The Word "Terror" in Terror Management Theory (TMT) - Is It A Problem?

In "terror management theory," the word "terror" is used more abstractly, referring to the existential dread or fear of mortality that humans experience. It's not necessarily about immediate danger or physical threats, but rather the anxiety and discomfort associated with the awareness of our own mortality. So, while it may not align perfectly with the common usage of "terror," it's used to convey the profound psychological unease that comes with confronting the reality of death.

Recently, I was talking to someone about death anxiety and terror management theory and my interests and art (book) surrounding these topics. The conversation was fairly straightforward. In the end, they didn’t care for the word “terror” in “terror management theory.” They implied that it was a poor choice of words and that it was too much—a kind of turn-off. It wasn’t the first time this had happened to me, but this time I wanted to defend it. I had to think about it for a while but came up with the first paragraph of the post about the word terror in TMT.

“Imagine you’re afraid of dying. Terror management theory says we deal with this fear by holding onto beliefs and values that give our lives meaning, like religion or cultural traditions, and by boosting our self-esteem. Basically, we distract ourselves from the scary thought of death by focusing on things that make us feel good about ourselves and our place in the world.”

Terror is defined as “a state of intense or overwhelming fear.” I’m not sure about you, but that’s a pretty good definition for the way I feel about my death (slowly trying to come to terms with it). We all feel terrified about dying. Specifically, we want to be remembered, and we want our lives to have meant something (personal significance). We are worried about those we leave behind, or that our lives didn’t really mean much while we were here. Those are very difficult ideas to assimilate and accommodate. We need to find meaning and significance, and if we’re lucky enough to find those, we need to hold onto them and reinforce them in our lives every day. We feel this way because we are humans and we have the unique knowledge that we are going to die.

Before Denial: A Primitive Painting

I’m exploring some ideas about figures. I have posted some abstract figures before, but I’m trying to work with ideas closer to the theories I’m exploring through art.

I had an idea that came from a book I read last year (and I’ve posted before about it) called “Denial: Self-Deception, False Beliefs, and the Origins of the Human Mind,” a book by Ajit Varki. It is an expansion and adaptation of a Danny Brower manuscript that he left behind (he recently died).

The book presents a theory about how the human mind evolved and the obstacles it overcame that allowed us to be the way we are today. The theory is based on the idea that denial of reality is a factor in how the human mind evolved and how we became intelligent, creative, and innovative.

Varki and Brower believe that humans are the world's ultimate risk-takers, ignoring scientific facts such as the dangers of smoking and climate change. They believe that this denial mechanism became essential once our brain evolved a more comprehensive understanding of ourselves and others. They call it “full theory of mind” or “theory of mind” (TOM).

Denial offers a warning about the dangers inherent in our ability to ignore reality. Denial makes you doubt your own perceptions; it is gaslighting and disturbing, and the effects of it are hidden and unconscious. There are some very powerful theories in this writing, mainly about how humans became conscious, or the point where we realized that we would die. Varki follows through with a detailed analysis of the steps that it took to get there, or here, and the price we’ve paid for it.

The Implied and The Explicit

I’ve been considering the words implied and explicit as they relate to art. When I think about photography, the word explicit comes to mind. It’s literal; it’s “of something.” Yes, it can be abstract, but it’s still something that exists. When I think about painting, sculpture, music, writing, etc., I think of the word implied. These mediums are less mechanical, most of the time. They are fashioned from nothing; the content usually doesn’t exist in “real life.” It can be an interpretation of something, but it’s always different.

“Art as a work in progress: All art is a work in progress. It’s helpful to see the piece we’re working on as an experiment.”

— Rick Rubin, “The Creative Act: A Way of Being”

My concerns and interests lie in impressionism, even abstract impressionism. To me, this form of art is the ultimate form of the word “implied.” There is so much freedom in making art that is less literal, more abstract, and less concrete. I can allow my mind to ponder the theories I’m interested in and create work that represents the ideas without being explicit. As I’ve grown older, I’m less interested in telling literal stories and more interested in exploring the emotions and feelings behind the ideas or concepts. I love photography and will continue to make photographs at some point, but for now, this is a much more powerful way for me to express my ideas.

I’ve been spending a lot of time reading and re-reading Rick Rubin’s book, “The Creative Act: A Way of Being.” He said, "Art as a work in progress: All art is a work in progress. It's helpful to see the piece we're working on as an experiment."

