Elizer Yudkowsky is constantly re-living the trauma of the Black Death.

Bonus round: moderns never see death, in part due to this traumatic overreaction to the Black Death, so they suffer Black-Death level trauma from experiencing even one death in their social circle. 

The Black Death really was extreme and an extreme reaction is rational and warranted, but the idea is to stop reacting to the event when the event ends. The idea is not to fixate on death, and especially not on death alone. It is not the worst thing ever for all time, totally eclipsing all other things.