Open Access
Subscription Access
Open Access
Subscription Access
'If Death was a Person':Exploring Death Personification in Terminally Ill, Chronically Ill and Healthy Individuals
Subscribe/Renew Journal
The present study is an attempt to explore death personification i.e. how death is perceived as a person by terminally ill, chronically ill and healthy individuals. The notion of death in the present study was explored using Kastenbaum and Aisenberg's multiple choice questions about nature and image of death. Most participants visualized death as an old man (46.7per cent) and a gentle, well-meaning sort of a person (81.7per cent). The study explains the various responses in the light of the death anxiety expressed by the three groups as measured by Templer's Death Anxiety Scale (1970) as well as empirical evidences provided by some of the traditional Hindu scriptures (such as Bhagavad-Gita, Mahabharata, & Garudapurana) as all participants belonged to the same faith group.
Keywords
Death Personification, Terminally Ill, Chronically, Healthy Individual.
User
Subscription
Login to verify subscription
Font Size
Information
- Buck, W. (1973). Mahabharata Retold. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Deshpande,M.G. (1978). Philosophy of 'Death. Pune:MrutyunjayaPrakashan India.
- Ganguly, H.C. (2007). Fear of death and the Bhagavad Gita-a psycho philosophic analysis. New Delhi: Global Vision Publishing House India.
- Garudapurana(14th edition).Gorakhpur:GitaPress.
- Greenberger, E. (1965). Fantasies of women confronting death. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 29(3), 252-260.
- Hyland, J. M. (1978). The role of denial in the patient with cancer. In Presentation at the Forum for Death Education and Counselling. Washington, DC.
- Kakar, S., & Kakar, K. (2007). The Indians: Portrait of a people. New Delhi: Penguin Books India.
- Kalish, R A. (1985). Death, Grief and Caring Relationships. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
- Kastenbaum, R. (2006). The psychology of death (3rd ed.). New York: Springer Publishing Company
- Kastenbaum, R, & Aisenberg, R. (1972). The psychology of death. New York: Springer Publishing Company
- Kubler-Ross, E. (1973). On death and dying. New York: Routledge.
- McClelland, D. (1963). The Harlequin complex. In R White (Ed.), The study of lives (pp. 94-119). New York: Atherton Press.
- McDonald, R T. (1981). The effect of death education on specific attitudes toward death in college students. Death Education, 5( 1), 59-65.
- Slater, P. E. (1963). The face of death. Unpublished manuscript.
- Templer, D. (1970). The construction and Validation of Death Anxiety Scale. Journal of General Psychology, 82,165-177.
- Templer, D., & Ruff, F. (1971). Death anxiety scale means, standard deviations, and embedding. Psychological Reports, 29(1), 173-174.
- Weisman (1972). On dying and denying. New York: Behavioral Publications.
Abstract Views: 359
PDF Views: 0