The Psychology of Mortality: Death Anxiety Makes Us Hate People Who Are Different

Written on June 24th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

UPDATE – BREXIT: UK votes for Brexit in EU referendum, triggering market shockwaves, on Financial Times, June 24, 2016: Pound plunges to 30-year low after popular revolt;
(my comment: maybe the second punch against the empire will be the election of an US-President named Trump. Now with this Brexit he may become able to introduce real changes. Will it be in the sense of justice for all, freedom and a real development of this humanity? – Heidi).

Interview with Professor Sheldon Solomon, Psychologist – Published on Spiegel Online International, by Rafaela von Bredow and Johann Grolle, June 21, 2016.

The fear of death is our constant companion. Psychologist Sheldon Solomon has researched how that anxiety affects our lives – and found that being reminded of death can bring out our worst.  

SPIEGEL: Professor Solomon, you have spent almost your entire professional life focusing on the fear of death. Can you remember the first time you ever experienced this fear?

  • Solomon: I do. I was eight years old and my mother said one night: “Say goodbye to your grandmother because she’s not going to be around much longer.” And she died the next day of cancer. Afterwards, I went upstairs and started leafing through my stamp collection. I had a lot of American stamps and they happened to all have dead presidents on them. So there was George Washington. He was a great guy, but he’s still dead. Here’s Thomas Jefferson. And then, like a psychological lightning bolt, I was like: “Oh, wow. This does not bode well for me.” And I had what I, at least in retrospect, remember as a convulsing realization that that would be my inevitable fate.

SPIEGEL: And this shock still affects you 50 years later?

  • Solomon: Essentially, yes. In the lovely language of the anthropologist Ernest Becker, there’s always a rumbling of panic beneath the surface of our consciousness. Our big forebrain gives us the capacity to think abstractly and symbolically and we are smart enough to realize that, like all living things, our lives are of finite duration. That conspires to give rise to potentially paralyzing existential terror.

SPIEGEL: Despite being so concerned, you seem quite happy … //

… SPIEGEL: Do our attitudes to death change throughout our lives? What happens, for example, when a doctor diagnoses a deadly disease? Does that intensify one’s fear of death?

  • Solomon: That’s a great question, and I don’t know. But we want to find the answer and right now we are looking at people who are terminally ill. My wife is a bereavement counselor in the local hospice and she talks about how people react completely differently to terminal diagnoses. Sometimes they react as we might expect: They get incredibly anxious, fearful and demoralized. But other times, they literally find life never more meaningful. It’s a psychological wake-up call that instigates a process by which they savor every last moment.

SPIEGEL: If we’re mortal anyway, why should it matter whether we have 30 years left to live or just one year?

  • Solomon: Henning Mankell, the Swedish crime writer, wrote captivatingly about exactly that question. He wrote about his reaction to receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis and how, for 10 days, he felt like he was on his way to hell. He describes himself as both paralyzed and terrified, and then he describes in a very poignant, literary and beautiful way how he comes to the realization that you’ve just proposed, which is, it actually doesn’t matter. He was then able to return to life in light of that realization.

SPIEGEL: Has your research helped you come to terms with death? … //

… (full interview text).

Related Link:

  • Sheldon Solomon on His Mortality, 2.51 min, uploaded by Transcendental Media, Aug 18, 2011 … in this clip from footage shot for Transcendental Media’s “Flight From Death: The Quest for Immortality,” Sheldon Solomon, professor of psychology at Skidmore College, shares his thoughts on his own mortality;

Other Links:

Our views are either similar or coincide – Putin on comprehensive strategic China-Russia alliance, on RT, June 23, 2016;

Ankara bans German MPs from visiting own troops on Turkey airbase, on RT, June 23, 2016;

Sanders Has Leverage But Clinton Will Never Bargain, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, June 23, 2016;

Suisse: Conseil fédéral, fuite et fin – la chronique de Marie-Thérèse Porchet, née Bertholet, dans Migros Magazine.ch, le 20 juin 2016;

THE CASE FOR FREE MONEY, on The New Yorker, by James Surowiecki, in the June 20, 2016 Issue: Why don’t we have universal basic income?

