A scenario is presented that provides a clinical illustration of the use of existentialism in groups with older adults.
Fear of death can be defined as the anxiety experienced in daily life caused by the anticipation of death. Death anxiety may be a result of one imagining a future of facing death. This may be through aging or experiencing circumstances that confront one with the idea of death. The existentialist considers death as essential to the discovery of meaning and purpose in life. The existential perspective suggests that death and life are interdependent: The physicality of death destroys one, and the idea of death saves one. The recognition of death can bring some perspective to life and help one live in a more authentic mode. The prospect of death motivates individuals to assume responsibility and respond to the opportunities life has to offer (Heidegger, 1962;Tomer, 1992;Yalom, 1980).
Fully recognizing and being aware of death may decrease anxiety to some degree. For some people, however, life could have a different meaning. Some individuals may have a strong attachment to the world and their existence and not much understanding of death and their nonexistence. Others could have many questions, doubts, and fears about death and of the unknown. One might expect individuals with stronger religious beliefs to have less fear of death, especially when the beliefs involve the concept of an afterlife. However, research has demonstrated that if an individual's faith stresses notions of punishment in the afterlife, then religiosity is positively related to fear of death (Cicirelli, 1999).
Death is a certainty that human beings need to face. Because many are afraid of facing the reality of their own death and the anxiety that goes with it, individuals might attempt to escape the awareness of this reality (Corey, 2000). According to May (1961), "The price for denying death is unde-