Photography has been a wonderful career for me. I made a living with it for many years and retired as a photographer. I’ve always loved it and appreciated it. As I’ve had time to think deeply about what I’m most interested in now, I find myself drawn to painting. For many years, I’ve threatened to start painting when photography doesn’t speak to me. I’ve dabbled in mixed media quite a lot over the years. In undergraduate school, I did a lot of experimental photography, even painting on images. But this is different for me now. I have specific ideas and themes I want to paint about. My Becker studies opened up so much for me, and I want to be free to express those ideas through post-impressionism, impressionism, and abstract impressionism. I’m no Pollock, no De Kooning, and surely no Van Gogh, but I know I have a voice in this medium.

My goal is to work through ideas and themes around death denial, death anxiety, terror management theory, gratitude, and humility. Those are the big-picture themes or ideas. I have several months now to paint because winter is here. Although I would be painting in the summer or in good weather too, it’s just a great winter activity. I’ll try to post occasionally about my progress. I’ve made 20–30 paintings so far and am still very much exploring techniques and ideas. Stay tuned!

“Existential Dread No. 1,” December 2, 2023, 6” x 6” (15 x 15 cm), Oil

“Existential Dread No. 2,” December 2, 2023, 6” x 6” (15 x 15 cm), Oil and Watercolor

Plate #121 - In the Shadow of Sun Mountain

Morning walks with Jeanne get me to reflect on topics I've been reading about and researching concerning my project. I always come across things that make me think or motivate me. The cool mountain air and the beauty of the changing seasons are lovely; it’s a great environment to meditate on what I’m trying to do. If there’s something that really hits me hard, when I get home, I’ll head to the darkroom and begin the process of making a photograph. Today was one of those days.

It works well on some days and not so well on others. Regardless, I enjoy the entire creative process. It's challenging trying to make visuals that support the concepts or ideas I have in my head and heart. Symbolism is my staple for this work. Yes, the content is "real" and represents what it is, but my desire is to take it to a deeper conceptual level. We’re symbolic in so many ways, and we create lives that symbolize something they’re not. I’m fascinated and intrigued by these kinds of ideas.

I love the painterly quality and color of the cyanotype (below). I’m going to explore some other organic compounds to tone these prints. I used tannic acid and gallic acid on this one. A lot of people don’t like how the tannic acid stains the paper. I like it. It adds a sense of age to the print. It feels like something else—and it kind of transcends photography.

Plate #121-Whole plate toned cyanotype from a wet collodion negative.

Homo aestheticus: where art comes from and why.
All human societies throughout history have given a special place to the arts. Even nomadic peoples who own scarcely any material possessions embellish what they do own, decorate their bodies, and celebrate special occasions with music, song, and dance. A fundamentally human appetite or need is being expressed—and met—by artistic activity. As Ellen Dissanayake argues in this stimulating and intellectually far-ranging book, only by discovering the natural origins of this human need of art will we truly know what art is, what it means, and what its future might be. Describing visual display, poetic language, song and dance, music, and dramatic performance as ways by which humans have universally, necessarily, and immemorially shaped and enhanced the things they care about, Dissanayake shows that aesthetic perception is not something that we learn or acquire for its own sake but is inherent in the reconciliation of culture and nature that has marked our evolution as humans. What "artists" do is an intensification and exaggeration of what "ordinary people" do, naturally and with enjoyment—as is evident in premodern societies, where artmaking is universally practiced. Dissanayake insists that aesthetic experience cannot be properly understood apart from the psychobiology of sense, feeling, and cognition--the ways we spontaneously and commonly think and behave. If homo aestheticus seems unrecognizable in today's modern and postmodern societies, it is so because "art" has been falsely set apart from life, while the reductive imperatives of an acquisitive and efficiency-oriented culture require us to ignore or devalue the aesthetic part of our nature. Dissanayake's original and provocative approach will stimulate new thinking in the current controversies regarding multicultural curricula and the role of art in education. Her ideas also have relevance to contemporary art and social theory and will be of interest to all who care strongly about the arts and their place in human, and humane, life.
Source: Publisher
Dissanayake, E. (1992). Homo aestheticus: where art comes from and why. New York: Free Press.

At The Core Of My New Project: Death Anxiety

Have you ever wondered what makes us (humans) act the way we do? Why are we always looking to blame our difficulties and problems on someone else? What makes human beings racist? Or why do some think of themselves as superior or better than others? What drives people to commit murder and genocide? These are some of the big questions I’ve wrestled with most of my life. And this, at its core, is what my project, "In the Shadow of Sun Mountain," is about.

Over the past 30 years, I’ve made portraits of people from marginalized communities. I’ve asked questions about why we treat people that look different, have a different lifestyle, or believe something different than we do with contempt and distrust. If you read my statement from the work called "Portraits From Madison Avenue," you’ll connect the dots of why and how this started with me.

