Makselon, Józef (Wydawnictwo Naukowe Papieskiej Akademii Teologicznej w Krakowie, 1986)
The author considers three main problems connected with the death anxiety: 1) sources and characteristic traits of death anxiety, 2) defense mechanisms in fear of death, and 3) influence of the religious convinctions on the death anxiety. These issues should be a starting-point for the further considerations of the psychopathological and therapeutic aspects of death anxiety. Death anxiety belongs to the most complicated problems in in the thanatological investigations. It has also various relationships with many psycho-social factors. The author argues for the death anxiety is a universal phenomenon and intrinsic to the human condition. Honest and open acknowledgment of the reality and presence of fear of death attributes for personality development (principle of realism).
