Introspection = death?

On pages 67-8 of Descent Into Hell, a curious idea (at least to me) is presented. Williams talks about how the people on the Hill are close to the dead. He says, "If...the spirit of a man at death saw truly what he was and had been, so that whether he desired it or not a lucid power of intelligence all himself to him..." (67). It seems to me, as this discussion continues, that Williams says that humans aren't really afraid of dying itself as much as they fear the knowledge of oneself that occurs after death. They don't want the dead to bother them and tell them all that they try to hide or decieve themselves about. Later, Williams says, "Hysteria of self-knowledge, monotony of self-analysis, introspection spreading like disease, what was all this but the infection communicated over the unpurified borders of death?" (68).

So, I suppose my real question is, do people really hide and/or deceive themselves so much that they are deathly (pun intended) afraid to face who they really are? Could this have something to do with Pauline's fear of running into herself?