US, New Hampshire: Low-income residents can get relief from electric bills, on The Nashua Telegraph, by Dennis Labbe, June 19, 2016;

Ce qu’on fait pour du blé, dans Le Courrier.ch, par Samuel Schellenberg, le 19 juin 2016: le temps d’un été, la biennale nomade Manifesta pose son art en Suisse, à Zurich. Non sans susciter quelques polémiques autour de sa thématique sur l’argent;

France, COMPIÈGNE: La «vraie gauche» improvise un concert de casseroles, dans Courrier-Picard.fr, par Marielle Martinez, le 18 juin 2016: une poignée de militants s’est associée à l’action Casseroles debout, qui prenait, vendredi 17 juin, le relais des manifestations contre la loi travail;

A Bayeux, les citoyens repensent la démocratie [Vidéo], dans France-Ouest, le 18 juin 2016;

Zimbabwe’s Bond Note Currency – the Arrogance of Ignorance, on Nwhanda Radio, by Prof Welshman Ncube, June 18, 2016: the most damning character of human behavior is the inability to learn from history. And yet one of the things we are taught very early on in life is the saying: ‘Once beaten twice shy’. We are so dogmatic – almost to the point of foolhardiness – that we become spiteful even where good counsel can save our lives;

INDIA: Know Your Gratuity Benefits And Income Tax Exemption Rules, on NDTV, June 18, 2016;

Suspected Sleeper Cell: Was Islamic State Really Planning an Attack in Germany? on Spiegel Online International, by Riham Alkousaa, Jörg Diehl, Hubert Gude, Martin Knobbe, Jörg Schindler, Vanessa Schlesier and Fidelius Schmid, June 17, 2016 (Photo Gallery): In early June, German investigators arrested several suspected members of an IS sleeper cell. A member of the group had turned himself in, claiming that plans were underway for an attack in Düsseldorf. Can he be trusted? The authorities are unsure;

Guaranteed income to replace welfare, Social Security? on The San Diego Union-Tribune, by Roger Showley, June 17, 2016;

La pauvreté, un défi mondial qui reste à relever, dans Les Echos.fr, le 17 juin 2016: Martin Ravallion livre une fascinante lecture de l’histoire de la pauvreté, des techniques pour l’évaluer, des politiques menées pour la réduire;

US, New Hampshire: Assistance remains available to help with electric bills, on Sentinel Source, by Dennis Labbe, June 17, 2016;

Suisse: Le salaire des cadres en hausse de 1%, dans 24heures.ch, le 16 juin 2016: Le revenu de base des manages a augmenté de 1% cette année environ, malgré l’abolition du taux plancher de l’euro et la déflation.

FRANCE: Sanctionner les abus du recours aux contrats précaires, dans Observatoire des Inégalités.fr, par ar Denis Clerc, le 17 juin 2016: pour réduire les inégalités face à l’emploi, il faut mieux former les jeunes et sanctionner l’abus de recours aux contrats précaires. Rendre l’emploi encore plus flexible n’est pas la bonne solution …;

Commander le Livre: Que faire contre les inégalités? 30 experts s’engagent;
à voir aussi dans Google Web-search;

A Sellout of the American Dream, on Technology Review, by David Freedman, June 13, 2016;

The Ultimate Proletarian and the Neoliberal Condition, on Zero Antropology, by MAXIMILIAN FORTE, June 11, 2016;
followed by 2 thoughts about this article, on the Fabius Maximus website, June 13, 2016;

Dix propositions contre les inégalités, dans Alternatives Economiques no 358, juin 2016;

Das passiert wenn du 7 Tage keinen Zucker isst, 10.52 min, uploaded by tomatolix, May 20, 2016 … Felix macht ein Selbstexperiment! Was passiert, wenn ich eine Woche lang komplett auf Zucker verzichte? Und warum ist der eigentlich so ungesund?

Universities Are an Absolute Wreck Right Now – Camille Paglia, 32.37 min, uploaded by ReasonTV, May 19, 2016 … the universities are an absolute wreck right now, said Camille Paglia. For decades any graduate student in the humanities who had independent thinking was driven out …;

In Pursuit of Silence – Kickstarter Pitch Video (October 2014), 4.17 min, uploaded by Transcendental Media, Oct 23, 2014 … is a meditative film about our relationship with sound and the impact of noise that will be released globally … Website: in pursuit of silence;

Website: Women Make Movies WMM; /new releases;

… and this:

uploaded by Hans Lercher:

Comments are closed.