Death and Delusion: A Freudian Analysis of Moral Terror

Piven, J. S.

ISBN 10: 159311124X / ISBN 13: 9781593111243

Published by Information Age Publishing, 2000

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9781593111243

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Death and Delusion: A Freudian Analysis of Moral Terror
• Publisher: Information Age Publishing
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 159311124X
• ISBN 13: 9781593111243
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This book argues that conventional interpretations of Freudian psychology have not accounted for the existence and complexity of death anxiety and its intrinsic relation to the creation of illusions and delusions. This book contends that there is sufficient evidence to support the view that death anxiety is not only a symptom of certain modes of psychopathology, but is a very normal and central emotional threat human beings deal with only by impeding awareness of the threat from entering consciousness. The immanence of the fear of death requires vigilant defensive and coping techniques, especially the distortion of reality through these defenses and fantasies, so that over-whelming terror does not psychologically cripple the organism. The fear of death is so horrific that human beings must insulate themselves in religious, social, and private illusions, rituals, obsessive pursuits, self-glorification, and myriad desperate attempts to lie about the quintessential nature of reality. Death is that terror that induces psychopathology. This book demonstrates that a careful reading of Freud reveals a copious amount of material supporting these propositions.

About the Author

JERRY S. PIVEN teaches at the New School for Social Research and New York University, where his courses focus on the psychology of death, evil, and religion.