The survival and death of the fittest

When Darwin says that everything evolves in order to survive he refrained from saying whther everything also evolves to die. The instinct to die could be said to be as prevalent as the instinct to survive. Survival is happiness and health. Death is despair and disease. We are somewhat inclined not to include the latter in our systems

Each time we analyse a phenomenon and wonder what survival advantage is being achieved, we must also bear in mind what death advantage is being achieved. We often say that anxiety is part of fight or flight – a survival strategy. We must also admit that anxiety is part of a death strategy – it is the process by which the person’s life will to die manifests itself.