0

THE RELATIONSHEP BETWEEN
SELF ACCEPTANCE AND
FEAR OF DEATH

The-sis for “M. Dogma of M. A.
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Marilyn H. MacKenzie
1965

 

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Marilyn H. MacKenzie

tapping different aSpects of the broad phenomena of ”death
anxiety." It was, therefore, suggested that "death anxiety"
should be more narrowly defined in future research. Both
measures (size of drawings and word latency) independently
seemed to reflect anxiety in regard to death. The findings
for the male and female 85 were similar, and both groups of
Ss manifested death anxiety on the two tasks.

An interview and stories about the dead person were used
to explore variables which had previously been reported in
the literature as bearing an important relationship to
psychological responses to death. These qualitative find-
ings suggested that the Ss consciously denied a fear of
death as well as projecting their own deaths far into the
"distant future." The "dead person," in the drawings, was
primarily depicted as being male by both male and female 55.
The stories about the dead person suggested that death is
often perceived as occurring through violence. These stories
further suggested death wishes toward parents. It was
speculated that what is most highly valued in life, will be
related to what is most feared in death. This hypothesis
would include the idea of death as castration, which would
be the most frightening aspect of death to those 85 who
valued libidinal pleasures in life. Possibilities for future

research were also suggested.

 

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF ACCEPTANCE

AND FEAR OF DEATH

BY

Marilyn H. MacKenzie

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Psychology

1965

ACKNOWLEDGMENT S

The author wishes to express appreciation to
Dr. Bertram Karon, Dr. Paul Bakan and Dr. Milton Rokeach

for their time and assistance in the completion of this
study.

In addition this author acknowledges the special
contribution of Dr. Paul Bakan who originally suggested

the use of drawings as an instrument for studying fear
of death.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . .

Rationale for Investigating

the Relationship

Between Fear of Death and Self Acceptance.

Importance of Studying Fear

of Death. . . . .

Relationship of Self Acceptance to Fear of

Death. 0 O O O O O O 0

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . . . .

Early Conceptions of Death (Personification of
Death and Death Wishes Toward Significant

Others). . . . . . . .

Affective ReSponses Toward Death. . . . . . .

Fear of Death . . . . . . .
Personal Denial of Death. .

Sex Differences in the Perception of Death. .

Death Depicted as Occurring
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM . . . . . .

Major Questions . . . . . .
Minor Questions . . . . . .

METHOD . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sample. . . . . . . . . . .
Procedure . . . . . . . . .
Q-Sort Rationale. . . . . .
Q-Sort. . . . . . . . . . .
Word Association Rationale.
Word Association Task . . .
Drawing Rationale . . . . .
Drawings. . . . . . . . . .

RESULTS. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Males . . . . . . . . . . .
Females . . . . . . . . . .

Males and Females . . . . .
Qualitative Findings. . . .

iii

by Violent Means.

(n m +>H

18

18
18
22
22
25
24
24
25

26

26
28
31
55

TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued

Page

DISCUSSION 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 O C O 59

Limitations of Present Study and Suggestions
for Future Research. . . . . . . . . . . . 45

SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

iv

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE

1.

10.

11.

12.

15.

The Mean and Range of Ages of Male and Female
Subjects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Findings Between Major Variables for Male
55 Using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation.

The Mean Reaction Time to Basal, Sex, School,
and Death Words for Male Ss . . . . . . . . . .

The Findings Between Major Variables for Female
85 Using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation. .

The mean Reaction Time to Basal, Sex, School,
and Death Words for Female Ss . . . . . . . . .

The Number of Males and Females Drawn in the
Draw a Person and Draw a Dead Person by the
Male and Female 85 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Age of the Dead Person on the Draw a Dead
Person Task for Male 85 . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Age of the Dead Person on the Draw a Dead
Person Task for Female 85 . . . . . . . . . . .

The Age at Which Male Ss Said They Expected to

Die 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

The Age at Which Female 88 Said They Expected
to Die. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percentage of Male and Female 55 who Stated
They Were Afraid of Death . . . . . . . . . ; .

The Type of Death Described by the Male 85 in
Regard to the Draw a Dead Person. . . . . . .

The Type of Death Described by the Female 55 in
Regard to the Draw a Dead Person. . . . . . . .

Page

18

27

28

5O

5O

52

54

55

55

56

56

57

58

INTRODUCTION

 

Rationale for Investigating the Relationship
Between Fear of Death and Self Acceptance

The main purpose of this investigation was to discover
whether there was a relationship between self acceptance
and fear of death and if so, the nature of this relation—
ship. A review of the literature concerning death discloses
that although this topic has been discussed in detail from
a philosophical and subjective point of view, few authors
have attempted to empirically ascertain the relationship
between psychological variables such as "self acceptance"

and fear of death.

Importance of Studying Fear of Death

The literature on psychOpathology and death suggested
that death anxiety was closely related to the symptomatology
and even possible etiology of neurotic and psychotic dis-
orders. It, therefore, seemed that "death anxiety" was an
important variable to study in clinical research.

According to Choron (1964) the most radical position
in assigning death a role in the etiology of psychopathology
has been taken by a Swiss analyst, Edgar Herzog, who viewed
the neurosis as ". . . either a not attempted or not success-

ful coming to terms with the basic elements of the human

situation of which death is most important." (p. 168) The
schizophrenic and other psychopathological groups were
characterized by Zilboorg (1945) and Feifel (1955) as being
preoccupied with thoughts of death. Zilboorg stated in this
regard:

That this fear is prominant in a number of psycho-

pathological conditions every psychiatrist knows.

The anxiety neurosis, the phobic states, even a con-

siderable number of depressive suicidal patients and

many schizophrenics amply demonstrate that the ever
present fear of death becomes woven into the major
conflicts of a given psychopathological condition.

(p. 465)

Others such as Bellak (1928)_have described the primary
symptom of psychosis to be ". . . the fear of disintegration
and annihilation." (p. 624) Karon (1965) relates the
infantile terror behind the schizophrenic's symptoms to a
fear of abandonment and death, while Wahl (1955) views many
types of psychopathology as essentially representing attempts
to bind death anxiety. Searles (1961) even regards schizo-
phrenia, itself, as representing a defense against death.

He relates the schizophrenic's intense fear of death to his
inability to live fully. Searles (1961) states: "A person
cannot bear to face the prOSpeCt of inevitable death until
he has had the experience of fully living and the schizo-
phrenic has not yet fully lived." (p. 655)

Relationship of Self Acceptance to
Fear of Death

 

Kaufmann (1959) criticized the existentialists as not

fully grasping what he considered to be the most important

variable in facing death, namely self satisfaction. He
quotes Nietzche as stating it:

For one thing is needful, that a human being attain

his satisfaction with himself. Whether it be by

this way or by that, poetry and art; only then is a

human being at all tolerable to behold. . . . or as

Holderlin says: 'The soul that living did not attain

its divine Right cannot repose in the neither world,‘

But he that has made something of his life can face

death without anxiety. 'Once I lived like the Gods

and more is not needed.‘ (p. 62)

Choron (1964) cited cases of famous people who were
apparently comfortable in facing their own death becauSe of
"self-satisfaction." Maurer (1964) also maintained,
"Genuine enjoyment of life seems to be one of the most
effective defenses against death anxiety"; (p. 81) thereby
also implying the importance of self satisfaction. This
theme was also reiterated in a book by Norman 0. Brown
(1959) who suggested that death can be seen as "friendly"
to man if he leads a full life.

Choron (1964) also noted, "It would seem then that it
is not so much the fact of having to die in itself as the
regret of not having 'lived' ones life or having made a
mess of it, that is the main cause of mortal distress."
(p. 164)

On the other hand, an alternative hypothesis was
formulated by Diggory and Rothman (1961) in their investi-
gation of what about death was feared. These authors sug—

gested that ”. . . a person who values himself highly should

be more afraid of death than one whose self esteem is low,

because death is the limiting case of loss or destruction
of the self." (p. 205) Therefore, the present study was
undertaken to discover whether a relationship did, in fact,
exist between death anxiety and self acceptance and if so,

the nature of this assumed relationship.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Early Conceptions of Death (Personification of
Death and Death Wishes Toward Significant Others)

Piaget (1959) maintained that "child thought starts
with an ideal of universal life as its primary assumption."
(p. 208) To the young child everything is alive that is
active, or initially life is defined in terms of activity
or function. Later, it is classified according to motion,
and then this is differentiated into Spontaneous motion and
that caused by an external agent. The precausal confusion
between movement and life has been described by Piaget
(1959) as follows:

. . . for the child, every activity is comparable to

that of life. Henceforth, to appeal to a motive

cause is at the same time to appeal to a living cause,

i.e., to one mentally based on a mode endowed with

spontaneity if not with intentions. We can now under-

stand how a return shock will give rise to curiousity
about death, since the fact of death is an obstacle to
these habits of thought; and to curiousity about the
causes of life . . . since the course of life can be

disturbed by death. (p. 211)
When the child's conceptions of death involve causality, the
"cause" is often anthromorphic and finalistic. This is
similar to the "personification of death” noted by Nagy
(1948).

Wahl (1955), in considering the fear of death in children,

concludes that the child's conception of death is a composite

of many "mutually contradictory paradoxes." (p. 25)

In elaborating upon this he says, "First death is not con—
ceived of as a possibility in relationship to the self, but
conversely, if strong adults die, how can the weaker child
survive? Secondly, death is never conceived of as resulting
from chance or natural happening." (p. 25) This is similar
to Piaget's description of the child's early conception of
death. Wahl (1955) also contends that the child's interest
in causality intensifies his fear of death. Wahl (1955),
like Nagy (1948), notes that causation is personified and

". . . the child feels guilt subsequent to a death as though
he were the secret player. Yet, paradoxically, he simul-
taneously experiences rage toward the decedent, as though he
had been deliberately abandoned by that person. Consciously
these . . . would be mutually exclusive, but . . . in the
unconscious these types of paradoxes can endure in juxto—
position without contradiction." (p. 25)

Wahl (1955) points out that the young child's death
wishes are seldom frightening to him since he views death as
reversible. However, with the development of the time
sense ". . . the child begins to learn that death is neither
casual nor reversible and he then becomes frightened and
concerned about his death wishes toward his ambivalently loved,
significant persons.". (p. 24) Wahl (1955) describes the
obsessive symptoms that reflect the child's attempt to undo
his death wishes:

. . . the most ancient and popular of children's

prayers . . . contains a plea against the fear of
death 'If I should die before I wake.‘ And one

of the earliest symptoms manifested by the thanato—

phobic child is his obsessive blessing of persons

at the end of his prayer. He will often clearly

show his fear that these persons would surely die if

he forgot to mention their names in benison or failed

to repeat this blessing the proper number of times.

(p. 24)
Affective Responses Toward Death

In one of the early studies of the fear of death,
Bromberg and Schilder (1955) demonstrated that "normal sub-
jects" had little conscious concern about death. Means (1955)
in a study of one thousand college women, found that death
was among the top fears cited by her 85, however, fear of
death was specified in terms of the death of others.
Middleton (1958) investigated the attitudes of college stu-
dents toward death and found that 62% of the Ss reported
"indifference" as their attitude toward death. In part, a

response to Middleton's (1958) findings, Alexander, Colley

and Adlerstein (1957) undertook a study, Is Death A Matter of

 

Indifference, suggesting that a questionnaire, such as used
by Middleton (1958) taps conscious attitudes toward death.
Alexander, Colley and Adlerstein (1957) predicted that at a
less conscious level, there would be affective reSponses to
death. These authors used 51 male Princeton undergraduates
and administered a word association task which included
affect words (sex, school, death) and basal words. Death
words were found to be "affective" on both measures, re-
action time and response on PGR, which suggested that at a

less conscious level, death was a matter of concern to their 88.

Fear of Death

 

Heidegger (1954) sees death (or nothingness) as always
being present for man and as providing a background upon
which time and existence can become meaningful. Life becomes
meaningful because of mans' inevitable death, and time is
perceived as a result of being faced with death. Heidegger
(1954) further contends that accepting ones' death must be
accompanied by anxiety and because of this, man often tries
to escape from the fact of death. Heidegger (1954) says in
this regard, "Even thinking of death is publically con-
sidered fear. . . . The One does not allow the courage for
anxiety of death to arise.” (p. 266) Kaufmann (1956, 1959)
sees Heidegger as essentially paraphrasing Freud, but doing
so in an ineloquent manner. In contrast, Alexander, Colley
and Adlerstein (1957) view Heidegger as being in opposition
to Freud, pointing out that Heidegger sees death anxiety
as always being present in man and not a derivative fear as
has been postulated by Freud.

