Mortals
How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society
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Mortals
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Narrated by:
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Michael Wahr
About this listen
Human society is shaped by many things, but underlying them all is one fundamental force - our fear of death. This is the groundbreaking theory explored in Mortals.
The human mind can grapple with the future, visualising and calculating solutions to complex problems, giving us tremendous advantages over other species throughout our evolution. However, this capability comes with a curse. By five to ten years of age, all humans know where they are heading: to the grave.
In Mortals, Rachel Menzies and Ross Menzies, both acclaimed psychologists whose life's work has focused on death anxiety, examine all the major human responses to death across history. From the development of religious systems denying the finality of death to 'immortality projects' involving enduring art, architecture and literature, some of the consequences of our fear of death have been glorious while others have been destructive, leading to global conflicts and genocide.
Looking forward, Mortals hypothesises that worse could be to come - our unconscious dread of death has led to rampant consumerism and overpopulation, driving the global warming and pandemic crises that now threaten our very existence. In a terrible irony, Homo sapiens may ultimately be destroyed by our knowledge of our own mortality.
©2021 Ross Menzies (P)2021 W F HowesCritic Reviews
"A fascinating tour of our species' attempts across millennia to come to terms with mortality. Mortals offers a stunning glimpse into what our fear of death means for our future. A must-read." (Professor Thomas Heidenreich, Esslingen University)
"As well as being fascinating, this book can also help you die a better death, and live a better life." (Julian Morrow, comedian, ABC presenter, member of The Chaser team)
"A death-defying book from two leaders in the field." (Professor David Veale, King's College London)
What listeners say about Mortals
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 16-01-2024
Narrator was good
Very good :) I loved this book so much and helped my process death when needed
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Josephine
- 23-06-2023
Fascinating
Loved it. Interesting and easy to listen to. Except for the chapter dealing with Harlow's experiments which was heavy going. I'm glad I stuck with it. A very thorough examination of a fundamental driver of human behaviour.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- kristine
- 12-08-2022
a good read
An interesting account of how different cultures and religions perceive/celebrate/deal with death. Very educational. Some talking points rehashed through book to create writing cohesion but this is fairly innocuous.
Content warning for the chapter on suicide, it starts with the thoughts of someone contemplating ending their life and is not healthy for anyone with mental health issues.
A good stepping stone to reflect on one's own personal and cultural feelings and traditions surrounding death and a chance to reflect on if those serve to benefit and respect those who have passed.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sandra C.
- 25-11-2022
Eye opener
Easy read and very informative. It’s a topic that I’ve never really thought about much before and some of the insights were a real eye opener. I recommend this to anyone wanting an interesting read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Valentin
- 11-10-2022
Enlightening
Modern and vulgarises, I really enjoyed it. It brings insight over humanity's cultural, religious, philosophical and psychological approach of death. Very easy to listen to
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-11-2021
EXCELLENT
taught me how to live life through the story of imminent death. excellent work.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- geoffm
- 05-05-2023
A Worthwhile read
Well presented and thought-provoking. The only negative was the last chapter, which advanced the global warming narrative.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Gary L Cavanough
- 28-10-2021
I think this is fiction
Only managed to get to chapter 2 - it was like a sermon - would reinforce beliefs of people with strong views and they would like it I think not me sorry
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 15-03-2022
Read Ernest Becker's work instead
If you want to read an interesting reflection on human society's attempts to overcome the fear of death, read Ernest Becker's excellent 1974 book "The Denial of Death", and don't waste your time on this. This book doesn't say anything worthwhile that wasn't said better by Becker, and unlike Becker the authors seem intent on pushing their left-liberal politics and anti-religion (particularly Christianity) views on the reader. The latter is particuarly obnoxious since Becker, while not uncritically pro-religion, nevertheless overall had often quite positive things to say about it, in comparision to secular "immortality projects". The authors of this book clearly owe a lot to Becker's considerably more original work (they reference him a number of times), so it is a shame they seem to have rejected his views on religion for a much less interesting New Atheist understanding.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- sophiek
- 04-06-2022
Too long
It was an interesting book with a lot of research and great examples but I felt it was too long. I wouldn’t recommend to a friend.
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