While I’m not a cultural anthropologist, I really connect with the kinds of questions they ask about human behavior. In a lot of ways, these questions have driven me to use a camera and become an artist. It’s the only way I know how to address these massive, unanswerable questions about our existence and our behavior.

So what is this work about? It’s very important to me that I communicate the details of this work explicitly (the ideas, not the images). I want to make sure the viewer is aware that this is not a documentary project about Native Americans. This project is about how the denial of death or death anxiety influences and drives human behavior. Every human being struggles with it. The theory of death anxiety is responsible for the genocide against the Native Americans.

These ideas are based on Ernest Becker's books "The Denial of Death," "The Birth and Death of Meaning," and "Escape From Evil." I’ve studied his theories for a few years now and have been heavily influenced by them. This is the first work that I’ve made where I directly address it and place the imagery into the theories. I’ve also been reading Sheldon Solomon’s work on Terror Management Theory (TMT) for some time. He co-wrote the book, "The Worm At The Core: The Role Of Death In Life." I had him as a guest on my YouTube show last year. I encourage you to watch it if you haven’t. These are the ideas that are driving this project.

Why is this important? To me, this work transcends photography. It's photography, but it’s not about photography. The photographs act as a catalyst to communicate ideas, questions, theories, and beliefs. And yes, the images are made where some of these terrible events took place. And there are images in the project about what the Ute/Tabeguache used; medicinal plants, for example, or the symbols they embraced. It’s not that the content is irrelevant, not at all; it’s just that the ideas are much bigger than the photographs. For me, this is what art really is-it provides a framework for a larger understanding of something or it can encourage thinking and questioning about the "big questions”. Things that all of us struggle with.

I would encourage you to delve into these theories and learn about them—really understand them. There’s a great set of videos on YouTube called "Conversations With Solomon." If you have any interest at all, you should watch them—there are six videos in the series. And, if you’re a reader, check out the books I mentioned earlier in this post. These are truly life-changing ideas. Becker’s wish was that everyone was aware of these theories. He believed that if you knew what made you think about "that person" or "those people" (“us” versus “them”) the way that you do, you would have a chance to think rather than just feel, an awareness that could change the dynamics of human behavior.

Homomortalis

“Homomortalis” The eternal man.

Ernest Becker - 1924 - 1973

Cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker asserted in his 1973 book The Denial of Death that humans, as intelligent animals, are able to grasp the inevitability of death. They, therefore, spend their lives building and believing in cultural elements that illustrate how to make themselves stand out as individuals and give their lives significance and meaning. Death creates an anxiety in humans; it strikes at unexpected and random moments, and its nature is essentially unknowable, causing people to spend most of their time and energy to explain, forestall, and avoid it.

Have you ever wondered why human beings can’t stop killing each other? Why is there war? Why is there genocide? Those are the most violent acts of death denial (death anxiety quelled). If your beliefs are challenged or threatened, you will lash out or attack those that are threatening your system of beliefs that are keeping the death anxiety at bay. There are many other ways this anxiety manifests itself; wealth, material stuff, physical fitness, sports, heroes, etc. Most of us have what Becker calls immortality projects. Work we do so that some part of us lives on after we die. Please take a few minutes and watch Dr. Sheldon Solomon’s video at the bottom of this page. He explains Terror Management Theory very well.

I’ve contemplated what I’ve spent over 30 years doing, photographing marginalized communities and ideas, and never really understanding WHY I was doing that. Does that ring true for you? Graduate school provided a method for me to connect the dots about who I am and my work. However, that did not answer the bigger question for humanity. Why do we have marginalized communities and ideas?

Have you ever considered what meaning or purpose your life has? Of course, you have. We all have had those moments of self-reflection, or as Socrates would say, “self-examination”. Did you find any answers? I bet you had a difficult time finding good reasons for your existence. And I’m sure this topic rarely comes up in conversations that you have on a day-to-day basis. I feel confident that I have some answers, or maybe a better way to say it is that I’ve found some very powerful theories that have explanatory power.

That’s what I’m most interested in - exploring and trying to answer the question(s) of human behavior and belief. Why do we do the things we do? And, moreover, what can we do (if anything) to control or mitigate the bad stuff.

We have an epistemic crisis going on right now in the world. People are so influenced by social media and the press, they cannot, or refuse to, think critically. Most have no clue about what they believe or why, they only repeat tropes as they hear them. Confirmation bias, the Dunning-Kruger Effect, cognitive dissidence, all in full effect today; look around.

Dr. Sheldon Solomon sums it up like this, “The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else. It’s a mainspring of human activity: activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death; to overcome it by denying, in some way, that it is our final destiny.”

How do you deal with your impending death?