Freud (1955) described the fear of death as a derivative
of castration anxiety, occurring in response to an unre—
solved oedipal conflict. Freud (1955) states that since we
have never experienced death but have, in a general way,
experienced castration ". . . through the daily experience of
parting with the contents of the bowel and through the loss
of the mother's breast which is experienced in weaning . . . ,”

it is castration rather than death which is feared. (p. 55)

I therefore, maintain that the fear of death is to be
regarded as an analogue of the fear of castration and
that the situation to which the ego reacts is the
state of being forsaken or deserted by the protecting
superego which puts an end to security against every
danger. (p. 55)

Fenichel (1948) generally supports Freud's position,
but also sees death anxiety as representing ". . . a fear of
punishment for death wishes against other persons or a fear
of one's own excitement." (p. 208) Bromberg and Schilder
(1955) also agree with Freud that fear of death is connected
with castration anxiety and see death anxiety as "the fear
of loss of something positive. . . ." (p. 5)

In opposition to Freud, Stekel (Choron, 1964) sees all
fear as the fear of death. "Anxiety is in the last resort
anxiety of the annihilation of the ego . . . one can assume
that annihilation of the ego does not mean anything else
but death." (p. 150) This controversy seems to involve
whether fear is over’the loss of the superego (castration
anxiety) or whether it is over the loss of the ego itself
(death anxiety). Stekel (Choron, 1964) also sees death
anxiety as being the prototype of the fear of the unknown.

Choron (1964), however, protests saying that death is a

"known terminator of life." (p. 151)

Personal Denial of Death
Bromberg and Schilder (1956) found that most of the Ss
in their study considered their own deaths to be "improbable.”

Man's belief in his own immortality was first postulated by

1O

Freud (1915) in Thoughts for Times on War and Death who

stated his position regarding mans' belief in immortality

as follows:

Our own death is indeed unimaginable and whenever

we make the attempt to imagine it we can perceive
that we really survive as spectators. Hence the
psychoanalytic school could venture on the same thing
in another way, in the unconscious everyone of us is
convinced of his own immortality. (Pp 276-277)

Zilboorg (1958, 1945) supported Freud by suggesting
that one of the main mechanisms man uses to cope with death
anxiety is to deny death and believe in ones' ”corporeal
immortality.”

We flee from the reality of our eventual death with
such purpose and persistence and we employ so patently
magical and regressive defenses that these would be so
ludricously obvious to us if we should employ them to
this degree in any other area of human conflict.

(p. 178)

Zilboorg (1945) further points out that "our way of life"
fosters this belief:
Life itself, its truths and fantasies supports and
feeds this state of mind. For each funeral announced
or attended, there are hundreds of moving picture
signs and theatre marquees. (Pp 470-471)
Loeser and Bry (1965) suggest that much of our activity
is spent in maintaining a belief in immortality:
Why . . . are nearly all religions concerned with im-
mortality? Why in our ambitions are we so passionately
anxious for something of ourselves, a work of art, a
scientific contribution, a business, or just a good
name to survive? Why in short do we strive for immor—
tality, at least immortality by proxy. (p. 245)

Mollenhoff (1959) also discusses how man has maintained

his "proud edifice of immortality." (p. 154) Choron (1964)

11

wonders if man's quest for immortality has been increased
as a result of the ". . . very real possibility of self
annihilation of the human race through the use of atomic
weapons. . . ." (p. 18) Choron (1964) predicts:

The search for certainity and for uncontrovertible

proof of survival upon death will continue, for it

has proved to be one of the most potent remedies

against the fear of death and the haunting sense of

the futility of life. (p. 47)

The developmental studies of the young child also sup-
port this contention by demonstrating that the child accepts
the death of others but denies his own death. Schilder and
Wechsler (1954) studied 76 children between the ages of 5-15
and found that children often View death as deprivation and
”. . . to the very young child, death seems to be a reversible
fact.” (p. 421) This latter finding has also been noted by
others (Mollenhoff, 1959; Cousinet, 1940; Nagy, 1948; Wahl,
1955). According to Schilder and Wechsler (1954), death is
not seen as final because the "child's own deprivations are
usually not of a permanent or lasting kind." (p. 428)
Although children deny their own death, they can believe in
the death of others. A similar observation has been made by
Cousinet (1940), Nagy (1948) and Wahl (1955). Schilder and
Wechsler (1954) note that the child seems to project his own
death ". . . into a future which is so remote that it has
very little reality." (p. 428)

Kastenbaum (1955) was interested in whether an adoles-

cent's attitude toward death was ". . . part of the

12

structuring principle dominant at this point of his life
or whether it belonged to a second, discrete psychic organi-
zation.f (p. 100) In studying the adolescent's conception
of time and death, Kastenbaum (1955) reported that the
adolescent focuseSfon1thexpresentgandotends to keep the past
and the future at a distance. The distant future is particu-
larly given negative implications. On the basis of his Ss
responses to a group of words (death, good, real, life,
bright, myself), Kastenbaum (1955) concluded that death was
a discrete psychic organization and that $5 tended to put
as much time as possible between themselves and death.
Studies of the aged (Feidel, 1956) suggest that man
maintains his belief throughout his life span. Feifel (1956)
in a study of physically ill patients, with a mean age of 67,
found that these 85 also projected their death into a

"distant future."

Sex Differences in the Perception of Death

 

Although Freud (1955) suggested that death anxiety is
a derivative of castration anxiety, few studies have con—
sidered the sex of the subject as an important variable in
regard to his responses to death. McClelland (1964).
however, suggested that the meaning of death may be differ-
ent for women than men, postulating a Harlequin complex for
women which was described as follows: ". . . death is seen
as a lover . . . a mysterious dark figure who comes and
takes a woman away to her death, a theme which with all its

variations we call the Harlequin complex." (p. 199)

15

McClelland (1964) suggested that the Harlequin complex
accounts for the positive meaning death often has for
women. He (McClelland, 1964) cited a study by Greenberger
(1961) who collected the fantasies of women dying from
cancer and compared them with those of women who were
hOSpitalized for a minor illness. Greenberger (1961) found
that women who were fatally ill thought ". . . almost twice
as often about punishment and illicit sex as the women who
were about to go home from the hospital after a minor ill-
ness." (p. 199) The 85 responses did not suggest that the
"illicit love partner" was the father, so Greenberger (1961)
referred to him as Harlequin ". . . the unknown seducer about
whom women who are about to die dream more often than those
who are hOSpitalized for a minor illness." (p. 220)
McClelland (1964) notes that a somewhat comparable figure

for men, La belle dame sans merci, is a castrating figure

 

and generally quite different from Harlequin.

In McClelland's (1964) investigation of the Harlequin
complex, he used 40 male and 58 female college students
who ranked the following descriptive metaphors of death:
"An understanding doctor, a gay seducer, a grinning butcher,
a last adventure, a threatening father, a misty abyss, the
end of a song." (p. 201) The only significant difference
in the rankings was for the women to rank the Harlequin
image "a gay seducer," more often then men. However, the

Harlequin image ".1. . was not particularly pOpular with

14

either sex, but significantly more women (66%) than men
(40%) ranked it in the upper half of the distribution of
ranks." (p. 201) There was also a trend for men to rank
"a grinning butcher," more often than women.

McClelland (1964) suggested extending his findings to
schizophrenic women who he considers having a heightened
concern with death, pointing out that key elements in the
Harlequin complex, "A concern with punishment and illicit
sexuality" also characterize schizophrenic women.

McClelland (1964) says in this regard:

For death stands for the demon lover-—the symbol of a

woman's own life urges which is expressed paradoxically

in the thought of yielding or dying. He appears in
many guises. We have called him Harlequin. . . . But
whatever he is called, he has seduced many Columbines,
both on stage and on real life; he comes to comfort
middleéage‘dwomen who tire of their husbands and to
thrill older women nearing death when no mortal lover
can take his place; and he has trapped many a wretched
woman into a terrifying death while she is yet alive,.

a state which modern science has labeled schizophrenia.

(p. 212)

Bromberg and Schilder (1956) have likewise noted that
death represents for certain individuals ". . . an equivalent
for the final sexual union with the ideal mate. . . "
McClelland's (1964) findings further suggest the develop-
mental study by Nagy (1948) of the child's conceptions of
death. Nagy (1948) described an early stage where death is
personified by the child and depicted as either "the reaper
idea" or the "death man."

Death is also personified in Freud's (1915) essay,

The Theme of Three Caskets, a story of a man who has to

 

15

choose among three women. According to Freud's (1915)
interpretation of this folklore, the third woman, the one

chosen symbolizes death.

Death Depicted as Occurring by Violent Means

 

Because the child denies his own death, Schilder and
Wechsler (1954) concluded that he has little fear of death.
Death is viewed by the child as punishment for wrong doing
and results from the hostility of others. "It, therefore,
does not fear to die, but does have a fear of being murdered."
(p. 449) As a result of his own aggressivity, the child sees
death as taking place through violence. Others (Bromberg
and Schilder, 1955; Mollenhoff, 1959; Bender, 1955) have
also observed that children associate aggression and punish—
ment with death.

Mollenhoff (1959) found that the child's attitudes
toward death were fluctuating and inconsistent, although she
concluded that children generally tend to deny the finality
of death and to connect death with thoughts of violence,
killing, aggression and mutilization. Death wishes toward
parents were also frequently found in the responses of her

85.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Major Questions;

 

The main purpose of this investigation was to discover

 

whether

there was a relationship between self acceptance

and fear of death and if so, the nature of this relationship.

The specific questions asked were:

1.

Is death anxiety (as measured by the difference in
size between the draw a person task and the draw a
dead person task) related to self satisfaction

(as measured by the ideal—true self Q sort)?

Is death anxiety (as measured by the difference in
latency of reSponse time between death words and
basal words) related to self satisfaction (as

measured by the ideal-true self Q sort)?

The following questions were asked in regard to the above

two measures of death anxiety: (the word association task

and the

1.

drawing task)
Will 85 manifest death anxiety by drawing a smaller
figure for the "draw a dead person" than for the
"draw a person?”
a. Will male Ss differ from female 88 on this
measure of death anxiety?
Will 85 manifest death anxiety by having a longer

reaction time to death words than to basal words?

16

5.

17

a. Will male 85 differ from female 85 on this
measure of death anxiety?
Do the drawing task (draw a person minus draw a
dead person) and the word association task (death
words minus basal words) both measure the same

construct: death anxiety?

Minor Qpestions

The investigation also included a general exploration

of some of the variables which had been previously suggested

in the literature as being relevant to an individual's

attitude toward death. The specific questions asked were:

1.

2.

4.

5.

Do Ss draw the dead person as male or female?
Are the drawings of dead persons, as described in
stories about them, identified as real people the
Ss know?
a. If this is so, is there evidence of death wishes
toward the "significant others" in the 85 life?

Do 85 project their own death far into the distant

'future?

Do 89 deny a fear of death?

Is death depicted as occurring by violent means?

METHOD

Sample

Twenty male and twenty female college undergraduates
enrolled in introductory courses in psychology at Michigan
State University were used as $5. The mean age for male 85
was 19 and the mean age for the female 83 was 18.8. The
mean and range of ages for Ss in the present sample are

shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1. The Mean and Range of Ages of Male and Female

 

 

Subjects
Range Mean
Male 18-22 19
Female 17-21 18.8

 

Procedure

A counterbalanced design was used with 20 Ss (10 males,
10 females) participating in Procedure One and 20 Ss (10
males, 10 females) following Procedure Two. Since the draw
a dead person andword association tasks were assumed to be
anxiety provoking, and it was unknown what effect the Q

sort and draw a person would have on the 85, it seemed

18

19

important to control for possible order effects by counter-
balancing these tasks. Procedure One and Procedure Two are
shown below.

Procedure One

 

1. Word Association task.
2. Q sort.
a. true sort
b. ideal sort
5. Draw a Person.
4. Draw a Dead Person.
5. Story about first drawing. Specific questions about
drawing, if not previously indicated in story.
6. Story about second drawing. Specific questions
about drawing, if not previously indicated in story.
7. Interview.

Procedure Two

1. Q sort.
a. true sort
b. ideal sort
. Word Association task.
Draw a Dead Person.
Draw a Person.
Story about first drawing. Specific questions about
drawing, if not previously indicated in story.
6. Story about second drawing. Specific questions about
drawing, if not previously indicated in story.
7. Interview.

