The Broken Connection On Death and the Continuity of Life

In "The Broken Connection", Robert Jay Lifton develops a new psychology based on the symbolization of life and death. At the same time, he provides a method for dealing with subjects ranging from normality and psychiatric illness to history itself. Dr. Lifton explores the individual life cycle and discusses anxiety and tension, conscience and guilt, anger, violence and depression as central not only to all mental suffering but to the life process. He examines classical neuroses, schizophrenia, the experience of death-related stress and the phenomenon of suicide -- all the time emphasizing that a person cannot really feel alive if he isn't aware of death during his lifetime. The inescapable conclusion is that the continuity between life and death must not be denied -- the connection must not be broken -- if we are to function as fully realized human beings. -- From publisher's description.