Fleeing the Body: A Terror Management Perspective on the Problem of Human Corporeality
Abstract
From the perspective of terror management theory, the human body is problematic because it serves as a perpetual reminder of the inevitability of death. Human beings confront this problem through the development of cultural worldviews that imbue reality-and the body as part of that reality-with abstract symbolic meaning. This fanciful flight from death is in turn the psychological impetus for distancing from other animals and the need to regulate behaviors that remind us of our physical nature. This analysis is applied to questions concerning why people are embarrassed and disgusted by their bodies' functions; why sex is such a common source of problems, difficulties, regulations, and ritualizations; why sex tends to be associated with romantic love; and why cultures value physical attractiveness and objectify women. This article then briefly considers implications of this analysis for understanding psychological problems related to the physical body and cultural variations in the need to separate oneself from the natural world.
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To be reminded that one is an animal is to be reminded that one is a bleeding, defecating, and ultimately expiring organism.
“To be reminded that one is an animal is in effect to be reminded that one is a bleeding, defecating, and ultimately expiring organism”
From Disgusting Bodies, Disgusting Religion: The Biology of Tantra (2011) · cites this paper as Goldenberg et al. 2000
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- Authors
- Goldenberg, J. L., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S.
- Affiliations
- Boise State University (US)
- University of Colorado Colorado Springs (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- Brooklyn College (US)
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2000-08
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 200-218
- ISSN
- 1088-8683 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7957
- OpenAlex
- W2116503764
- Cited by
- 258
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 7.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
- Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- terror management theory, human corporeality, fear of death, cultural worldview, symbolic meaning, disgust, embarrassment, physiological function, sex, romantic love, physical attractiveness, objectification of women, human-animal distinction, cultural variation
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