U'HP‘CNN

All 85 were initially told: "The purpose of this experi—
ment will be discussed after the session." When the word
association task was presented first (Procedure One), the S
was brought into the experimental room and seated in front
of the E with his back to the E. The instructions for the
word association task were:

Your first task will be to respond to a list of words.

I am going to say a word and I want you to say the

first word that comes to mind. There is no right or

wrong answer, just say the first word that occurs to
you.

20

The words were presented aloud by the E to the S, with the

E recording the Ss re5ponses and reaction time.

When the Q sort was presented first (Procedure Two),
the S was seated across the table from the E. The instruc-
tions for the "true" Q sort were the following:

Now you will be presented with a group of 100 stateu'

ments. You are to sort these cards to describe your-

self as you see yourself today, from those that are
least like you to those that are most like you.

The S was then handed written instructions and was told:
Here are more detailed instructions. Please place
your initials and today's date in the upper right hand
corner. When you have finished sorting the statements,
please let me know.

When the 8 indicated that he had completed the task (9true"

Q sort), he changed seats with the E who recorded the 85

responses while the 5 sorted the cards for the "ideal" sort.

The following instructions were given for the "ideal" Q sort:
Now sort these cards to describe your ideal person,
the person you would most like within yourself to be.
Here again are written instructions, please let me
know when you have finished sorting these statements.

The S was handed written instructions for the "ideal" Q

sort.

After completing the Q sort, the 55 were handed two
9" x 9" blank papers and were told: "This is the last
task.“ In Procedure One, the 85 did the Draw a Person task
first, in Procedure Two, the 85 first drew a dead person.
The instructions for Draw a Person were: "Please draw a

person." The-instructions for Draw a Dead Person were:

"Please draw a dead person." After both drawings were

21

finished, the 85 first drawing was presented and the S was
instructed: "Tell a story about this person." The E
recorded the 85 story and then presented the second drawing
and asked the S: "Now tell a story about this person."
After the S had completed each story, the following
information was obtained by direct questioning if it had not

been included in the story:

Draw a Person

 

1. Age and sex of person in drawing.

2. What person in drawing is like.

5. Does person like him (or) herself. Why (or) why not?
What does he (or) she like most . . . least about him
(or) herself,

4. If this person could have three wishes, what would
they be.

Draw a Dead Person

1. Age and sex of person in drawing.

2. What person in drawing is like.

5. How did person die.

4. How did others feel about his death.

5. Was this person afraid of dying.

6. Did he (or) she know it was going to happen . . .
would he (or) she have liked to have known . . . why
(or) why not.

7. What is death like.

8. Is this the same person as in the other drawing.

After the drawing task the 85 were told: "Now I would
like to get some background information about you." The
following information was obtained from each S during the
interview:

Interview

 

1. 55 age.

2. Year in school.

5. Major in school.

4. Occupation of parents and amount of education.

22

5. Religious affiliation, and how religious the S
considered himself to be.

6. Whether anyone close to the S had died, if so when
and who this was, and the Ss reaction to this.

7. The Ss own feelings about death, whether he is afraid
of it, whether he thinks about it, and if so, how
often he thinks about it, and how he pictures his own
death.

The purpose of the experiment was then explained to the S.

Q-Sort Rationale

Rogers (1954), in describing the use of the Q—sort
technique to measure changes in self-concept resulting from
client-centered therapy, asserted that self-perceptions can
be ordered along a continuum from "like me" to "unlike me."
He further stated: "The discrepancy between the placements
of a given characteristic on the self scale and ideal scale
would yield an indication of self-esteem. It would indicate
operationally not only the way in which the individual per-
ceived himself as possessing this given characteristic but
the degree to which he values this state." (p. 56)I Follow-
ing this line of reasoning, the present author utilized the

relationship between "ideal" and "true" self sorts as an

indication of self-acceptance.

Q-Sort

The Q-sort universe of 100 self referent statements
and the written instructions presented to the 85 were
described by Rogers (1954) (see Appendix I for Q sort uni-

verse). The written instructions for the "true" sort were:

25

Your task is to sort these 100 statements so as to
yield a picture of yourself as you perceive yourself
today. Those statements placed at Pile No. 8 should
be most like (characteristic or significant of you)--
those at Pile No. 0 should be those least like you.
Those placed at the middle (No. 4) are just not im-
portant for one reason or another.
When you are finished please count to see that you
have the required number of cards in each pile. Those
numbers are indicated on each of the Pile No. cards.
The written instructions for the "ideal" sort were:
Sort these cards in terms of the 'person you would
like to be.‘ When you have finished, please be sure
you have the required number of cards in each pile.
A product moment correlation coefficient was computed
between the "ideal self" and "true self" for each S. This
correlation coefficient was used throughout as the measure

of the relationship between the "true” and "ideal" self,

and is referred to as the "true self - ideal self" Q sort.

Word Association Rationale

Bromberg and Schilder (1955) observed that "normal" Ss
had little conscious concern about death. However,
Alexander, Colley and Adlerstein (1957) demonstrated that
affective involvement in the concept of death could be
tapped using less conscious measures of the response.
Alexander, Colley and Adlerstein found that Princeton under—
graduates responded to death words with strong affect as
measured by word latency and PGR. These investigators
found that both PGR and reaction time were sensitive to
the emotional reSponse of the subject. It was, therefore,

decided to use the difference in word latency between death

24

words and basal words as a measure of death anxiety. (The
basal words were used as a type of "base rate" measure of
the 85 general reSponse time to words that were assumed

to be relatively "neutral" or, at least, pp£_"anxiety pro-

voking.")

Word Association Task

 

The words in the present study are the same as those
used by Alexander, Colley and Adlerstein (1957). The words
were chosen from the Thorndike Lorge Teachers Book of 50,000
Words, and were matched for length, word‘frequency and
number of syllables. The list included 27 words and 5 pre—
liminary words (see Appendix 2 for the list of words).

There were four groups of words: 5 death words, 5 sex words,
5 school words, and 8 basal words. The affective words

(sex and school) have previously been shown by the above
authors to have affective meaning to college undergraduates.
The words were randomized with the exception that two death
words did not immediately follow each other on a list. The
mean difference in reaction time between death and basal

words were tabulated for each S.

Drawing Rationale

 

Leonard Handler (1964) studied the relationship between
GSR and anxiety indices in projective drawings and concluded
that the symbolic material of the drawings brings about

varying degrees of anxiety in the S depending upon the

25

specific symbolic nature of their content. He found that
anxiety was associated with a number of characteristics
of figure drawings, among these "small size" yielded a
significant measure of anxiety.

It was, therefore, decided to use figure drawings of
the "dead person" and "draw a person" and compare their
reSpective measured areas as another means of assessing

death anxiety.

. *-
Draw1ngs

The drawings were measured as to total size by using
a transparent grid which had been divided into square mm.
The size of drawing of the "dead person" was compared with
the size of the drawing of the "person" to see if the "dead
person" was significantly smaller than the drawing of the
"person."

The two drawings for each S (Draw a Person, Draw a Dead
Person) were also compared as to size, with the difference
in size between the two drawings being used as an index of

anxiety.

 

*-

Dr. Paul Bakan originally suggested using drawings of
a "dead person" as a technique for investigating death
anxiety. '

RESULTS

Males

A Spearman rank order correlation was computed between
the difference in latency between death words and basal
words (death words minus basal words) and the true - ideal
Q sort. When the S misunderstood a word, so that word was
repeated, the reaction time to that word was omitted. When
this procedure was used, the resulting Spearman rank order
correlation between the difference in latency and the Q sort
correlation coefficient was .09, with 19 df, which was not
significant. When all words.were included in the word list,
even though they had been repeated, the resulting rank
order correlation between the difference in latency, between
the death words and the basal words, and the Q sort yielded
a rank order correlation coefficient of -.25, with 19 df,
which was not significant. I

A Spearman rank order correlation was also computed
between the difference in drawing size, as measured in
square m.m., between the two drawings for each S (draw a
person minus draw a dead person) and the Q sort. The result—
ing rank order correlation coefficient equaled .51, with 19
df, which was not significant.

A Spearman rank order correlation was also computed

between the two measures of death anxiety, the drawings and

26

27

the word association task (omitting repeated words). The

rank order correlation equaled .17,

not significant.

with 19 df, which was

Table 2 (below) summarizes the above findings for the

Male 85.

Table 2.

The Findings Between Major Variables for Male 85

Using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation

 

Variables rho

df

Significance
Level

 

1.

Difference between reSponse .09
time for death words and

basal words (repeated words
omitted), and Q sort.

Difference between reSponse -.25
time for death words and

basal words (all words in—
cluded), and Q sort.

Difference in drawing size .51
between draw a dead person

and draw a person, and Q

sort.

Difference between response .17
time for death words and

basal words (repeated words
omitted), and difference in
drawing size between draw a

dead person and draw a

person.

11.5.

19

19

19

19

p > .05 (n.s.)

p > .05 (n.s.)

p > .05 (n.s.)

p > .05 (n.s.)

not significant

 

The size of the two drawings (draw a dead person and

draw a person) were compared, with the size being measured

28

in square m.m. The drawings of the dead person were sig-
nificantly smaller than the drawings of a person with t equal
to 5.61, 19 df, p less than .005.

A t was also computed between the reaction time to
death words and basal words. All words were included. The
death words had a significantly longer reaction time than
the basal words with t = 1.95, df = 58, p less than .05 (one-
sided). Table 5 (below) shows the mean reaction time for

the male Ss to the words in the word association task.

Table 5. The Mean Reaction Time to Basal, Sex, School, and
Death Words for Male 85

 

 

Basal Sex School Death

 

Males 1.98 2.51 1.95 2.41

 

Females

A Spearman rank order correlation was computed between
the difference in reaction time to death words and basal
words (death words minus basal words) and the true - ideal
Q sort. When the repeated words were omitted, the rank
order correlation between the difference in latency between
death words and basal words and the Q sort yielded a rank
order correlation of .15, with 19 df, which was not sig-
nificant. When all the words were used, the resulting rank

order correlation between the difference in latency time

29

between death words and basal words, and the Q sort yielded
a rank order correlation of .09, with 19 df, which was not
significant.

A Spearman rank order correlation was also computed
between the difference in drawing size as measured in square
m.m. between the two drawings for each S (draw a person minus
draw a dead person) and the Q sort. The computed rank order
correlation of .44, with 19 df, was significant with p less
than .05 (two-sided). (It should be noted that this finding
indicates that the lower one's self-esteem, the lower one's
death anxiety.)

A Spearman rank order correlation computed between the
two measures of death anxiety, drawings and the word associ-
ation task (omitting repeated words), yielded a rank order
correlation of .15, with 19 df, which was not significant.

Table 4 (on the following page) summarizes the above
findings for the Female 85.

The difference in size as measured in square m.m.,
between the drawings of the dead person and the draw a person
resulted in a t equal to 4.54, 19 df, with p less than .005
(one—sided). The drawings of the dead person were signifi-
cantly smaller than the drawings of the person.

A t was computed between the reaction time to death
words and the reaction time to basal words. All words were
included. The death words had a significantly longer re-

action time, with t equal to 2.55, df = 58, p less than .025

50

Table 4. The Findings Between Major Variables for Female 85
Using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation

 

 

Significance
Variables rho df Level

 

1. Difference between response .15 19 p > .95 (n.s.)
time for death words and basal
words (repeated words omitted),
and Q sort.

2. Difference between reSponse .09 19 p > .05 (n.s.)
time for death words and basal
words (all words included),
and the Q sort.

5. Difference in drawing size .44 19 p < .05
between draw a dead person
and draw a person, and the Q
sort.

4. Difference between response .15 19 p > .05 (n.s.)
time for death words and basal
words (repeated words omitted),
and difference in drawing size
between draw a dead person and
draw a person.

n.s. = not significant

 

(one-sided). Table 5 (below) shows the mean reaction time

for the female Ss to the words in the word association task.

Table 5. The mean Reaction Time to Basal, Sex, School, and
Death Words for Female 85.

 

 

Basal Sex School Death

 

Females 2.08 2.84 2.25 2.58

 

51

Males and Females (Combined)

 

Inasmuch as there was a significant correlation (.44)
between self acceptance, as measured by the Q sort, and
death anxiety, as measured by drawings, for the female 85,
while the male 85 showed a similar, but not significant corre-
lation (.51) between these two measures, it seemed reasonable
to ask whether the findings for the two groups were signifi-
cantly different. The rank order correlations were trans-
ferred to Fisher's Z transformation. This difference between
the two Z's yielded a normal deviate of .44 which is clearly
not significant. Therefore, the findings do not seem to be
different for the two sexes. The two independent findings
were combined to assess the combined significance by adding
the two Z transformations and testing against the hypothesis
of zero correlation. This yields a normal deviate of 2.511
which reaches the .02 level of significance (two-sided).

