Thanatology

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term thanatology ( Gr. Θανατολογία , from θάνατος thánatos “death” and logic ) denotes the science of death , dying (as dying research ) and burial .

Thanatology is an interdisciplinary field of work in which philosophy, ethnology, psychology, sociology, history, archeology, biology, medicine, nursing science and other scientific disciplines have made important contributions. The theology considered this area as part of their discipline. Thanato sociology and thanato psychology are sub-disciplines of this science. Forerunners can already be found in the edification literature since the late Middle Ages (cf. Ars moriendi ).

In the meantime, thanatology can be studied in advanced training courses, especially in the United States.

Development of death research

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The theologian and writer Joachim Hacker dealt with thanatology in the 18th century . The first modern thanatologist is the sociologist and ethnologist Robert Hertz with his study on the collective representation of death (1907). In the 1950s and 1960s sociologists opened the way to a socio-psychological approach to the phenomenon of death. By researching the sociological aspects of death, they laid the foundations for creating care and therapy programs that would be helpful in coping with loss through death. In particular, the book "Tod und Die" (1969) by the Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross did educational work and brought the subject of coping with death to a broader public in modern society.

Research projects in Germany

The interdisciplinary thanatological research received new impulses. a. through the interdisciplinary research projects “Death and Dead Body” (2008–2012) and “Transmortality” (2012–2014), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation , carried out by the sociologist and religious scholar Hubert Knoblauch , the medical ethicist and historian Dominik Groß , the philosopher Andrea Marlen Esser and the legal scholar and philosopher Brigitte Tag were or will be headed. The aforementioned thanatologists also act as editors of the highly acclaimed transdisciplinary campus book series “Images of Death”, in which seven volumes have been published since 2009. In recent times, in the course of the "narrative turn", the intrinsic logic of the narrative portrayal of death has been increasingly asked ("death narratives").

Well-known death researchers and thanatologists

Germany

International

Practical thanatology

One application of thanatological knowledge is thanatopraxy , which is also referred to as “practical thanatology”.

literature

  • Michael Anderheiden, Wolfgang U. Eckart (Hrsg.): Handbook of dying and human dignity 3 volumes, De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-024645-2 .
  • Franz-Josef Bormann, Gian Domenico Borasio (eds.): Die. Dimensions of a basic anthropological phenomenon De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-025734-2 .
  • Klaus Feldmann: Death and Society. An overview of social science thanatology . 2nd edition, VS, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17350-4 .
  • Jürgen Howe, Randolph Ochsmann (eds.): Death - dying - mourning. Report on the 1st conference on Thanato-Psychology from 4. – 6. November 1982 in Vechta. Specialized bookstore for psychology, Frankfurt am Main 1984.
  • Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (Ed.): Ripe to death. 6th edition, Kreuz Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-7831-0485-8 , ( measures of the human being 9).
  • Andreas Mauz; Simon Peng-Keller (ed.), Narrative of death. Hermeneutic explorations of storytelling at and from the end of life , Berlin: de Gruyter 2018 (Studies in Spiritual Care, Vol. 4), ISBN 978-3-11-060024-7 .
  • Matthias Meitzler: Sociology of Transience. Time, aging, death and remembering in a social context . Publishing house Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8300-5455-9 .
  • Randolph Ochsmann: Fear of death and dying. Contributions to Thanato Psychology. Hogrefe, Göttingen et al. 1993, ISBN 3-8017-0330-4 , (At the same time: Osnabrück, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1986: Reactions to death and dying ).
  • Michael Rosentreter, Dominik Gross and Stephanie Kaiser (Eds.): Dying Processes - Approaches to Death . Kassel University Press, Kassel 2010, ISBN 978-3-89958-960-3 , (Studies of the Aachen Competence Center for the History of Science 9).
  • Johann-Christoph Student (Ed.): Die, Tod und Mrauer - Handbook for companions. 3rd edition, Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-451-28343-7 .
  • Héctor Wittwer, Daniel Schäfer, Andreas Frewer (eds.): Handbook of dying and death . Metzler, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02230-1 .
  • Joachim Wittkowski: Psychology of death . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1990, ISBN 3-534-80128-8 , ( WB-Forum 56).

Web links

Wiktionary: Thanatology  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. especially the theology professors Hans Küng (“Ewiges Leben?”, 1982, pp. 15–38), Hans Schwarz (e.g. “We will continue to live”, 1984, pp. 35–50), Werner Thiede ( for example, "Those playing with death", 1994, pp. 80-106) and Edzard Popkes ("Experiences of divine love: Near-death experiences as approaches to Platonism and early Christianity", 2018).
  2. ^ Joachim Wittkowski: Death and dying. Results of thanato psychology. Heidelberg 1978 (= Uni-Taschenbücher , 766).
  3. ↑ Joachim BN Hacker: Thanatology or memorable items from the area of ​​the graves - an entertaining reader for the sick and the dying. 4 volumes, W. Rein, Leipzig 1796–1799.
  4. ^ Andreas Mauz; Simon Peng-Keller (ed.): Death narratives. Hermeneutic explorations of storytelling at and from the end of life . de Gruyter, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-060024-7 .