Some TV series leave an aesthetic mark.Others leave an existential one. Six Feet Under does both.
A series from the early 2000s (2001–2005), it explores existential themesthrough the lens of a family running a funeral home. The line above is not justa dialogue in a scene. It's a reminder — not of life's end, but of the depth itgains because it ends.
Existential psychotherapy does not treatdeath anxiety as a symptom or psychopathology, but as one of the four “givens”of human existence — alongside freedom, isolation, and the absence of inherentmeaning (Yalom, 1980; 2008).
According to Yalom (2008), awareness of mortality can be therapeutic, ifapproached with honesty. Sorrow, fear, and uncertainty are not obstacles — theyare gateways. This idea resonates with broader psychotherapeutic perspectivesthat suggest psychological symptoms (grief, anxiety, compulsions, etc.) are notsimply problems to be “fixed” or eliminated, but often carry important messagesabout what we need to pay attention to — in ourselves and our lives.
Psychology has increasingly incorporated existential thinking into therapeuticwork, especially with people facing loss, meaning crises, emotional emptiness,or death anxiety (Vos et al., 2015).
This human condition — fear of death — isalso addressed in psychodynamic theories, though from a different angle.
In the psychodynamic view, death is not only a biological fact but arepresentation, shaped by early experiences, internalized relationships,fantasies, and losses.
Death anxiety may manifest as fear of abandonment, disintegration of identity,or collapse of inner cohesion. Fantasies of death are not always conscious —they can appear through depressive withdrawal, self-punishing behavior, orrigid control. The therapeutic goal is not to eliminate these fears, but tobring them into awareness, so they can become more tolerable, nameable, andheld within the therapeutic relationship.
Awareness of mortality doesn't alwaysarrive in clear language. Few clients will say, “I’m afraid of dying.” But manywill say, “I feel like I’m not really living.” Or that time is slipping away.Or that life feels empty.
In existential work, such statements are not seen as symptoms to be corrected.They are echoes of mortality — questions about what has meaning, what isunfinished, what we might regret.
Death is present in the therapy room for the therapist as well. The awarenessthat we too are finite can sometimes feel heavy — and sometimes become an innercompass.
Yalom introduces a deeply moving concept:rippling — the idea that what we do, what we say, and how we are with otherscontinues to create waves, even long after we are no longer here. Like theripples formed when a stone is thrown into water, our presence affects othersin ways we may never fully see.
Rippling has nothing to do with fame or recognition (especially in this age ofself-promotion). It is about the quiet transmission of humanity.
How many of us still carry words or gestures from someone who supported us at adifficult moment? A moment of being seen, a kind voice, a space where we wereallowed to exist without judgment. In therapy, rippling might take the form ofhow a client remembers us, the tone of voice that gets internalized, a sentencethat becomes part of their inner dialogue. Or simply the memory of being in asafe space where one was allowed to be authentic.
This awareness may not eliminate the fear of death, but it can shift the focus:We may not disappear entirely. We remain — in memory, in gesture, in the wayothers live because we once rippled through them.
Ball, A., Ball, R., & Mendes, M.(Executive Producers). (2001–2005). *Six feet under* [TV series]. HBO.
Jacobs, M. (2012). *The presenting past: The core of psychodynamic counsellingand therapy* (4th ed.). Open University Press.
Vos, J., Craig, M., & Cooper, M. (2015). Existential therapies: Ameta-analysis of their effects on psychological outcomes. *Journal ofConsulting and Clinical Psychology, 83*(1), 115–128.
Yalom, I. D. (2008). *Staring at the sun: Overcoming the terror of death*.Jossey-Bass.
