The Self-Actualizing Equation

Abstract

Death anxiety has been referred to as a fear of nonexistence or nonbeing. Although we might be conscious of the fact of death, and even imagine we are prepared for it, we are always shocked when death threatens us, or when someone dear to us dies. Although at a rational level we know that death is part of the cycle of life, at an irrational level, we look at it very differently. The idea of disappearing into a void—of having to confront the disintegration and decay of our body—is not easily worked through psychologically. The anticipation of a state of nothingness, in which the self has ceased to exist, is unacceptable. Symbolically, death can be seen as the ultimate humiliation, the ultimate narcissistic injury. Consciously or unconsciously, we interpret our pending annihilation as a devastating blow to our sense of self. As the unconscious does not deal with the passage of time and doesn’t calculate the amount of time we have left in our life, we act as though death will occur to everyone—except ourselves. It explains why we are always looking for solutions to cope with this unacceptable idea. And one way of dealing with death anxiety, is to find reassurance and comfort in a variety of immortality systems.

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

—Mark Twain

In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.

—Abraham Maslow