Ross G. Menzies

Rachel E. Menzies

The human mind can grapple with the future, visualising and calculating solutions to complex problems, giving us tremendous advantages over other species throughout our evolution. However, this capability comes with a curse. By five to ten years of age, all humans know where they are heading: to the grave. In Mortals, Rachel Menzies and Ross Menzies, both acclaimed psychologists whose life's work has focused on death anxiety, examine all the major human responses to death across history. From the development of religious systems denying the finality of death, to 'immortality projects' involving enduring art, architecture and literature, some of the consequences of our fear of death have been glorious while others have been destructive, leading to global conflicts and genocide. Looking forward, Mortals hypothesises that worse could be to come -- our unconscious dread of death has led to rampant consumerism and overpopulation, driving the global warming and pandemic crises that now threaten our very existence. In a terrible irony, Homo sapiens may ultimately be destroyed by our knowledge of our own mortality.

How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society

Mortals

Genevieve A. Dingle

Clients enter therapy grappling with a range of difficulties. They don’t speak in diagnostic terms, but instead focus on the everyday problems that confront them. Their struggles may include isolation, loneliness, anxiety, guilt and regret, and problems making decisions in a world that offers seemingly endless choice. In contrast, the cognitive-behavior therapist is trained in the language of conditioning and extinction, avoidance and safety behaviors, behavioral activation and attentional biases. This book explores the ideas of the existentialist philosophers as a bridge between the suffering client and technically trained clinician. The volume is not a rejection of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), but seeks to place CBT in the broader context of the most popular philosophic tradition of the 19th and 20th centuries. Therapists versed in existentialism argue that the individual's starting point is characterized by a sense of disorientation in the face of an apparently meaningless and absurd world. Each individual must become solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and authentically. Each of us must confront the ‘Big 5’ existential issues of death, isolation, identity, freedom and meaning and find our solutions to these problems. The present volume explores each of these existential themes in turn. Each section opens with a theoretical chapter describing the relevant existential dilemma and its impact on human experience. The second chapter in each section explores its relationship to mental health disorders and psychopathology. The third chapter in each section explores the evidence for treating the existential issue from a CBT framework. This book will be of value to those interested in CBT, philosophy and mental health, and will appeal to psychotherapists, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists.

An Integrative Approach to Mental Health

Existential Concerns and Cognitive-Behavioral Procedures

Lisa Iverach

The dread of death has appeared throughout recorded human history in art, literature, song, myth, and ritual. In both ancient and modern societies, the spectre of death has always been with us, stalking the terrified living who seek to avoid its inevitable arrival. Our attempts to respond to the finitude of life range from ancient burial customs such as mummification to computerised chatbots which imitate the personality of those who have departed. Such efforts speak to the uniqueness of humans in their awareness of their own mortality. Yet death is not to be feared. Indeed, it may hold the key to living a vital, authentic life. The many authors of this volume argue persuasively that we cannot live fully without complete acceptance of the fragility and finiteness of life. This unique book explores the dread of death and its management from a wide range of perspectives with researchers and writers from a variety of cultures, academic traditions and disciplines across the globe. The fields covered are broad — including palliative care and grief, psychodynamic theory, social, developmental and clinical psychology, sociology and anthropology, counselling practice as well as history, art, and philosophy. Not only is this book a fascinating journey into the very core of the human psyche, it is also a guide to our psychological health. The challenge we all face is to discover pathways to an acceptance of death that enables a life of significance and meaning. Read, learn, and explore what an examination of the dread of death can bring to one’s life.

Rachel E. Menzies

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