title: Death, neurosis, and normalcy: on the ubiquity of personal and social delusions.
abstract: In this article Freudian theory is invoked to illustrate the connections among repression, the fear of death, and delusional phantasies. Civilization is a structure invented to protect individuals from death, but the sacrifices imposed by that social structure are psychologically injurious and terrifying because society threatens individuals with punishment and death for having illicit desires. Annihilation anxiety may be abated by social structures, but the psychological sacrifice and threat amplify annihilation anxiety. I further argue that immersion in personal or social phantasies quells the conscious fear of death. Individuals vary in terms of reactions to death anxiety and how the complex matrix of fear and terror is nourished or abated in the developmental process. A Freudian reading of the developmental process implicates the inherently traumatic nature of nurture and the necessity of self-deceptive illusions. These phantasies do subdue conscious fear, but conscious feelings of security do not dispel unconscious tremors. Underneath these phantasies, dread and terror impel rigid adherence to whatever phantasy system provides subjective feelings of safety and salvation.
authors.affiliation: New School University.
authors.forename: Jerry S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Piven
mesh_terms: D001293:Attitude to Death / Q000208:ethnology; D002962:Civilization / Q000266:history; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003643:Death; D003702:Delusions / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history; D005201:Fantasy; D005619:Freudian Theory / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D007088:Illusions / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history; D012067:Religion / Q000266:history; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012924:Social Conditions / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D011049:Social Control Policies / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012945:Social Values / Q000208:ethnology