Mortals : how the fear of death shaped human society

The Resource Mortals : how the fear of death shaped human society

Label

Mortals : how the fear of death shaped human society

Title remainder

how the fear of death shaped human society

Statement of responsibility

Rachel E. Menzies and Ross G. Menzies

Language

eng

Summary

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

Cataloging source

AU@

Dewey number

306.9

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Target audience

adult

Context

Context of Mortals : how the fear of death shaped human society

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Context

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