In this chapter, I focus on the experience of death as a threatening ghost, always residing at the background of our mind. The following topics are explored: the historical marginalization of death, ultimately culminating in death as an experience of terror, the widespread anti-aging industry, which indirectly functions as an “anti-death industry,” and the difference between thanatophobia and necrophobia. As Terror Management Theory has suggested, perceiving death as a threatening enemy can lead to the separation and denigration of outgroups, labeling them as “aliens.” This leads to the conclusion that the marginalization of death throughout history has contributed to the marginalization of certain social or cultural groups in a death-hostile culture.

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Death as Enemy

  • Hubert J. M. Hermans

摘要

In this chapter, I focus on the experience of death as a threatening ghost, always residing at the background of our mind. The following topics are explored: the historical marginalization of death, ultimately culminating in death as an experience of terror, the widespread anti-aging industry, which indirectly functions as an “anti-death industry,” and the difference between thanatophobia and necrophobia. As Terror Management Theory has suggested, perceiving death as a threatening enemy can lead to the separation and denigration of outgroups, labeling them as “aliens.” This leads to the conclusion that the marginalization of death throughout history has contributed to the marginalization of certain social or cultural groups in a death-hostile culture.