Curing the Dread of Death (Menzies, Menzies, Iverach)
OVERVIEW
There is a special place in my little academic heart for edited books (AKA mini textbooks, like Transcending Self-Interest and Death and Philosophy). Curing the Dread of Death was edited by Rachel Menzies, Ross Menzies, and Lisa Iverach; it brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines and geographies to write about death anxiety and possible therapeutic interventions.
Theoretical topics cover:
· how humans have come to grips with death across time (myth and ritual, religion, art, etc.)
· how the dread of death is acquired
· secular existentialist perspectives from Nietzsche, Sartre, and Camus
· what attachment theory has to do with death anxiety and our response to existential threat
· secular stories for death and the psychodynamic approach to death anxiety
· Terror Management Theory (TMT) and the adaptive evolutionary benefit of religious belief – beyond prosocial and theory of mind explanations
· the underlying death anxiety in mental disorders – OCD, depression, eating disorders, and PTSD as maladaptive death anxiety buffering mechanisms
It also explores treatment for existential anxiety, including:
· a review of death in existential psychotherapies
· a CBT approach to the treatment of death anxiety
· why meaning-making is the most effective antidote for the dread of death
· how an individualistic vs. collectivistic cultural perspective contributes to death anxiety, and the role of “continuing bonds”
· how CBT, ACT, and DBT can address the two components of self-esteem that buffer against death anxiety (1) faith in a cultural worldview, and 2) a sense of value within that worldview)
· suggestions for re-framing the stories we tell ourselves about our mortality
If you’re interested in existential anxiety (academically or just recreationally), the variety of topics in Curing the Dread of Death will appeal to you.
WHAT NOW? (actions for mortal atheists)
Advice from the analytic revisionists
Chapter 5 reviews a psychodynamic approach to death anxiety and includes perspectives from analytic revisionists like Dr. Salman Akhtar, a scholar and Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Akhtar promotes a positive perspective on death that can include:
· Acknowledging death as expected and a normal part of life.
· Perceiving death as the free return to the stardust of the universe – giving up the individual self and merging with the cosmos. (Because humans generally desire the loss of ego boundaries and becoming part of some bigger, more enduring story, this can be comforting).
· Living a meaningful and emotionally rich life, which directly affects how much existential fear you have.
· Observing the losses of everyday living (e.g., the friends you leave behind, the you from your childhood, a forgotten heirloom). Our lives are filled with small deaths, and through these we have an ongoing opportunity to normalize and re-work our attitudes toward loss and finitude.
Create meaning
I was familiar with Terror Management Theory (TMT), but I had never heard of Meaning Management Theory (MMT). MMT is “a conceptual framework to understand death acceptance. MMT posits that meaning is the best protection against the fear of death and dying because meaning enables us to transform our fears, embrace life, and do what matters most to us.” Meaning is often tied to causes and concepts bigger and longer lasting than ourselves, which also helps us feel like we’re achieving some small immortality. TMT may be unconscious, but MMT is deliberate, an existential positive psychology that encourages us to both confront death and pursue meaningful goals. So, to protect yourself against fear, pursue the task of living meaningfully. Clarify your values. Do it consciously. Seek self-transcendence rather than self-centeredness. Move from a pleasure-seeking mindset to a meaning-making mindset.
Death anxiety is like test anxiety… simply having the anxiety doesn’t mean you’ll do well on the examination. For this reason, you prepare. And you prepare for death by creating meaning and living according to your values.
Other therapeutic interventions
The last chapter is dedicated to personal and clinical reflections on therapeutic interventions for the dread of death. Here are a few:
· Close personal relationships help. Always.
· Don’t confuse problems with facts. There is no solution for death because death is not a solvable problem. How you are emotionally responding to the fact of death may be a problem, but we can’t solve death.
· If you struggle with feelings of meaninglessness in the face of finitude, consider the high price of immortality (try reading: Simone de Beauvoir’s All Men Are Mortal, or Jorge Luis Borges’s The Immortal).
· Look for ways your life will continue to ripple outward after your death. Reflect on the traces you’ll leave behind.
· Review the Epicurean reasoning around death and conscious experience.
· Distinguish between fear of death and fear of dying. Do you really fear being dead, dead bodies, etc. or is it rather the fear of experiencing intense pain, losing your dignity/autonomy, slipping away?
· Reading about death can help, watching movies/TV shows that explore the subject, listening to music, etc. (this blog is a great place to start ;)
IN SUM:
Is this book entirely secular? Yes. Many authors note the ways that religion is tied to death anxiety, but from an academic perspective (rather than suggesting the truth of religious claims).
If I had to describe the book in one sentence? A curation of theoretical and therapeutic topics regarding the dread of death.
Who should read this book? Anyone with academic (professional or amateur) interest in death anxiety.