A t was computed between the sexes as to the difference
in reaction time (death words minus basal words, all words
included). This t between males and females equaled .221,
with df = 58, which was not significant.

A t was also computed between the sexes as to the dif-
ference in drawing size (draw a person minus draw a dead
person) as measured in square m.m. The mean difference in
drawing size for the males was 21.75 square m.m., while the
mean difference in size of drawing for the females was 19.50.

The computed t between the size of male and female drawings

52

yielded a t equal to .501, with df = 58, which was not sig-
nificant. (Thus, there does not seem to be a significant
difference between males and females on these measures of
death anxiety.)

For both sexes the percentage of male figures were
greater in the draw a dead person than on the draw a person
task. Table 6 (below) shows the number of male and the
number of female figures drawn by male and female 83 in the

draw a person and draw a dead person tasks.

Table 6. The Number of Males and Females Drawn in the Draw
a Person and Draw a Dead Person by the Male and
Female Ss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male 55 Female Ss
Draw a Dead Person Draw a Dead Person

M F M F
Draw a M 17 0 17 Draw a M 7 1 8
Person F 5 0 5 Person F 7 5 12
20 0 20 14 6 20

 

The computed p for the change of sex in the "dead
persons" for the male 83, using McNemar's test of repeated
measures, yielded a p equal to .25 (two-sided) which was not
significant because of the small n. However, all of the male
Ss drew a male dead person. The p for the change of sex in

the "dead persons" for the female Ss, using McNemar's test,

55

equaled .07 (two-sided) which was just short of significance.
Since both findings were in the same direction, and not sig-
nificantly different from each other, it seemed reasonable
to combine the two samples (male and female 85), which re-
sulted in a p equal to .012 (two-sided) which was clearly
significant. The 83 (males and females) drew more male than

female dead persons than would be expected by chance.

Qualitative Findings

Identification of Dead Persons in Drawings - Death
Wishes Toward Significant Others

The drawings of the dead person and stories about these
drawings were examined. Many of the Ss drew people that
they knew, often parents or relatives who were still living,
suggesting possible death wishes toward these individuals.

Several 85 actually Specified that the "dead person"
was a parent who was still living. For example, a male 81
one of three children, who's father was a farmer (presently
living) told the following story in regard to his male dead
person: "This person was in an automobile accident. He
was coming home one night and ran into another car, the
other person that was driving was intoxicated. He had three
children and a wife that he left behind. His estate, which
was a farm, will now have to be divided with the children all
getting an equal share." When asked if he could identify
the person in this drawing, the S replied, ”It could be my

father."

54

A female S who described, during the interview, feeling
somewhat "confined" at home--related the following story as
to why this person had died: “. . . I think people die for
a lot of reasons, maybe if your father dies, maybe he was
so domineering when he died maybe you have a chance to be
more independent and you can think for yourself or if mother
dies and you've been under her wing, but then you're free and
can become a great person, if loved one dies of cancer, you
become a great crusader for cancer . . . is it almost time?"

(The S appeared most anxious).

Anticipated Aqe of Death

 

Both male and female 83 described the dead person as
being relatively young. For the male Ss, the mean age for
65% of the "dead persons" was 55.2 (range 25—45). (15%
had a mean age of 62, range 54-67, and 20% had a mean age
of 75, range 72—85.) Table 7 (below) indicates the age of
death for the figures in the draw a dead person (for the male
85).

Table 7. The Age of the Dead Person on the Draw a Dead
Person Task for Male 85

 

 

Mean Percent of "dead persons" in
Age Range Specified Age Categories
55.2 25-45 67%

Draw a
62 54-67 15%

Dead Person
76 72-85 20%

 

55

For the female 85, the mean age of 75% of the "dead

persons" was 56.6 (range 17-50). (15% had a

mean age of

66.7, range 51-70, 5% had an age of 96, and 5% did not

reSpond.) Table 8 (below) indicates the age of death for the

figures in the draw a dead person (for the female 58).

Table 8. The Age of the Dead Person on the Draw a Dead
Person Task for Female 85

 

 

Mean Percent of ”dead persons" in
Age Range Specified Age Categories
56.6 17-50 75%
Draw a
66.7 51-70 15%
Dead Person
96 96 5%
no response 5%

 

The ages for the "dead person,” however,

are different

from those expected by the S in regard to the age of his own

death. Table 9 (below) indicates the age at which the male

55 said they expect t

0 die.

Table 9. The Age at Which Male 85 Said They Expected to Die

70 years or

over

Younger than 70

No reSponse

67%

8%
25%

 

56

Sixty-seven percent of the male Ss felt they would be 70

years or older when they die, 8% saw themselves dying before

the age of 70, and 25% refused to answer this question.
Table 10 (below) indicates the expected age of death

for the female 85.

Table 10. The Age at Which Female 55 Said They Expected to

 

 

Die

70 years or over 10%
Younger than 70 40%
No response 50%

 

Ten percent of the female 85 felt they would be 70 years or
older when they die, 40% saw themselves dying before the age

of 70, and 50% refused to answer this question.

Fear of Death

 

When the 85 were asked if they were afraid of death,
50% of the males and 25% of the females said they were afraid
of dying. Table 11 (below) indicates the percentage of 85

who said they were afraid of death.

Table 11. Percentage of Male and Female 85 who Stated They
Were Afraid of Death

 

 

Afraid of Death Not Afraid of Death

 

Males 50% 70%
Females 25% 75%

 

57

The Occurrence of Death by Violent Means

Table 12 (below) shows the type of death described by
the male Ss in regard to the "draw a dead person." These
responses have been classified as natural or passive vs.

violent or sudden.

Table 12. The Type of Death Described by the Male Ss in
Regard to the Draw a Dead Person

 

 

 

 

Natural or Passive Death Violent or Sudden Death
Working 1 Auto accident 4
Heart condition 2 Hanging 1
Laughing 1 (?) Fell off trapeeze 1
Old age ‘_5_ Alcoholism 1
7 Fell off ladder 1
Shot 2
Crushed by coal 1
Beaten up 1

Knifed _1_
15

 

65% of the male responses have been classified as violent
or sudden, 55% as natural or passive.

The female 85' descriptions of the type of death that
occurred to the "dead person" have been summarized in Table
15 (on the following page). These have, likewise, been

classified as natural or passive vs. violent or sudden.

58

Table 15. The Type of Death Described by the Female Ss in
Regard to the Draw a Dead Person

 

 

 

Natural or Passive Death Violent or Sudden Death
Sleeping 5 Auto accident
Blood clot 1 Gun shot
Heart condition 4 Concussion
8 Pain from disease

Blunt instrument
Freak accident
Fell off building
Starved to death

9
qHHHHHHHm

 

60% of the female reSponses have been classified as violent

or sudden, and 40% as natural or passive.

DISCUSSION

 

The main purpose of this investigation was to discover
whether there was a relationship between self acceptance
and fear of death and if so, the nature of this relationship.
Kaufmann (1959), Brown (1959), Choron (1964), and Maurer
(1964) have suggested that "leading a full life," and being
satisfied with oneself were "effective defenses" against
death anxiety. However, Diggory and Rothman (1961) Specu-
lated that 85 who valued themselves highly would be more
afraid of death than 85 with low self esteem, since death
involved destruction of the self. The present study measured
the relationship between self acceptance (using the Q sort)
and fear of death using two different measures of "death
anxiety": drawings (the difference in size between the
"draw a person" and the "draw a dead person") and a word
association task (the difference in latency of reSponse time
between death words and basal words).

For both male and female 85 no significant relationship
was found between the Q sort (between true and ideal self)
and the word association task, both when repeated words
were omitted and when all words were included. However, a
significant (positive) relationship was found between death

anxiety (as measured by the drawings) and the Q sort for

59

40

the female 85. The results for the male and female 55 were
combined (since they were not significantly different from
one another) and again a significant (positive) relationship
was found to exist between self satisfaction and death
anxiety (as measured by these drawings). This finding that
85 who are relatively satisfied with themselves have mgge
death anxiety than 88 who manifested less self acceptance,
lends support to the position of Diggory and Rothman (1961).
These authors suggested that death would be most frightening
to 83 with relatively high self esteem, since death involved
destruction of the self.

The question was raised, in the initial part of this
paper, whether the drawing task and the word association
task were related, e.g., whether they both seemed to measure
the same construct, death anxiety. This question was explored
by computing a Spearman rank order correlation between the
reaction time on the word association task (death words
minus basal words) and the size of drawings (draw a person
minus draw a dead person). The findings (a non-significant
correlation) suggested that these two measures were Egg
related. Nevertheless, when the drawings and the word associ—
ation task were independently examined for both sexes, both
instruments seemed to measure anxiety in regard to death.
The drawings of the dead person were significantly smaller
(for both sexes) than the draw a dead person (p less than

.005). (It was previously noted.that Handler (1964) found

41

that "small size" was an index of anxiety in figure draw—
ings.) On the word association task, the other measure of
death anxiety, the death words were more "affective" than
the basal words, for both males and females, as measured by
reaction time. There was a significantly longer reaction
time for the death words than the basal words. The findings
in this case, however, did not reach as high a level of
significance (.05) for the males and (.025) for females, as
did the figure drawings (.005).

Since both the drawings and the word association task
seemed to measure anxiety in regard to death, yet there were
discrepant findings with the two measures of death anxiety
and the Q sort, it is possible that these instruments are
measuring different "aspects" of death anxiety. Furthermore,
that aSpect of death anxiety which was measured in the draw-
ings is, somehow, related to the way the subject feels about
himself, while there was no similar relationship between the
reSponses on the word association task and the Ss self
acceptance. Although these responses to death (as measured
by both the word association task and the drawings) may be
"affective" and "negative" in connotation, neither instrument
seems to be refined enough to indicate what specific aSpect
of the broad Spectrum "death anxiety" has been measured.

Freud (1915) implied that there would be a difference
between males and females in their response to death by

suggesting that death anxiety was a derivative of castration

42

anxiety. McClelland (1964) also observed that death had a
different meaning for males and females, noting a "Harlequin
complex" where death is attractive to certain females. The
present study, therefore, examined the differences between
the sexes in regard to both the word association task and
the drawings to see if there was a significant difference
between the two sexes on these measures of death anxiety.
However, on both the word association task (death words minus
basal words) and the drawings (draw a person minus draw a
dead person) there was no significant difference between
males and females. It, therefore, seemed reasonable to con-
clude that although death may have a different meaning for
males and females, death is generally frightening to both
sexes (particularly those Ss who are relatively satisfied
with themselves).

Another question raised in this study was: "Are the
'dead persons' drawn as male or female?" In the combined
male and female 85' drawings, there were significantly more
males than females drawn as dead persons. This may reflect,
in part, our present culture where death seems to occur
(wars, cowboy movies, etc.) more often to men than women.
However, this finding could also be related to the fact
that death is often depicted as occurring through violence
and aggression, which is more often associated with males
than females. The prevalence of male figures as "dead

persons” could further reflect the reluctance in our present

45

society to condemn women to death (e.g., capital punish-
ment). Perhaps, it is more frightening to conceptualize
death as taking place to a woman because symbolically a
woman represents life by the fact of her bearing children
and, therefore, the death of a woman may suggest, in a
general sense, the end of the Species.

According to Choron (1964), the ancient Greeks dif-

ferentiated between Thanatos, a natural death and Ker, a

 

death of violence, madness or disease. It seems that
historically there has been a change from primarily pictur-
ing death as slow and natural (more like Thanatos), to
perceiving it as more like Ker. This seems relevant to the
qualitative findings in the present study where most (65%

of the males and 60% of the females) depicted death (in re-
gard to the "dead persons") as primarily occurring by violent
means. Schilder and Wechsler (1954) suggested that the

child sees death as taking place through violence because of
his own aggression. It is, therefore, possible that the
drawings of the "dead person," in some way, were projections
of the S's own aggression. This was further suggested by
the qualitative findings that many of the SS drew people that
they knew, often parents or relatives who were still living,
suggesting possible death wishes toward these individuals.
The death anxiety manifested in the relatively small draw—
ings of the "dead person" may, in part, have reflected the

Ss anxiety regarding death wishes toward these "significant

44

others," or anxiety regarding his own aggression. Nagy
(1948) and Wahl (1959) have suggested that when the child
reaches the developmental stage where the finality of death
is recognized, his death wishes become frightening and there
are attempts to magically undo them. There are also fears
of retaliation which are conceptualized as occurring through
violent means.

