Fear of Death and Neurosis

This paper offers the thesis, based on clinical material, that in man adaptation to death is a necessary part of maturation and that deficiency in this adaptation is an integral factor in neurosis. It postulates that fear of death is fear of the repetition of mortal terror experienced in early ubiquitous biotraumatic situations defined as object loss or being abandoned by the mother, and that underlying mortal terror—the response in trauma—is primary depression, a state of sensorimotor retardation.

The paper adds to the classical psychoanalytic technique the working through of fear of death, which in many cases seems to be imperative for successful termination. We may formulate as the rationale of this technique that the neurotic uses his fixation to symbiotic dependency, which in infancy protected him against trauma, to ward off his fear of the inevitable final trauma. The amalgamation of obsolete anxieties of the past with the fear of the inevitable final trauma perpetuates the impact of early conflicts and reinforces the clinging to infantile dependency. In treatment