Individual defenses against death anxiety

Early deprivation experiences, trauma, separation anxiety, and the corresponding development of psychological defenses set the stage fm an individual's method of coping with death anxiety. Thereafter, people accommodate to the fear of death to varying degrees, through the withdrawal of energy and emotional investment in life-affirming activities and close, personal relationships. The author proposes that death anxiety is related to the degree of individuation and self-actualization. Concerns about death increase as people relinquish defenses, reach new levels of differentiation of self, and expand their lives and persanal power Therapeutic progress poses an existential dilemma an that it increases one's feeling and investment in life and enlarges one's perception, freedom of choice, and personal experience. However simultaneously, one experiences the poignant pain surrounding the anticipated loss of a life that has become me meaningful and valuable.