Although the general behavior of the Ss during the
interview about death, as well as the SS responses on the
two measures of death anxiety suggested that they were indeed
afraid of death, over half of the male and female Ss denied
this fear. Others (Bromberg and Schilder, 1955; Middleton,
1958) have also found that at a conscious level SS deny a
fear of death. Alexander, Colley and Adlerstein (1957),
therefore, concluded that less conscious measures were needed
to get at the phenomena of death anxiety.

Man's belief in his own immortality was first postu—
lated by Freud (1915), but has since been reiterated by
others (Bromberg and Schilder, 1956; Zilboorg, 1958, 1945;
Mollenhoff, 1959; Feifel, 1956; Loeser and Bry, 1965).

The qualitative findings in the present study suggest that
the SS (particularly male 83) deny their own deaths by
extending it far into the distant future. As one male S
commented, ". . . I think I'll be 85 or 90, I'd like to be
101." In fact, 25% of the male SS and 50% of the female 55

refused to answer this question as to their expected age

45

of death. It almost appeared that, in a magical way, stating
an age of these 85 represented a type of committment to
death itself. It seems likely that one reason man can
"acclaim" his own death in statements such as "Better dead
than Red," or in advocating nuclear war, is that each person
is convinced, at some level, that he will not die. In con-
sidering the psychological consequences of this personal
denial of death, Wahl (1959) maintains that the repression
of death is psychologically harmful because of the consider-
able psychic energy which must be expended in binding this
fact. Feifel (1965), however, points out that man needs

"to face death" as well as "to face away from it," citing
the case of WW II pilots who were able to maintain them-
selves psychologically during extreme danger by believing

in their own immortality.

Limitations of Present Study and
Suggestions for Future Research

 

One could speculate that what is most highly valued by
the subject in life will be related to what is most frighten-
ing about death. This could be inferred from the position of
Diggory and.Rothman (1961) who suggested that 85 who valued
themselves highly (had high self esteem) would fear death
because it involved loss of self. It would also be possible
to include castration anxiety in this context, e.g. to those
SS who valued "libidinal pleasures" most in life, death

would symbolize a type of castration, and castration would

46

be feared. This hypothesis that what is most important to
the individual in life is related to what is feared in
death also seems relevant to the finding of Rosenthal (1961)
who suggested that the individual who is "possessive" in
life is disturbed by death because he ". . . cannot let go
in life . . . and cannot let go gf life. Letting go to
these individuals represents defeat. The fear of death be-
comes unconsciously equated with the fear of defeat."

(Pp 626-627)

The present study can be criticized in regard to the
breadth of the two variables, particularly in regard to
"death anxiety." It would have been more useful if differ-
ent aSpects of death anxiety had been delineated, or if the
term had been more narrowly defined. Choron (1964) has
criticized much of the research on death anxiety on this
basis. Choron (1964) contends that what is meant by "fear"
is not clearly Specified and he states in this regard:

". . . so many authors, when using this term 'fear of death'
obviously mean it in a broader sense, including aversion,
strong dislike, uneasiness and so forth, it is obvious that
it would contribute to the clarification of the phenomena of
death fear if one were to differentiate between the broader
meaning of the term and the instances where it is intended
to designate actual fear.” (p. 71) He (Choron, 1964)
further suggests that it would be useful to distinguish

between situations where there is an actual possibility of

47

death and those where there are anticipations of death,
also differentiating between the object or contents of the
death fear, e.g., "Is it fear of what happens after death,
fear of the process of dying or fear of the end of one's
existence?” (p. 72)

In attempting to more Specifically relate certain
personality characteristics to different aSpects of death
anxiety, Grotjahn (Choron, 1964) has speculated in regard
to the relationship between certain psychosexual stages and
Specific fears of death. For example, Grotjahn (Choron,
1964) related death anxiety at the oral stage to a fear of
annihilation while at the anal stage, fear of death was
associated with "loss of feces." It would be possible to
empirically ascertain what specific fears of death adults
"fixated" at different psychosexual stages had in regard to
death. It has also been postulated that psychopathological
groups differ in what they fear about death. For example,
it has been suggested (Bromberg and Schilder, 1956) that the
hysteric most often fears separation in regard to death.
Others (Bellak, 1928; Bettleheim, 1955; Burton, 1960) have
referred to the schizophrenic's fear of "destruction.”

The present investigation can also be criticized for
using a college population to test the hypothesis that self
satisfaction is related to fear of death. It seems likely
that this group of Ss have not "lived fully," nor attained

their goals by way of their being in college. This contention

48

was expressed by one male 8 who said, "Well, I'm afraid of
death only in the reSpect I want to accomplish something."
It may have been more appropriate to have tested this hy-
pothesis using a group of geriatric SS; a group who were
satisfied with their lives, felt as though they had accom-
plished their goals and a group who were dissatisfied with
their lives. It would be possible to compare these groups
in regard to death anxiety and also acceptance of their own
death.

One of the difficulties with the word association task
in the present study was how to handle "repeated words" or
words that were misunderstood by the S. It may be useful
in future research to shift the task from an auditory to a
visual presentation. It would be possible to present words
tachistoscopically and note the recognition threshold for
the words. One could, for example, predict higher recog—
nition thresholds for death words than basal words. It is
also possible that the words used in the present study
(death, burial, funeral) were relatively "mild" death words,
particularly in regard to the finding of association between
violence and death. More death words representing different
aSpects of "death anxiety" could be used and compared in
future research. The most valuable instrument in the present
study was the drawing task (draw a dead person) and the
stories told in regard to these drawings. It proved to be a
fruitful source for gathering information and exploring the

psychological phenomena of death.

SUMMARY

Twenty male and twenty female college undergraduates
at Michigan State University were used in a study to investi-
gate the relationship between self acceptance and fear of
death. Self acceptance was measured by the relationship
between true self and ideal self on the Q sort. Two measures
of death anxiety were utilized: Reaction time on a word
association task (death words minus basal words), and the
difference in drawing size as measured in Square m.m., between
the "draw a person," and "draw a dead person" task.

A significant relationship was found to exist between
the measure of self satisfaction, the Q sort, and death
anxiety, as measured by the difference in drawing size (draw
a person minus draw a dead person). The SS who were most
satisfied with themselves were also most anxious about death.
However, there was no Significant relationship between the
Q sort and the other measure of death anxiety, reaction time
on the word association task. It was hypothesized that these
two measures of death anxiety (size of drawing and word
latency on the word association task) were tapping different
aspects of the broad phenomena of "death anxiety." It was,
therefore, suggested that "death anxiety" should be more

narrowly defined in future research. Both measures (size of

49

50

drawings and word latency) independently seemed to reflect
anxiety in regard to death. The findings for the male
and female 53 were Similar, and both groups of Ss manifested
death anxiety on the two tasks.

An interview and stories about the dead person were
used to explore variables which had previously been reported
in the literature as bearing an important relationship to
psychological responses to death. These qualitative find-
ings suggested that the SS consciously denied a fear of
death as well as projecting their own deaths far into the
"distant future." The "dead person," in the drawings, was
primarily depicted as being male by both male and female SS.
The stories about the dead person suggested that death is
often perceived as occurring through violence. These stories
further suggested death wishes toward parents. It was
speculated that what is most highly valued in life, will be
related to what is most feared in death. This hypothesis
would include the idea of death as castration, which would
be the most frightening aSpect of death to those SS who
valued libidinal pleasures in life. Possibilities for future

research were also suggested.

APPENDICES

51

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

I. Theoretical
A. Psychoanalytic
1. Death Instinct
2. Death Anxiety
5. Belief in Immortality

B. Existentialism

II. Empirical
A. Genetic Studies
1. The Child and Death - Developmental Studies
2. The Adolescent and Death
5. The Aged and Death
B. Psychopathology and the Fear of Death
C. The Meaning of Death

D. Responses to Death

52

THEORETICAL

 

PSYCHOANALYTIC

In considering psychoanalytic theory, attention will be
focused upon Freud's three main tenets regarding death.
These may be conceptualized as follows: 1. The existence of
a death instinct. 2. Fear of death as a derivative of cas-
tration anxiety. 5. Man's belief in his own immortality.
Each of these three positions will be considered separately
along with the (theoretical) literature which has evolved in

reSponse to them.

Death Instinct

 

Freud (1920), in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, presented

 

the view that a death instinct exists in all organisms. He
arrived at this position by first separating the aggressive
drives from the sexual drives. This was followed by noting

a "repetition compulsion" (a compulsion to repeat painful and
traumatic experiences) which seemed to be contrary to the
pleasure principle. Freud (1920) postulated an instinct
which reflected the tendency for organic matter to return to
an earlier state. This death instinct was characterized by

Freud (1920) as: ". . . the aim of all life is death . . .

 

and inanimate things existed before living ones." (Pp 70-

71) He described his position as dualistic and stated:

55

54

". . . we describe the opposition not being between ego
instincts and sexual instincts but between life instincts

and death instincts." (p. 95) Freud (1959), in Civilization
and its Discontents, again pointed to the importance of the
conflict between Eros and the Death Instinct by saying,

"This struggle . . . is what all life essentially consists

of and so the evolution of civilization may be simply
described as the struggle of the human species for existence."
(p. 105)

There is considerable literature in opposition to Freud's
postulation of a death instinct. However, it is generally
known that even those analysts who support Freud's other
tenets do not hold to this proposition. Jones (1957) noted
that few analysts even employ the term "death instinct" and
the ones who do seem to use it in a way which is different
from Freud's original intention. Jones (1957) concludes that
since so little empirical support exists for a death instinct,
factors in Freud's own personality are the main source of
its inception, pointing out that "As far back as we know
anything of his life he seems to have been prepossessed by
thoughts about death. . . ." (p. 279)

Although a secondary position has been given to the
death instinct in psychoanalytic thought, recently Norman
C. Brown (1959) has written a book in which he again calls
attention to the death instinct, suggesting that death can

be seen as "friendly" to man if he leads a full life.

55

Death Anxiety

 

Choron (1964) summarized Freud's position regarding the
relationship between the death instinct and death anxiety
as follows: ". . . it would then seem correct to say that
although he does recognize death as the 'ultimate' danger,
paradoxically, the fear of death is not a 'basic fear' or
as he terms it, not the 'primal anxiety.'" (p. 157) Freud
(1955) described the fear of death as a derivative of
castration anxiety, occurring in response to an unresolved
oedipal conflict. Freud (1955) states that since we have
never experienced death but have, in a general way, experi-
enced castration ". . . through the daily experience of
parting with the contents of the bowel and through the loss
of the mother's breast which is experienced in weaning . . . ,"
it is castration rather than death which is feared. (p. 55)

I therefore, maintain that the fear of death is to be

regarded as an analogue of the fear of castration and

that the Situation to which the ego reacts is the
state of being forsaken or deserted by the protecting
superego which puts an end to security against every

danger." (p. 55)

Fenichel (1948) generally supports Freud's position,
but also sees death anxiety as representing ". . . a fear
of punishment for death wishes against other persons or a
fear of one's own excitement." (p. 208) |Bromberg and
Schilder (1955) also agree with Freud that fear of death is

connected with castration anxiety and see death anxiety as

"the fear of loss of something positive. . . ." (p. 5)

56

In opposition to Freud, Stekel (Choron, 1964) sees all
fear as the fear of death. "Anxiety is in the last resort
anxiety of the annihilation of the ego . . . one can aSsume
that annihilation of the ego does not mean anything else but
death." (p. 150) This controversy seems to involve whether
fear is over the loss of the superego (castration anxiety)
or whether it is over the loss of the ego itself (death
anxiety). Stekel (Choron, 1964) also sees death anxiety as
being the prototype of the fear of the unknown. Choron (1964).
however, protests saying that death is a "known terminator
of life." (p. 151) For Otto Rank (1945), the fear of death
is related to a fear of losing ones' identity. Rank (1945)
feels that this is particularly apparent in the neurotic who
punishes himself in order to magically escape death; he
"refuses the loan of life in order to escape the payment of
his debt, death." (p. 122)

Klein (1948), like Stekel (Choron, 1964), suggests that
the fear of death is the primary cause of all anxiety. She
disagrees with Freud and states:

I do not share (his) view because my analytic observ-

ations show that there is in the unconscious a fear

of the annihilation of death. I would also think that

if we assume the existence of a death instinct, we must

also assume that in the deepest layers of the mind
there is a response to this instinct in the form of
fear of annihilation of life. Thus in my view the
danger arising from the inner working of the death
instinct is the first cause of anxiety." (p. 116)

She further maintains ". . . I would suggest that fear

of death enters into and reinforces castration fear and is

57

not 'analogous' to it." (p. 117) Chadwick (1929) also
wonders whether the latter may not, in fact, reflect the fear
of death. Rosenthal (1965) also suggests that castration
anxiety ". . . stems from the more basic original fear of
death." (p. 625) She argues, "Castration is partial loss--

death is loss in its totality-—everything is cut off."

