Psychology and Death: Meaningful Rediscovery

• Published in: The American psychologist 1990-04, Vol.45 (4), p.537-543
• Main Author: Feifel, Herman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Attitude to Death; Death and Dying; Forecasting; Grief; History of Psychology; Human; Humans; Psychology, Clinical - trends
• ISSN: 0003-066X; 1935-990X
• DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.45.4.537

The place of death in psychology is reviewed historically. Leading causes for its being slighted as an area of investigation during psychology's early years are presented. Reasons for its rediscovery in the mid-1950s as a legitimate sector for scientific inquiry are then discussed, along with some vicissitudes encountered in carrying out research in the field. This is followed by a description of principal empirical findings, clinical perceptions, and perspectives emerging from work in the thanatological realm. The probability that such urgent social issues as abortion, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and euthanasia, and such destructive behaviors as drug abuse, alcoholism, and certain acts of violence are associated with attitudes toward death offers a challenge to psychology to enhance the vitality of human response to maladaptive conduct and loss. Recognition of personal mortality is a major entryway to self-knowledge. Although death is manifestly too complex to be the special sphere of any one discipline, psychology's position as an arena in which humanist and physicist-engineer cultures intersect provides us with a meaningful opportunity to advance our comprehension of how death can serve life.