This book tackles the problem of how anxiety over death throughout the course of a life - though often denied or repressed - persists as a pervasive but unspoken worry, influencing our conduct. It applies this focus to a range of normal anxieties, frustrations and aggressions in everyday life, in addition to specific problems such as dementia, depression, aging, and retirement. The book proposes that sensitivity to this dimension can empower us to develop creative relationships to the vulnerability of others and to ourselves as well. This book will have a wide interdisciplinary audience in the health sciences, in the sociology of health and illness, philosophy, bioethics, and in the expanding field of medical humanities.