\.

(p. 625) More recently, Feifel (1965) points out that death
has been minimized by attempting to see it as a secondary
fear, noting that, "Too frequently we occupy ourselves with
the symbolic as distinct from the 'real' aspects of death."
(p. 18)

Although Jung (1959) doesn't directly attack Freud's
position regarding the "meaning" of death anxiety, his
description of the fear of death implies that he also sees
it as a primary fear:

Naturally we have on hand for every eventuality one
or two suitable banalities about life which we
occasionally hand out to the other fellow such as
'everyone must die sometime,' 'one doesn't live for-
ever,‘ etc. But when one is alone and it is night
and so dark and still that one hears nothing and sees
nothing but the thoughts which add and subtract the
years, and the long row of disagreeable facts which
remorselessly indicate how far the hand of the clock
has moved forward and the slow irresistible approach
of the wall of darkness which will eventually engulf
everything you love, possess, wish, strive and hope
for--then all our profundities about life slink off
to some undiscoverable hiding place, and fear en;
velops the sleepless one like a smothering blanket.
(p. 4)

This review of the literature suggests that although the

various theoreticians disagree as to the meaning of the fear

58

of death, they generally do not see it as a derivative of

castration anxiety.

Belief in Immortalipy

Freud (1915) in Thoughts for Times on War and Death,

stated his position regarding mans' belief in immortality

as follows:

Our own death is indeed unimaginable and whenever we
make the attempt to imagine it we can perceive that
we really survive as Spectators. Hence the psycho-
analytic school could venture on the same thing in
another way, in the unconscious everyone of us is
convinced of his own immortality." (Pp 276-277)

Zilboorg (1958, 1945) supports Freud by suggesting that
one of the main mechanisms man uses to cope with death

anxiety is to deny death and believe in ones' "corporeal

immortality."

We flee from the reality of our eventual deaths with
such purpose and persistence and we employ so patently
magical and regressive defenses that these would be

so ludricously obvious to us if we should employ them

to this degree in any other area of human conflict.
(p. 178)

Zilboorg (1945) further points out that "our way of

life" fosters this belief:

Life itself, its truths and fantasies supports and
feeds this state of mind. For each funeral announced
or attended, there are hundreds of moving picture
signs and theatre marquees. (Pp 470-471)

Loeser and Bry (1965) suggest that much of our activity
is Spent in maintaining a belief in immortality:

Why . . . are nearly all religions concerned with im—

mortality? Why in our ambitions are we so passionately

anxious for something of ourselves, a work of art, a
scientific Contribution, a business, or just a good

59

name to survive? Why in short do we strive for im—

mortality, at least immortality by proxy. (p. 245)

Mollenhoff (1959) also discusses how man has maintained
his "proud edifice of immortality." (p. 154) Choron (1964)
wonders if man's quest for immortality has been increased
as a result of ". . . the very real possibility of self
annihilation of the human race through the use of atomic
weapons. . . ." (p. 18) Choron (1964) predicts:

The search for certainity and for uncontrovertible

proof of survival upon death will continue, for it has

proved to be one of the most potent remedies against

the fear of death and the haunting sense of the

futility of live. (p. 47)

Of the three propositions held by Freud regarding death,
this last one, mans' belief in his own immortality, seems to

have resulted in the least theoretical controversy, being

generally supported in the literature.

EXISTENTIALISM

Although death has been assigned different meanings
by the various existential writers, it is generally con-
sidered of central importance in existential philosophy.
According to Kaufmann (1959), it was Heidegger who "moved
death into the center of discussion." (p. 59)

‘ Heidegger (1954) sees death (or nothingness) as always
being present for man and as providing a background upon
which time and existence can become meaningful. Life be—
comes meaningful because of mans' inevitable death, and

time is perceived as a result of being faced with death.

60

Heidegger (1954) further contends that accepting ones'
death must be accompanied by anxiety and because of this,
man often tries to escape from the fact of death. Heidegger
(1954) says in this regard, "Even thinking of death is
publically considered fear. . . . The One does not allow
the courage for anxiety of death to arise." (p. 266)
Kaufmann (1956, 1959) sees Heidegger as essentially para-
phrasing Freud, but doing so in an ineloquent manner. In
contrast, Alexander, Colley and Adlerstein (1957) view
Heidegger as being in opposition to Freud, pointing out that
Heidegger sees death anxiety as always being present in man
and not a derivative fear as has been postulated by Freud.
Sartre (1956) in contrast to Heidegger (1954) perceives
death as removing meaning from life and feels that it is the
"timing of death" which is of importance. Sartre (1956)
states his position as follows:
We have, in fact, every chance of dying before we have
accomplished our task, or on the other hand of out-
living it. There is, therefore, a very slim chance
that our death will be presented to us as that of
Sophocles was, for example, in the manner of a re—
solved chord. And if it is only chance which describes
the character of our death and, therefore, of our life,
then even the death which most resembles the end of a
melody cannot be waited for as such; luck by determining
it for me removes from it any character as a harmonious
end. . . . Thus death is never that which gives life its
meanings; it is, on the contrary, that which on principle
removes all meaning from life. (p. 559)
Kaufmann (1959) notes that Sartre recognizes the im-

portance of making life meaningful before death comes and

quotes him as saying, "But once what I am bent on, what is

61

Holy, my poetry is accomplished; once I have succeeded in
achieving--in the face of death—-in a race with death that
project that is truly mine and not something that anybody
else might have done as well if not better then the picture
changes; I have won the race and in a sense have triumphed
over death. Death and madness comes too late." (p. 59)
Camus (Choron, 1964) relates his disdain of death to
his satisfaction with life: "All my horror of dying is
contained in my jealous passion for life." (p. 82) Jaspers
(1954) emphasizes the "frugility of being" and sees love
as triumphing over death. ". . . since the selfhood of you
is so deeply imprinted in me, just as mine in yours that
the we-ness endures. Only the individual can die, the we-
ness remains intact." (p. 25)
Tillick (1959) describes man as attempting to deny death
by focusing on the immediate future:
How do men react to this image of the future with its
hOpe and threat and inescapable end. Probably most
of us react by looking at the immediate future, antici-
pating it, working for it, hoping for it, and being
anxious about it, while cutting off from our awareness
the future which is farther away and above all by
cutting off from our consciousness the end, the last
moment of our future. Perhaps we could not live without
doing so most of our time. But perhaps we will not be
able to die if we always do so. And if one is not able
to die, is he really able to live? (p. 52)
Tillick (1959) like Heidegger (1954) sees anxiety as

manifesting the "existential awareness of nonbeing. . . .

(p. 51)

62

Kaufmann (1959) critices the existentialists as not
fully grasping what he considers to be the most important
variable in facing death, namely self satisfaction. He
quotes Nietzche as stating it:

For one thing is needful, that a human being attain his
satisfaction with himself. Whether it be by this way
or by that, poetry and art; only then is a human being
at all tolerable to behold. . . . Or as Holderlin says:
'The soul that living did not attain its divine Right
cannot repose in the neither world." But he that has
made something of his life can face death without
anxiety. 'Once I lived like the Gods and more is not
needed.‘ (p. 62)

EMPIRICAL

 

THE CHILD AND DEATH-Developmental Studies

 

Chadwick (1927) in one of the first developmental
studies of the fear of death, postulated six stages (or
types) of death anxiety. The particular ages for these
stages, however, were not specified. She related death
anxiety to such conditions as separation anxiety, fear of
darkness and death wishes, noting in the fourth stage that
the child identifies the eye with the ego so that death is
portrayed as a shut eye. This has also been cited as a
symptom of death anxiety by Rose (1960) in the case of a
5% year old girl. Chadwick (1927) also points out that
"behind every fear there is a wish," and in the final stage,
the fear of death is likely to be a defense against the
wish to return to the mother. The most intolerable factor
in the fear of death, according to Chadwick (1927), is the
extinction of the ego:

The greatest difficulty presented to the mind is to

realize a negative condition, a stage of non—existence

of the self or the non-continuance of existence in
relation to the outside world, which is connected to
some extent with the child's early idea that things
that are out of sight cease to exist and that objects
are created by their sight and exist subjectively.

(Pp. 529—550)

Schilder and Wechsler (1954) studied 76 children be—
tween the ages of 5—15 and found that children often view

death as deprivation and . . . to the very young child,

65

64

death seems to be a reversible fact." (p. 421) This latter
finding has also been noted by others (Mollenhoff, 1959;
Cousinet, 1940; Nagy, 1948; Wahl, 1955). According to
Schilder and Wechsler (1954), death is not seen as final
because the "child's own deprivations are usually not of a
permanent or lasting kind." (p. 428) Although children
deny their own death, they can believe in the death of
others. A Similar observation has been made by Cousinet
(1940), Nagy (1948), and Wahl (1955). Schilder and Wechsler
(1954) note that the child seems to project his own death
". . . into a future which is so remote that it has very
little reality." (p. 428) Because the child denies his
own death, Schilder and Wechsler (1954) concluded that he
has little fear of death. Death is viewed by the child as
punishment for wrong doing and results from the hostility
of others. "It therefore does not fear to die, but does
have a fear of being murdered." (p. 449) As a result of
his own aggressivity, the child sees death as taking place
through violence. Others (Bromberg and Schilder, 1955;
Mollenhoff, 1959; Bender, 1955) have also observed that
children associate aggression and punishment with death.
Cousinet (1940) and Choron (1964), investigated the
idea of death from a genetic point of view and observed
three stages. In the first stage, death is denied by the
child, in the second stage death is considered a process

similar to illness, and in the final stage, death is

65

considered a peculiar process which takes place in the
living. These stages were not delineated according to age
or frequency of occurrence; they appear, however, similar
to those suggested by Nagy (1948).

Nagy (1948) explored the developmental stages of the
child's theories concerning death, using Budapest school-
children between the ages of 5-10. The first stage, ages
5-5, was characterized by the child denying death as a final
process; death is a transitory occurrence and there are
degrees of death. Nagy (1948) noted in this first stage
that ". . . the most painful thing about death is just
separation itself. To the child, the association, Death=
departure, exists also in the inverse sense. If anyone goes
away, it thinks him dead." (p. 11) Chadwick (1927) sug-
gested that death anxiety in stage two is based on the
child's fear of separation from the mother which is mani—
fested in fear of loneliness and fear of the unknown.
Bromberg and Schilder (1955) also found that children view
death as separation from the mother. In the early stage,
according to Nagy (1948), the child denies his own death:

In early infancy, under five . . . opposition to

death is so strong that the child denies death, as

emotionally it cannot accept it. (p. 15)

In the second stage, between 5-9 years of age, death is
personified. "Only those die who the death man carries off.”
(p. 28) There are two concepts of death at this age, the

"reaper idea," and that of a death man. In the final stage,

66

by the age of 9 or 10, "death is recognized as a process
which takes place in all of us." (p. 26) At this stage,
death is seen as inevitable. Nagy (1948) found these
stages often reflected the child's more general picture of
the world.

Piaget (1955) observed that children were often pre-
occupied with thoughts of death. He noted that this was
particularly true in the stage of finalism where the child
is puzzled by the problems of death; because he sees life
regulated according to the "wishes and intentions of its
inventor," and because of this death is inexplicable.
"Apart from theological ideas which the child of six or seven
has not yet incorporated into his mentality, death is the

fortuitous and mysterious phenomenon par excellance."

