The Psychology of Death

On the perception and process of death and the progression of death fear to death feeling

 The concept of death is more intriguing than the concept of life and even if we do know what happens in life, we don't seem to know anything that happens in death. The mysteriousness of death makes it a very interesting topic for psychology and like many other subject areas, this topic has not got enough attention from psychologists.

 Freud dealt with this extensively and there has been some very basic research on death. Finally we have to realize that psychology is still a developing and new subject and there are many unexplored areas, including the psychology of death. Although Freud and psychoanalysis has given an extensive death psychology, we have to look at other dimensions and try to associate the philosophy of death with the psychological aspects of dying to reach a comprehensive understanding of the process.

 Yes, death is a process, it is the otherness of life and it is not just the beginning and the end of all life forms but also a perception and also a state of existence according to some philosophies. Robert Kastenbaum's book, 'The Psychology of Death' provides an analysis of many major questions and answers about the process of death. But then there are many unanswered questions as well.

 Death is very important to us because it is a definite fact of life, we will all die and everyone else around us will also die. This is one fact of life that we can't deny, we can't overcome and can't prevent or stop, it is something that will definitely happen. Yet it is also the most indefinite and strange phenomenon as we can never know when or how we will die and 'what death really is'. This definiteness and indefiniteness makes it very interesting to psychologists and death can have many dimensions and is characterized by two distinct features - the perception of death and the process of death.

 This perception develops in childhood when we try to understand what death is when we see people dying. Children perceive death with more curiosity than fear and see it as something fundamentally different and external as when people around them die, it is characterized by lack of movement, coldness and lifelessness of the material body, cessation of senses and loss or absence of all life. Thus initially we are all motivated by curiosity to know what death is and perception of death as it happens in others is the first step towards understanding it. As we grow up this perception translates to fear about the process of death. When we die we lose not just life but all social attachments and the fear of loneliness finally makes us afraid of it. So death fear is a fear of becoming lonely, of changing from life to lifelessness and of uncertainty.

 Thus the perception of death seems to be closely related to the perception of fear and although Freud would say that death instinct is only another manifestation of aggressive instincts and that we all have even an urge to die, the death fear is peculiarly complementary to the urge for death. In other words, we are all afraid of dying and at the same time even have an urge to die. Knowing that all life leads to death, the need to overcome this fear and embrace the reality of dying is the greatest challenge that we face in our lifetime. With human development, this perception is guided by both a fear and the urge so Freud's death instinct is characterized by fear and an inner emotional challenge to overcome the death fear resulting in almost an urge as in the death instinct.

 Psychology will have to differentiate between the perception of death and the process of death and more research will have to be undertaken on the experience itself and 'what it feels like to be dying'.

 This is possible with accounts of near death experiences, effects of brain death and coma and study of some physiological functions that are similar to the experience of dying. This provides an understanding of the 'process of death' and the psychological nuances associated with this process. On the other hand the perception of death is about using all the senses to understand the 'otherness' of death as it is usually perceived as a change from one self to the other self, from a living being to a lifeless corpse and sensing our own change to a cold lifeless body along with the uncertainty of entering a dark and unknown process called death evokes a natural sense of fear along with the perception of death.

 This perception is about using our senses to understand death around us and understand 'what death is' from an external perspective. Understanding the process of death itself from a first person internal perspective would in turn mean going beyond the senses to find other ways of experiencing death.

 Perception of death could be understood from a developmental perspective and death is seen as a construct in psychology and this death perception seems to vary in childhood, in adolescence and in old age. Traditionally psychologists have associated the perception of death with the reactions of shock, denial, anger, bargaining, grief and acceptance. The shock of learning about death goes into denying that death is real along with anger and then we try to provide justifications while finally accepting the process and this is true irrespective of whether the death is our own impending fate or that of others.

 Perception the death of others and foreseeing our own death in the future put us through a period of grief and depression. It is important to provide a child with a realistic appraisal as the child grows up with a certain understanding of dying and this understanding will have to develop a healthy attitude towards death to prevent later complications with death perception that could lead to instances of suicide, murder or mental illness following death of close relatives.

 Thus the development of perception of death that begins in childhood when children experience what death is when people around them die, continues through to adolescence and even old age as the way we perceive death tend to change as our own perspectives on life change. As a child, we perceive death as a loss or strangeness when we touch a cold lifeless body and sense it as fundamentally different from a warm living body but the perception becomes more realistic as we grow to the stages of adolescence and adulthood and see our close ones die. Yet this instills a fear that could be overcome with a healthy perception of dying. With unhealthy attitudes towards death such as when it is perceived as an escape from reality or a state of endless suffering, adolescent perception of death is adversely affected so the death instinct may result in suicide (death in self) or enjoying death in others as in murder.

 During old age, the impending reality of dying leads to distress and anxiety and when this is accompanied by unrealistic perceptions (death as loneliness or punishment), even serious problems of mental illness and depression could result. The perception of death thus goes through a transition from perceiving the death of others to realizing the death of self. I would consider this as a perceptual change with age in the understanding of death from 'death of others' to 'death of self' and thus a transition from 'death fear' to 'death feeling'.

 Apart from further studies on the perception of death (that evolves to death fear) and the process of death (that evolves to death feeling) the emotions that go into understanding death such as fear, anxiety, uncertainty will have to be studied by psychology in this context. The change in perception of death from childhood through adolescence and old age and how this change relates to attitudes towards life in general are some of the topics that can be studied within this context.