Fear of Death (FoD)

Role of Justice and Randomness

Hypnotherapy Target for FoD

Candan Esin MD
Irvin Yalom says that…
 «The existential therapeutic position states that what bedevils us issues:
 not only from our biological genetic substrate (a psychopharmacological
model),
 not only from our struggle with repressed instinctual strivings (a Freudian
position),
 not only from our internalized significant adults who may be uncaring, unloving,
or neurotic (an object relations position),
 not only from disordered forms of thinking (a cognitive-behavioral position),
 not only from shards of forgotten traumatic memories or from current life crises
involving one’s career and relationship with significant others,
 but also— but also— from a confrontation with our existence.»

Yalom, I. (2008). Staring At The Sun: Being at peace with your own mortality (Kindle
Locations 2314-2319). Little, Brown Book Group. Kindle Edition.
Irven Yalom ALSO says that …
 Though in everyday clinical work the four are inter twined,
the fear of death is the most prominent and bedeviling
ultimate concern. As therapy progresses, however, concerns
about meaning in life, isolation, and freedom emerge as
well. Existentially oriented therapists with a different
perspective may report a different hierarchy: Carl Jung and
Viktor Frankl, for example, emphasize the high incidence of
patients who seek therapy because they have lost any sense
of meaning in life.
 Yalom, I. (2008). Staring At The Sun: Being at peace with your own mortality (Kindle
Locations 2327-2331). Little, Brown Book Group. Kindle Edition.
Reasons of FoD

 Transience/Dying lonely

 Accidental mortality

 Death in agony and pain

 Life after death issues (punishment in Hell,

be born to a life of bad luck)

Defense mechanism of FoD

 Repression (of meaninglessness, annihilation, transience)

 Denial (for spontaneous unexpected mortality)

 Sublimation (to affirm real ‘I’)

 via reproduction (connection)
 via production (self realization)
 via arts (supply value)
 via HERIOSM (twinship formation)
 Play (infantilism, freedom, aloneness)
Reason for defence mechanisms

 Randomness: Due to biological optimization

principle unpredictability is a threat for life

 Injustice : Any unfair condition is a threat for

survival because extra energy is need to

compensate the loss.
Unsuccessful defence mechanisms,

End up in …

 . . . fear from joy

 . . . avoidance from freedom

 . . . surrender to death

 . . . generalized anxiety