 

(p. 185) Piaget (1955) sees the child's difficulty in ex-
plaining death as contributing to his eventual arrival at
the next developmental stage:

And in the questions about plants, animals and the

human body, it is those which refer to death which

will cause the child to leave behind him the stage

of pure finalism, and to acquire the notion of

statistical causality of chance. (p. 185)

Piaget (1959) maintained that "child thought starts with
an idea of universal life as its primary assumption." (p.
208) To the young child everything is alive that is active,
or initially life is defined in terms of activity or func—

tion. Later, it is classified according to motion and then

this is differentiated into spontaneous motion and that

67

caused by an external agent. The precausal confusion be-
tween movement and life has been described by Piaget (1959)
as follows:

. . . for the child, every activity is comparable to

that of life. Henceforth, to appeal to a motive

cause is at the same time to appeal to a living cause,

i.e., to one mentally based on a mode endowed with

spontaneity if not with intentions. We can now under-

stand how a return shock will give rise to curiousity
about death, Since the fact of death is an obstacle to
these habits of thought; and to curiousity about the
causes of life . . . since the course of life can be

disturbed by death. (p. 211)

When the child's conceptions of death involve causality,
the "cause" is often anthromorphic and finalistic. This is
similar to the "personification of death" noted by Nagy (1948).

Wahl (1955) is considering the fear of death in children,
observed that death anxiety is often associated with dife
ferent types of family stress such as ". . . intense frus-
tration, rage, anxiety, which may threaten . . . parental
loss." (p. 22) Wahl (1955) concludes that the child's
conception of death is a composite of many "mutually contra-
dictory paradoxes." (p. 25) In elaborating upon this he
says, "First death is not conceived of as a possibility in
relationship to the self, but conversely, if strong adults
die, how can the weaker child survive? Secondly, death is
never conceived of as resulting from chance or natural
happening. This is similar to Piaget's (1955) description
of the child's early conception of death. Wahl (1955) also

contends that the child's interest in causality intensifies

his fear of death. Wahl (1955), like Nagy (1948), notes

68

that causation is personified and ". . . the child feels
guilt subsequent to a death as though he were the secret
player. Yet paradoxically, he simultaneously experiences
rage toward the decedent, as though he had been deliverately
abandoned by that person. Consciously these . . . would be
mutually exclusive, but . . . in the unconscious these

types of paradoxes can endure in juxtoposition without
contradiction." (p. 25) Wahl (1955) points out that the
young child's death wishes are seldom frightening to him
since he views death as reversible. However, with the
development of the time sense ". . . the child begins to
learn that death is neither casual nor reversible and he
then becomes frightened and concerned about his death wishes
toward his ambivalently loved, significant persons." (p.
24) Wahl (1955) describes the obsessive symptoms that
reflect the child's attempt to undo his death wishes:

. . the most ancient and popular of children's
prayers, . . . contains a plea against the fear of
death 'If I should die before I wake.‘ And one of
the earliest symptoms manifested by the thanatophobic
child is his obsessive blessing of persons at the end
of his prayer. He will often clearly Show his fear
that these persons would surely die if he forgot to
mention their names in benison or failed to repeat his
blessing the proper number of times. (p. 24)

Sylvia Anthony (1940) suggested that the age of the
child was an important variable in determining his attitude
toward death. However, she also suggested that fear was a

common response to death, noting, like Piaget (1955) that

thoughts of death are frequent in children's fantasies.

69

Klein (1948) also found that children react with fear to
death, but concluded that this was because death is associ-
ated with something fearful. G. Stanley Hall (1915), how-
ever, found that ". . . young children . . . like animals
never fear death per s3 but only fear pain." (p. 555)
Mollenhoff (1959) studied some techniques for investi-
gating thoughts of death in children and concluded that an
informal interview was the most fruitful source for gather-
ing material. Mollenhoff (1959) found that the child's
attitudes toward death were fluctuating and inconsistent,
although she concluded that children generally tend to deny
the finality of death and to connect death with thoughts of
violence, killing, aggression and mutilization. Death wishes
toward parents were also frequently found in the responses of
her SS. Mollenhoff (1959) also observed that children saw
death as a way of escaping from unpleasant life situations
and a way of obtaining love.
Martin Grotjahn (Choron, 1964) relates death anxiety to
various psychosexual stages:
The anxiety of the child at the early oral level is
that of annihilation-—desertion by the mother would
result in the infants death. Annihilation is per—
ceived as being devoured and later stages of death—
fear are modeled in this. In the later anal phase,
fear of death is connected with 'toilet training' and
loss of feces. Still, later, when ego identity has
been established, fear of death is equated with loss
of identity, or loss of mastery over outer or inner
reality. (Pp. 142-145)

One argument which has been cited against Freud's (1955)

contention that death anxiety is a derivative of castration

70

anxiety, is to point out ”pre—oedipal" cases of death
anxiety. Several studies (Nagy, 1948; Wahl, 1955; Morrissey,
1965) report cases where the fear of death was present in
children as early as the third year. Rose (1960) observed

a case of a 5% year old who manifested death anxiety in her
fear of "dye eggs."

Bromberg and Schilder (1955) describe three sources for
the child acquiring his attitudes toward death. These are:
seeing dead humans, reports of adults and seeing dead
animals. They contend that when children acquire their
knowledge of death primarily from reports of adults, death
is conceived of as punitive or destructive:

These reports indicated in the absence of actual ex-

perience in children that death is only a mysterious

absence which is in a vague way connected with threats.

The threats merge with everything that the child has

thus far been threatened with-~for instance, cas-

tration. The actual early experience of the child in
connection with death leads predominantly to a note of
destruction and decay in the developing conception of

death. (p. 180)

Alexander and Adlerstein (1960) studied the affective
reSponses to death words in a group of 108 male SS between
the ages of 5-16 as measured by reaction time and PGR. The
SS were divided into three age groups: 5-8, 9—12, 15-16.
The authors (Alexander and Adlerstein, 1960) found a decrease
in skin resistance as measured by the PGR to the death words
in the youngest (5—8) and oldest (15-16) age groups, with
the middle group (9-12) responding similarly to basal and

death words. There was no difference in the three groups,

71

however, in regard to response time, with all groups having
significantly longer reaction times to death words.
Alexander and Adlerstein (1960) concluded that the differ—
ence in PGR and reaction time reflected the fact that the
measures were tapping different levels of functioning.
They (Alexander and Adlerstein, 1960) interpret the differ-
ences in PGR as being due to greater ego stability in the
ages of 9-12 which resulted in less of an affective reSponse
to death words. Alexander and Adlerstein (1960) also
"speculate" regarding a possible latency period in regard
to death anxiety, occurring within this period, ages 9-12.
According to Nagy (1948), between the ages of 9-12, death
is viewed as the natural end of life and less primitive
mechanisms are used to cope with death. Alexander and
Alderstein (1960) suggest that a "solution" to death anxiety
may occur at this time:

/

V/As a working hypothesis we shall assume that this
'solution' is the critical variable in determining to
what extent and under what kinds of conditions death will
reappear as a conscious problemsin later life. . . .

The nature of this solution may be estimated by such

factors as the stability of the parents, the parent child

relationship, the number of parent substitutes and their

characteristics and the strength of their religious

beliefs. (p. 82)

Loeser and Bry (1965) have also postulated a possible
latency period in regard to death anxiety, a time in which
death fears are repressed. Alexander and Adlerstein (1960)

conclude from their study that death anxiety Should increase

during "critical periods of life: puberty, entrance into

72

adult economic culture, the climacteric, old age, as well
as in the imposed conditions of war, famine, and pestilence."
(Pp 80—81)—

Maurer (1961) investigated the child's knowledge of
death and found that life has the meaning of "good" for the
child and death is seen as "bad." "The only dichotomy within
the child's comprehension in his earliest years is good and
evil. 'Good' is life enhancing affect, approval, power.
'Evil' is life depleting, aloneness, punishment, prohibition.”
(p. 211) Maurer (1961) also feels that fear (particularly
regarding death) is the "X factor that limits usable intelli-
gence." (p. 212)

This review of the literature regarding developmental
aSpectS of the fear of death suggests certain general find-
ings: 1. The child, at least the young child, often views
death as a transitory process, which is reversible.

2. Death is often perceived as violent and destructive.

5. The child accepts the death of others but denies his own
death. 4. Separation is one of the more frightening aspects
of death to the child. 5. At some point in his development,
death is often personified by the child. 6. A period of
latency regarding death anxiety has been postulated as

occurring between the ages of 9-12.

THE ADOLSECENT AND DEATH
Maurer (1964) in a study of 172 female high school

seniors hypothesized that reSponses to death would correlate

75

with academic success. She predicted that the "more success-
ful" adolescents would have found more "adequate and mature"
defenses in coping with death. The SS wrote essays in
response to the questions: "What comes to your mind when you
think of death. What comes to your mind when you think of
love." (p. 78) Maurer's (1964) results supported the
hypothesis and responses on the essays about death tended to
be associated with degree of maturity and academic success.
The Ss with greater fear of death showed poor academic achieve-
ment. These SS typically responded to death in terms of
"separation anxiety, remnants of beliefs in ghosts, spirits,
haunts, mentions of smells, corpses, accidents, disease and
violence. The greater use of euphemisms and similies such as
'sleep' and 'journey' questions as to how the dead 'feel' and
degrees of deadness are stigmate of slow minds." (p. 89)

It is interesting to note the similarity between these
descriptions of death and those cited by Nagy (1948) in her
early developmental stages. In contrast to the "low achieve—
ment group," Maurer (1964) found "high achievement" Ss mani-
fested acknowledgment of death's inevitability, and also,
"more of the effective minds declare that they enjoy and find
satisfaction in helping others, in planning a useful life,
and in thoughts of betterment of mankind." (p. 90) On the
basis of these findings, Maurer (1964) suggests that another
stage "finding a suitable sublimation" be added to the list

of previously defined ways of facing death (denial, fighting

74

off, and accepting the inevitable). The 'solution'

"finding a suitable sublimation" is reflected in such re—
sponses as "living in the memory of friends . . . part of

the chain of life." The fact, however, that a relationship
was found between academic achievement and responses to death
seems to have little meaning peg s3 and suggests many pos-
sible interpretations. It seems likely that "death responses"
and "academic achievement” also encompass many other variables.
For example, it is possible that the low achievement group
was primarily represented by 85 from the lower class while

the high achievement group, who "accepts death with philo-

sophical resignation,‘ were SS primarily from the upper socio-
economic classes. Also, as Maurer (1964) points out, "Which
is the cart and which is the horse can't be demonstrated,

but it seems worthwhile to consider that the ineffectiveness
may be the result as well as the cause of inadequate defenses
against death anxiety." (p. 90) Maurer (1964) also reported
a tendency for her SS to describe "death in terms of what

may have been most threatening in infancy." (p. 88) For
example, death was described as "nauseating" by a girl who
vomited the first Six months of her life, another 8 described
death as a "harsh word," and also recalled that her mother
"never had a good word to say.” Stacey and Ricken (1954)
found that the IQ of adolescent girls was related to their

attitudes toward death and future life. The authors used two

groups of girls a "normal group" and a "subnormal group"

75

(with a mean IQ of 65). Attitudes toward death were

measured by items from a questionnaire which had been
previously used to assess death anxiety. Stacey and Ricken's
(1954) results indicate that "The normal adolescent girls
think of . . . and imagine their own deaths more frequently
and vividly than the subnormal adolescent girls . . . while
the subnormal girls think less often of being killed in an
accident . . . and more often of dying from a specific fatal
disease." (p. 26) The subnormal adolescent girls were also
more emotional and fearful in their reSponses to death. One
of the possible implications of these findings is that factors
which are related to lower IQ also contribute to more mani—
fest death anxiety.

Kastenbaum (1955) was interested in whether an adolescent's
attitude toward death was ". . . part of the structuring
principle dominant at this point of his life or whether it
belonged to a second, discrete psychic organization." In
studying the adolescent's conception of time and death,
Kastenbaum (1955) reported that the adolescent focuses on the
present and tends to keep the past and the future at a
distance. The distant future is particularly given negative
implications. On the basis of his Ss responses to a group
of words (death, good, real, life, bright, myself),
Kastenbaum (1955) concluded that death was a discrete psychic
organization and that SS tended to put as much time as pos-

sible between themselves and death. Maurer (1964) interprets

76

Kastenbaum's (1955) findings in terms of ". . . a difference
between the structuring of acceptance and rejection. Accord-
ing to the pleasure principle,,the adolescent strives toward
good, real, life, bright, and myself, but away from death,
which is unpleasant." (p. 76)

Means (1955) in a study of one thousand college women,
found that death was among the top fears cited by her SS,
however, fear of death was specified in terms of the death
of others. Middleton (1958) investigated the attitudes of
college students toward death and found that 62% of the SS
reported "indifference" as their attitude toward death.

