A Good Death

If the science of death remains a riddle (we're still not exactly sure why the human body decides to die), the psychology of it has been one of our greatest conundrums. Others die, not us—or at least, that's what most of us like to think. The difficulty to conceive of our own deaths is perhaps some kind of survival mechanism to prevent it from actually happening. Rather than just being a biological impulse, however, our denial of death seems to be a psychological condition rooted in Freudian theory. Americans repress the idea of death; our fear of it so great that it lies buried deep in our subconscious. (The word itself is a major turn-off, which I quickly discovered when I told friends some years ago that I was writing a book about death.) Fictionalizing death through violent (and wildly popular) entertainment helps us keep it at bay, an over-the-top, stylized version serving as a safe substitute for the real thing. Tune in and learn how to conceive of death and make peace!

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