Children’s specific fears coalesce into fear of their own nonexistence

Evidence

Soon after children become aware of death, it dawns on them that they could die, too. As they ponder their own existence, they begin to realize that they also could not exist. They become little Hamlets as, over time, specific childhood fears coalesce into a general fear of no longer existing. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 125

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Children fear future bodily change as a threat to their own identity — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 729

Related

• Children fear death more than parents realize they do (similarity 0.84)