before and after, and takes in both this world and the next." We know, if only vaguely and inchoately, that our finest and most memorable experiences may never, and indeed, ultimately will never, happen again. That is why we cherish them so.
Moreover, add contemporary thinkers such as Martha Nussbaum, Tyler Volk, and Stephen Cave, death is necessary for life to go on […] Each of us must die to ensure "that future generations may grow," Lucretius wrote. "They, too, having lived out their lives, will follow you. Generations before this perished just like you, and will perish again. Thus, one thing will never stop arising from another. Life is nobody’s private property but is everyone’s to use.”

(The Broken Connection: On Death and the Continuity of Life — Robert Jay Lifton) 5 core modes of death transcendence:
1. Biosocial transcendence (literal connection to future generations by passing on genes, history, values and possessions, or by identification with an ancestral line or ethnic or national identity)
2. Theological transcendence (faith in a soul and the possibility of literal immortality, or a more symbolic sense of spiritual connection to an ongoing life force)
3. Creative transcendence (contributing to future generations through innovations & teaching in art, science, technology)
4. Natural transcendence (identifying with all life, nature, or even the universe)
5. Experiential transcendence (a sense of timelessness accompanied by a heightened sense of awe and wonder — can be fostered by certain drugs, meditation, cultural rituals, activities that provide a sense of flow — of losing oneself in contemplation and enjoyment. Such experiential states are most fulfilling when they occur in the context of one of the four other modes.)

“Come to terms with death. Really grasp that being mortal, while terrifying, can also make our lives sublime by infusing us with courage, compassion, and concern for future generations. Seek enduring significance through your own combination of meanings and values, social connections, spirituality, personal accomplishments, identification with nature, and momentary experiences of transcendence. Promote cultural worldviews that provide such paths while encouraging tolerance of uncertainty and others who harbor different beliefs.”

The Thatched Hut of Dreaming of an Immortal, Tang Yin 唐寅 (1470-1524) https://asia-archive.si.edu/object/F1...
Terror Management Theory
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
Ars moriendi
The Broken Connection: On Death and the Continuity of Life

[MelanieLotSeven · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explains so much about human motivation, conscious and unconscious. I’m surprised that the concepts the authors present are not included in general psych classes. In my opinion they should be because, as the authors lay out and have extensively tested, death fear motivates people to create coping mechanisms. Such coping mechanisms include religion, the acquisition of political and/or popular fame, the acquisition of worldly goods, and even the creation of lasting works of art.

Using a conversational tone, the authors first show us some of the many ways fear of death touches our lives, then posit methods through which we can face the truth of our own mortality with some measure of peace and acceptance.

The book did get a bit bogged down in the three chapters prior to the last chapter. I felt that perhaps because of the lack of a female voice, the writers missed beats in the chapter about how women’s bodies (especially menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation) may cause subliminal death fear by serving as reminders that humans are animals. I would have liked to see information about how such connections have been a contributing factor in male dominance of modern political and financial roles. Overall, though, the message of the book was clear and important.

I think this is a vastly underrated book and would recommend it to anyone interested in understanding human motivation.

[Tija Bija · Rating 3 out of 5]

With this book the authors come up with Terror management theory , which has been derived from Ernest Becker’s book “The Denial of Death” (1973) . These guys took Becker’s philosophical/psychological views to a higher level. Terror management theory scientifically validates the idea that human culture is thoroughly influenced by death anxiety (conscious and subconscious). Consequently the authors come up with new findings, which help to explain the nature of such humanly phenomena as self-esteem, prejudice, and religion through the lense of death anxiety and everlasting human desire for (literal and symbolical) immortality.

As I have some doubts of the social experiments, which were described in this book, I still value them as worthy and courageous studies on such disturbing theme that was initially shocking but still unproven, "just" a philosophical idea.

Some given examples and comparisons from American culture were not clear for me (for someone with poor knowledge of American history and cultural aspects).

Wish the last Chapter which deepened the thoughts on how can we “learn to live better with death” was longer.

I believe that Terror management theorists have something to say now about the current state of human world. Somehow I have a disillusioned hope that we are all participants of harmless, planet-size social experiment lead by the chief worm at the core.

[Nenad Savic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very difficult to review this book - I would have rated it 2,5 stars, but since that’s not an option I will give it 3 stars.

While there is an obvious importance to discuss the topic, particularly in a culture where death is suppressed and
even expelled from the discourse, the approach to the topic through reductionist and simplistic experimental method with occasional reference to psychoanalysis, anthropology, evolutionary theory seems a bit like an over-eclectic explanation for authors’ experimental observations that sometimes seem to be stretched for the mere sake of upholding itself. Parallel to this, there is an obviously valid hunch that this group of social psychologists have - exploring and relating to mortality and finitude in spite of having this topic expelled from our culture and science, and showing its fundamental existential position that shapes our psychodynamics.

This book additionally reminded me that evolutionary explanations are always exciting - as they offer a glimpse of an exhaustive explanation of a phenomenon; but at the same, time they are rather theoretically infertile as they narrow down the horizon of understanding by enforcing telos to complex behaviours, feelings, and perceptions.

All in all, this book is at times exciting, but also at times extremely annoying and overly simplistic. I would still say it is worth the read as it outlines the very special way that we struggle today with the only certainty in our lives - the death.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might think that a book about the role of death in the way humans approach life would be morbid, and probably difficult to read. I didn’t find it that way; in fact, I found that it reflected a lot of my own musings about it (said musings being helped along by the fact that for years, my biggest anxiety was about death). As someone with anxiety, this fear and knowledge about death hasn’t been hidden for me, and I wasn’t really surprised by the results of the authors’ research showing that it is a key anxiety for many or even most people.

If you read it without that background, you may feel that it’s rather overstating its conclusions. I think that might be a fair assessment if you try to apply it too literally to everyone. There are some people who’ve dealt with the anxiety, or don’t feel it at all. But in general, I do think that knowledge and fear underlies a lot of human thought and behaviour.

Definitely a worthwhile read, and actually quite smooth and easy too. I ended up reading it all in one Eurostar trip.

Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.