Take our Depression Test

Find a therapist to heal from grief

Death is an uncomfortable conversation but it is the most certain aspect of life.

People grieve and mourn differently and have different meanings of death depending on cultures.

Story-telling is a powerful part of human existence.

Our awareness of death can help us enjoy living more.

Death is an uncomfortable topic of conversation at best and taboo at worst. If we are really honest with ourselves, there isn’t much certainty in life; we just don’t know what the future holds, and our memories aren’t a good record of facts. But the one thing we can’t be more certain of is that we will die. Yet in our Western society, it is an unwelcome topic of conversation. Why so?

As a relationship psychotherapist, I talk about death often. Death is very much linked with human relationships and connections: connections to ourselves, to our loved ones, and to the meaning of life.

Death is the ultimate condition that brings up much existential angst for us, which is an awareness of our impermanence. Even those whose existence is remembered beyond their deaths because of celebrity and great achievements will one day fade and disappear. Our own planet will no longer exist one day.

Our consciousness has given us the awareness of death, and we have always made meaning of it. Archaeologists have uncovered graves filled with tools, flowers, and ornaments, suggesting that even early humans understood death not as a mere end, but as a passing of some kind. To bury someone with attention, to mark their passing, to have rituals around death and burials is to tell ourselves that this........

© Psychology Today