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The Denial of Death
TLDR
The Denial of Death as mentioned in this paper is an answer to the "why" of human existence, which sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates more than twenty years after its writing.Abstract:
Winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1974 and the culmination of a life's work,The Denial of Death is Ernest Becker's brilliant and impassioned answer to the "why" of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie -- man's refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. In doing so, he sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates more than twenty years after its writing.read more
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Victims' Responses to traumatic life events: An unjust world or an uncaring world?
TL;DR: In this paper, a framework for understanding the trauma of victimization is presented; the shattering of assumptions related to a caring world, in which people are protected from harm, is highlighted in this model.
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Mortality awareness and water decisions: a social psychological analysis of supply-management, demand-management and soft-path paradigms
S. E. Wolfe,David B. Brooks +1 more
TL;DR: The beliefs underlying the water supply management, demand management, and soft-path paradigms are examined in this paper, where mortality salience helps explain why individuals and societies seek to control water supply and deny their connection to nature and limit consciousness of physical vulnerability.
A terror management perspective on the psychology of control controlling the uncontrollable
TL;DR: Although humans share many features with other animals, the system through which they control their behavior is radically different from that found in any other species as discussed by the authors, and only humans use a linguistically based concept of self as the focal point for cognitive, behavioral, and affective control, which is effected and affected by focusing attention on this symbolic self.
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Loneliness: Lost in the Landscape of Meaning
TL;DR: In this paper, an integrative conceptual framework offered suggests that we coexist in physical and symbolic domains, loneliness is the experience of isolation, disorientation, or lostness within a dimensional domain of meaning, and depression is engendered by deficits in meaningful relatedness.
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The Postself and Terror Management Theory: Reflecting on After Death Identity Buffers Existential Threat
TL;DR: In this paper, an experimental study is reported in which the postself, a person's imagination of an after-death reputation, is tested as a protective buffer against mortality salience effects within a largely secular sample of participants.