Philip J. Cozzolino

Philip Cozzolino is an experimental social psychologist, who has spent nearly 20 years exploring the consequences of facing mortality head-on, rather than trying to escape it. His research has found that rejecting the reality of death is akin to denying a true part of who we are, which can lead to inauthentic conceptions of the self and to efforts to find meaning that are based on filling an existential hole that we ourselves dug. Conversely, his works shows that facing and consciously accepting our mortality has the potential to 'right our existential ship', fostering a more authentic and healthy sense of self.