Theory, Research, and Application: Some Critical Issues for Thanatology

Abstract

The current status of thanatological research is illustrated by an examination of a) the most popular line of empirical investigation, and b) the most sweeping theoretical approach yet proposed. Surprisingly, perhaps, there has been little connection between the productive, assembly line type studies of “death anxiety,” and Freud's theory of the “death instinct”–nor have either of these topics had much impact upon terminal care and other practical matters. An exclusive interview with an anonymous death anxiety scale reveals many of the limitations found in this line of research. Wherever else the answer might be found, “Death, where is thy sting?” is a question not likely to be discovered via a fifteen-item fixed-choice instrument. If “death anxiety” research often takes the form of raw and simplistic empiricism, then death instinct theory suffers primarily from mirror-image problems–a conceptualization that strikes many as too philosophical, and which has yet to be linked to clear operational measures. Despite its serious difficulties, the death instinct theory may deserve more attention than it has received from the present generation of thanatologists. Furthermore, death anxiety findings, if used with care, do have some implications for practice. Researchers and practitioners in death-related topics seem to have taken divergent pathways, and give little attention to each other's realm of experience. Better concepts, methods, and applications may require a wider angle of vision among thanatologists.