Escaping reality through sophisticated shields against life's pain

People develop sophisticated shields which they use in attempting to protect themselves from confronting the pain of life. Death, suffering and misery are isolated from day-to-day experience because they are unpleasant. This creates a situation where the public lacks the sensibilities to deal with these facts of the human situation. Not only is the living structure designed to prevent confrontation with unpleasantnesses, but language also helps create the illusion of these realities not being present. With death, for example, people use the terms 'he has passed away' or 'gone to meet his maker' to mean that he is dead. Creation of such guards against unavoidable events makes individuals even more vulnerable to fear and confusion when they are forced to confront reality.