Talking about death is difficult. Although we know that dying is part of life, it is usually a postponed topic awkward silencelinguistic detours and a certain refusal to think.
Perhaps a first difficulty is that it confronts our vulnerability, makes us aware that no one is in control of their own existence and recognizes that there is an inexorable limit, all of which generates fear. If you don’t mention it, you try to ignore it and prevent the fantasies of omnipotence from collapsing.
A second reason is the pain it causes touches very sensitive areas the mere thought of losing a loved one.
Talking about death opens the door to painful memories, past experiences, and grief that may not be resolved. Not mentioning the topic is one way to avoid pain.
The human brain is designed to anticipate, plan and project, but Death is an area without a map Given that it is not known what it will be like or when it will arrive, and the lack of certainty fuels fear.
Sigmund Freud said that one’s death was a concept that could not be represented by the mind because immortality prevailed in the unconscious. He explained: “Each of us considers everyone else to be mortal except himself.”
Silence arises from the conflict between reason and emotion. Talking about death is also difficult because there are no common spaces in which this dialogue is natural. A society in which enjoyment is the focus and think about a longer lifespan.
The fantasy that life is infinite can be created to avoid the danger of realizing that both one’s own existence and that of loved ones has an end date.
In most cases, one distances oneself from the anguish of a person or a person experiencing grief because death acts like a mirror forces you to assess your own finiteness. And while that’s useful, it can be intimidating.
On the other hand, death began to be medicalized and privatized in the middle of the last century. People used to die at home surrounded by family and friends, whereas today this usually happens in hospitals or sanatoriums and this shift towards the institutional means that death often becomes something lonely and invisible.
Technology helps amplify the silence by living surrounded by screens that provide constant distraction. Contemplating death, on the other hand, requires pause, silence, and reflection, and these are activities that contemporary life often discourages.
Creating a quieter space to talk about death is, even though it may not seem like it, a way to ensure emotional health.
It is not about making it an everyday topic, but about regaining the possibility of naming it without fear and without fear and understanding that talking about it does not bring it closer or provoke it, but simply gives it there Tools to face the challenge when the time comes or to accompany those who are going through this moment.
Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to talk about death because we’re also talking about love, about loss. But that’s precisely why it’s worth trying, because when we put words at the end, we also focus on the true value of current life.
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