Death thoughts and physical sexuality suppress each other in a reciprocal loop

Evidence

Thinking about death had no effect on participants’ impressions of the romantic aspects of sex. However, they found the physical aspects of sex less appealing after a death reminder. … Although pondering the romantic aspects of sex had no effect on the word-stem task, death-related words were more frequent after considering the carnal aspects of sex. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 593

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader terror management theory arc across this book: physicality reminders make death salient, echoing earlier chapters on the body. — connects to: Fear of death is immanent to sexuality through shared separation — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 2724; Cloning’s regression to asexual reproduction expresses a death drive — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 325; Marriage’s physical intimacy can deepen rather than cure a bride’s dread of death

Related

• Marriage’s physical intimacy can deepen rather than cure a bride’s dread of death (similarity 0.89)
• Thinking about death and about physical sex each activate the other (similarity 0.87)
• Death reminders increase people’s desire to have children (similarity 0.83)
• Death and sex reminders make men lenient toward male violence against women (similarity 0.82)
• Fear of death is immanent to sexuality through shared separation (similarity 0.81)
• People unaware of their death fears are nonetheless governed by layered psychological defenses (similarity 0.80)