The Role of Death Denial in Culture and Consciousness

Bibliographic Collection: 
CARTA-Inspired Publication
Publication Type: Book Chapter
Authors: Solomon, S
Editors: Scott, RA; Buchmann, MC; Kosslyn, SM
Year of Publication: 2017
Book Title: Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Pagination: 1–16
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
City: Hoboken, NJ
Publication Language: eng
Keywords: death;coping;denial;culture;consciousness;abstract symbolic thought;self-awareness;theory of mind;mental simulations, Keywords:
Abstract:

Independent lines of theoretical inquiry in evolutionary psychology and existential psychodynamic psychology propose that the awareness of the inevitability of one's death would undermine the viability of consciousness as an adaptive form mental organization in the absence of death-denying cultural and psychological affectations. In accord with this view, empirical research derived from terror management theory demonstrates that intimations of mortality have a pervasive effect on a wide range of human beliefs and behaviors.

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