Death anxiety (psychology)

Death anxiety is the morbid, abnormal or persistent fear of death or dying. The British National Health Service defines death anxiety as a feeling of dread, apprehension or solicitude (anxiety) when one thinks of the process of dying, or ceasing to be or what happens after death.^[1] It is also referred to as thanatophobia (fear of death) and necrophobia (fear of death or the dead).^[2]

Types

1. Predatory death anxiety;^[3]

2. Predation death anxiety;
Predation death anxiety is a form of death anxiety that arises, often occurring unconsciously rather than consciously, when an individual physically and/or mentally harms another.^[4]

3. Existential death anxiety;
Existential death anxiety is the basic knowledge and awareness that natural life is short. It is said that existential death anxiety directly correlates to language; that is, language has created the basis for this type of death anxiety through communicative and behavioural changes. However, existential death anxiety, unlike predatory death anxiety, does not involve episodes of psychological or physical harm.^[4]

Theories

Thanatophobia

Sigmund Freud hypothesized that people express a fear of death, called thanatophobia. He saw this as a disguise for a deeper source of concern. It was not actually death that people feared, because nobody believes in her or his own death. The unconscious does not deal with the passage of time or with negations, which does not calculate amount of time left in one's life. Furthermore, that which one does fear cannot be death itself, because one has never died. People who express death-related fears, actually are trying to deal with unresolved childhood conflicts that they cannot bring themselves to come to terms with and to display and show emotion relating to the conflict.^[3][5][6]

Wisdom: Ego Integrity vs. Despair

Developmental Psychologist, Erik Erikson, formulated the psychosocial theory that explained that people progress through a series of crises as they grow older. The theory also envelops the concept that once an individual reaches the latest stages of life, they reach the level he titled as "ego integrity". Ego Integrity is when one comes to terms with his or her life and accepts it. It was also suggested that when a person reaches the stage of late adulthood he or she becomes involved in a thorough overview of his or her life to date. When one can find meaning or purpose in his or her life, he or she has reached the integrity stage. In opposition, when an individual views his or her life as a series of failed and missed opportunities, then he or she do not reach the ego integrity stage. Elders that have attained this stage of ego integrity are believed to exhibit less of an influence from death anxiety.^[3][5][6]

Terror Management Theory

Theory of Ernest Becker was based on existential view which turned death anxiety theories towards a new dimension. It said that death anxiety is not only real, but also it is people's most profound source of concern. He explained the anxiety as so intense that it can generate fears and phobias of everyday life—Fears of being alone or in a confined space. Based on the theory, many of people's daily behavior consist of attempts to deny death and to keep their anxiety under strict regulation.^[3][5][6][7]

Death and adjustment hypotheses

Mohammad Samir Hossain, faculty at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and Medical College for Women and Hospital,^[8] postulated the Death and Adjustment Hypotheses. With the declaration of the hypotheses, two things were postulated. The first part of the hypotheses theorizes that death should not be considered the end of existence. The next segment states the belief that the immortal pattern of human existence can only be adopted in a morally rich life with the attitude towards morality and materialism balanced mutually.^[3][5][6]

Being, time, and Dasein

Martin Heidegger, the German philosopher, on the one hand showed death as something conclusively determined, in the sense that it is inevitable for every human being, while on the other hand, it unmasks its indeterminate nature via the truth that one never knows when or how death is going to come. Heidegger does not engage in speculation about whether being after death is possible. He argues that all human existence is embedded in time: past, present, future, and when considering the future, we encounter the notion of death. This then creates angst. Angst can create a clear understanding in one that death is a possible mode of existence, which Heidegger described as “clearing”. Thus, angst can lead to a freedom about existence, but only if we can stop denying our mortality (as expressed in Heidegger’s terminology as “stop denying being-for-death”).^[9]

Meaning Management Theory

Paul T. P. Wong's work on Meaning Management Theory indicate that human reactions to death are complex, multifaceted and dynamic.^[9] His “Death Attitude Profile” identifies three types of death acceptances as Neutral, Approach and Escape acceptances. Apart from acceptances, his work also represents different aspects of the meaning of Death Fear that are rooted in the bases of death anxiety. The ten meanings he proposes are finality, uncertainty, annihilation, ultimate loss, life flow disruption, leaving the loved ones, pain and loneliness, prematurity and violence of death, failure of life work completion, and judgment and retribution centered.

References

1. ^ www.palliativecare.bradford.nhs.uk/Documents/Education/Advance%2520Care%2520Planning%2520261108/Death%2520Anxiety%2520Bradford%2520Nov%25202008.ppt+theories+of+death+anxiety
2. ^ The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} http://www.escp.org/death_anxiety.html
4. ^ ^{a b} Langs, R. (1997). Death Anxiety and Clinical Practice. London: Karnac Books. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
5. ^ ^{a b c d} http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0078883601/680442/Additional_Lifespan_Development_Topics.pdf
6. ^ ^{a b c d} http://books.google.com/books?id=V-wan_XhkzcC&pg=PA106&lpg=PA106&dq=Truths+about+death+mohammad+samir+hossain
7. ^ http://www.socialemotiveneuroscience.org/pubs/hj_etal97tm.pdf
8. ^ http://www.medicalcollegeforwomen.edu.bd/Faculty.php
9. ^ ^{a b} Mohammad Samir Hossain and Peter Gilbert. 2010. Concepts of Death: A key to our adjustment. Illness, Crisis and Loss, Vol 18. No 1

Langs, R. (1997). Death Anxiety and Clinical Practice. London: Karnac Books.

External links

• http://www.freudfile.org/
• http://www.erikson.edu/
• http://www.ernestbecker.org/
• http://www.samirhossain.org/
• http://www.heidegger-gesellschaft.de/
• http://www.meaning.ca/