Schizophrenic delusions function as shields against death terror

Evidence

Schizophrenics like Pat are unable or unwilling to partake of a shared cultural belief system. Subject to bouts of overwhelming terror, schizophrenics construct imaginary worlds—which are as real to them as this book is to you—to counteract the dread. These phantasmagorical universes are often peopled with hostile and fearsome forces. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 689

Related

• Psychological disorders result from failed attempts to manage death anxiety (similarity 0.80)
• Threatening cherished beliefs brings thoughts of death closer to awareness (similarity 0.79)
• Knowing how death awareness drives defenses enables more self-determined choices (similarity 0.79)
• Without proximal defenses people would be perpetually panicking about death (similarity 0.79)
• Distal defenses minimize the occasions that proximal defenses must handle (similarity 0.78)
• People unaware of their death fears are nonetheless governed by layered psychological defenses (similarity 0.78)