In part, a reSponse to Middleton's (1958) findings, Alexander,

Colley and Adlerstein (1957) undertook a study, Is Death a

 

Matter of Indifference, suggesting that a questionnaire, such
as used by Middleton (1958), taps conscious attitudes toward
death. Alexander, Colley and Adlerstein (1957) predicted
that at a less conscious level, there would be affective
responses to death. These authors used 51 male Princeton
undergraduates and administered a word association task which
included affect words (sex, school, death) and basal words.
Death words were found to be "affective" on both measures,
reaction time and response on PGR, which suggested that, at

a less conscious level, death was a matter of concern to

their 85.

77

THE AGED AND DEATH

Jung (1955) suggests that concern with death is the
problem of old age, but also notes that ". . . those people
who most feared life when they were young to suffer later
just as much from the same fear of death." (p. 5) Choron
(1964) contends that there is a myth that "fear of death . . . is
typical of young people whereas old people are not worried
about 'not existing' but are afraid of the last struggle."
(p. 77) He cites evidence that ". . . old people are afraid
of death precisely because it is the end of living." (p. 78)

Crey (1958) studied four operationally defined modes of
coping with death (avoidance, acceptance, neutralization
and suppression) to see if these differed in frequency be-
tween old and young SS. He used a forced choice projective
instrument and found that the older sample used avoidance
more than the younger sample, where acceptance and neutrali-
zation occurred with equal frequency. Crey (1958) concluded
that there was a marked difference in modes of coping with
death used by old and young SS. In contrast, Bromberg and
Schilder (1955, 1942) found age was not a relevant variable
in determining a Ss reSponse to death.

Feifel (1956) studied physically ill male patients,
with a mean age of 67. The 85 were individually seen and
interviewed using a questionnaire technique and rating scale.
Approximately half of the 85 viewed death as the "end of

everything" while the remainder of the 58, who were religious,

78

saw death as a "new existence." Feifel (1956) found that
many of his SS had never talked or thought about death before
this interview. These elderly patients also extended their
own deaths into the distant future. Klopfer (1947) studied
attitudes toward death by analyzing reSponses to 10 TAT
cards, concluding that fear of death among people in homes
for the aged was lessened by greater activity. Fulton (1958)
also investigated the differences in attitudes toward death
and aging on the part of the aged as a result of their living
conditions. He administered the TAT and a sentence completion
task to his SS and found that apartment residents showed less
fear or preoccupation with death than the SS in institutional
residence.

Swenson (1961) investigated the attitudes toward death
in an aged population by the use of a check list of death
attitudes and written essays concerning death. The MMPI was
also used to measure "religiousity and latitude of interest.”
Three clusters were found in regard to death: a forward
looking attitude, an actively evasive attitude, and a
passively evasive attitude toward death. Swenson (1961) also
found that SS ". . . with fundamental religious conviction
look forward to death more than those with less fundamental
religious conviction and less activity; more fearful atti-
tudes toward death were found in persons with little religious
activity." (p. 51) Widowed persons seemed to passively evade
the issue of death, whereas single, separated and married

persons showed a tendency to look forward to death.

79

Rudick and Dibner (1961) investigated the relationship
between death concerns and personality and health variables
in a normal aged population. The authors used several
measures including the MMPI, TAT and CMI (Cornell Medical
Index) with both male and female SS. The death concern score
was derived from reSponses on the TAT. Rudick and Dibner
(1961) found higher death concern scores exhibited by 85 who
scored "highly" on the MMPI dimensions of hypochondriasis,
hysteria, dependency, and impulsivity. The authors concluded
that "the profile of those SS with high death concerns tends
more to be like the neurotic than the psychotic." (p. 48)
Christ (1961) did a pilot study using a questionnaire to see
how geriatric patients, 60 years and older, felt about the
topic of death. "The interviewers felt that all but two of
the patients were considerably upset about death and used
denial, suppression and repression as defenses. . . ."

(p- 57) Christ (1961) then administered a word association
task to his Ss to see if this "objective measure" would also
indicate that the 85 were afraid of death. There was a
longer reaction time to the "death word," than to the other
words (food, sleep, water, sickness, hOSpital, family doctor,
to leave, milk) so Christ (1961) concluded that the patients
were indeed anxious about death. The SS were then divided
into two groups, those who were more and less afraid of death,
using a fear of death scale. Of the six variables studied,

health, age, religiousity, schooling, and sex, a significant

80

relationship was only found between health and fear of
death; the patients with better health were less afraid of
death than those with poor health. Christ (1961), like
Feifel (1956) found that few of his patients had ever talked
to anyone about death or dying before this interview. This
was particularly noteworthy because 89% of the patients in
Christ's (1961) study needed supervision at least at night
because of physical illness. Christ (1961) suggests, "One
can Speculate that at least some of their psychiatric symptoms
which included fear of being poisoned, killed, or thrown out
of their homes as well as frank somatic delusions may be
symptoms of a marked denial of the fear of death." (p. 57)
Jeffers, Nichols, and Eisdorfa (1961) held a two hour
interview with their geriatric subjects asking if they were
afraid to die, whether they believed in a hereafter life,
in an attempt to relate the fear of death to 52 other vari-
ables. There were no clear findings, although there was a
tendency for those Ss with high fear of death to read the
Bible often, to give death a more religious connotation, and
to have a higher IQ and give more responses on the Rorschach.
These authors conclude, ". . . the fear of death and illness
plays an important part in the unconscious psychological
life of the individual, but it is clearly evident that

further research is needed in this area." (p. 56)

81

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND THE FEAR OF DEATH

Feifel (1955) noted the frequency of thoughts of death
in neurotic and psychotic patients. This was also reported
by Zilboorg (1945) who stated:

That this fear is prominant in a number of psycho-

pathological conditions every psychiatrist knows.

The anxiety neurosis, the phobic states, even a con-

siderable number of depressive suicidal patients and

many schiZOphrenics amply demonstrate that the ever
present fear of death becomes woven into the major
conflicts of a given psychopathological condition.

(p. 465)

Bromberg and Schilder (1955), however, point out that
". . . neither neurosis nor psychosis produce attitudes
towards death which cannot also be found in the so—called
normal. But the neurosis and the psychosis bring Specific
attitudes clearer into the foreground." (p. 2) This is
the position taken by Wahl (1955) who views many types of
psychopathology as representing attempts to bind death
anxiety. Wahl (1955) states in this regard:

My own psychotherapeutic work with children and adults

suggests that many of their anxieties, obsessions, and

other neurotic symptom formations are genetically re-
lated to the fear of death or its symbolic equivalents
and that these symptoms are, just as in the case of
sexual repressions symbolic substitutive attempts to

bind the death anxiety. (p. 27)

According to Searles (1961), schizophrenia, itself,
represents a defense against death. Rosen (1950) also
describes the psychotic as responding ". . . to something
that he conceives to be a death threatening deprivation."

(p. 85) This somewhat primitive conception of death as

deprivation was also noted by Schilder and Wechsler (1954) in

82

their study of children. Searles (1961) contends that the
schiZOphrenic has to fight desperately against death because
he has been ". . . unable to experience himself consistently
as being alive." (p. 652) Searles (1961) further reflects
the schizophrenic's position as being, "One need not fear
death as long as one feels dead anyway." (p. 652) A similar
stance has been taken by Rank (1948) regarding the neurotic
(see p. 5). Feifel (1961) also suggests that schizophrenic
denial of reality serves to magically undo the possibility
of death. "If living leads inevitably to death, then death
can be fended off by not living." (p. 62) Searles (1961)
maintains that "A person cannot bear to face the prospect

of inevitable death until he has had the experience of fully
living and the schiZOphrenic has not yet fully lived."

(p. 655)

Another factor which Searles (1961) cites as contribut-
ing to the schizophrenic's intense fear of death is the fact
that he has experienced ". . . too many losses too early in
his development, and Since he is unable to integrate these
past losses, he is presently unable to accept his own death.”
(p. 640) Rosenzweig and Bray (1945) found that schizophrenics
had Significantly more sibling and parental deaths in their
families than did the control group (manic depressives,
general paretics, normals). Sixty-one percent of the schizo-
phrenics had one or both of these past experiences.

Rosenzweig and Bray (1945) see this early experience as

85

contributing to the schizophrenic's symptoms of guilt and
anxiety. Searles (1961) also relates the schizophrenic's
relationship with his mother ". . . which vascilated be—
tween intense closeness (life) and estrangement . . .
(death)" as contributing to his present defenses against
death.

Burton (1960 contends that the schizophrenic is afraid
of his own destruction as well as the destruction of those
close to him:

The schizophrenic is at once the most omnipotent and

the most helpless of persons. . . . He is never cer-

tain whether he will create or destroy or whether he
will be created or destroyed. . . . He literally

fears not only his own destruction but the destruction

of those who love him. (p. 25)

Bromberg and Schilder (1955) describe the schizophrenic
as fearing his own destructive impulses, as well as the
destruction from others. These authors (Bromberg and Schilder,
1955) interviewed and administered a questionnaire to 70
normal and 10 psychiatric patients and concluded:

There is no wish of death, but a fear of destruction

by others and the tendency to destroy others. There

is only hostility and violence. . . . Death is here

merely destruction and the destructive tendency is in

close relationship with the oral impulses of the

patient. (p. 54)

In a study using psychiatric patients, Feifel (1955)
found that the degree of mental disturbance per se seemed
to have little effect on the patient's attitude toward death,
however, he points out that this study primarily tapped

conscious, public attitudes. Like Bromberg and Schilder

84

(1955), Feifel (1955) also concluded that "many of the
patients depicted death as occurring through violent means.
The conjecture was that this was allied to intense aggres-
sive impulses with which these patients were contending."
(p. 580) Schilder and Wechsler (1954) found that in cases
of childhood neurosis "death is connected with the fear
that violence will be inflicted by a strange and sadistic
force." (p. 29)

Bellak (1928) describes the primary symptom of psychosis
to be ". . . the fear of disintegration and annihilation."
(p. 624) Bettleheim (1955) contends that the schizophrenic
child is defending against destruction which is based on the
child's early experiences which ”. . . created in the children
the conviction that they were threatened by total destruction
all of the time and that no personal relations offered any
relief." (p. 515) Karon (1965) also relates the infantile
terror behind Schizophrenic symptoms to a fear of abandon—
ment and death:

The child is the victim of a series of subtle and un-

subtle rejections whose end effect is to make him feel

worthless, unloveable. But to be literally unloveable
means that mother will not love you, that she will
abandon you, and to the infant this means pain and
death. This is the infantile terror that lurks behind
the schizophrenic symptoms. The schizophrenic's whole
life is organized around the need to defend himself

psychologically against this danger. (p. 29)

Karon (1965) noted that ". . . an overwhelming conscious

fear of death often immediately preceded the psychotic break."

(p. 50)

85

Others view the psychotic's response to death as either
representing an escape from libidinal impulses (Hoffman and
Brody, 1957) or an escape from reality. For example,
Menninger (1958) comments:

This departure from reality enables the psychotic per-

son to destroy himself in a unique way not available

to anyone else. He can imagine himself dead, or he

can imagine a part of himself to be dead or destroyed. .

they can destroy or have destroyed the world of reality

and recreated a world of their own. (p. 212)

A similar position has been proposed by Caprio (1944)
who sees the psychotic as dying ". . . in a world which
represents to them frustration, discipline, censurship,
responsibility and a competitive struggle for existence,
and psychologically resurrecting themselves into a world of
their own, one in which they can release their inhibitions
and express themselves in action and Speech as they please."
(p. 515) Caprio (1944) sees the mood swings in patients as
often expressing the significance of the symptom, fear of
death.

Wolff (1952) reviewed the records of 100 hospitalized
patients and noted the prominance of ideas of death and
tabooed sexuality. He (Wolff, 1952) Speculated that catatonia
represented a feigned death reaction to fear, or a retreat
like death "where tabooed longings are no longer a source of
conflict." (p. 504) Feifel (1955) also likened the stupor
of the catatonic patient to the death state. Edelson and

Warren (1965) conclude ". . . in the schizophrenic illness

the catatonic excitement is a distorted, primitive expression

86

of protest, and the stupor is likewise an expression of the
despair and detachment. Caprio (1944) discusses the re-
lationship between death and psychosis by noting historic-
ally that ". . . both death and psychotic disorders were
attributed to a common cause, namely the work of demons."
(p. 520) Caprio (1944) Speculates that, "The correlation
between the two may account for our theoretical conception
of psychosis as a form of living death, particularly in
regard to the catatonic stupor phases of the schizophrenic
illness." (p. 520)

Rosenthal (1961) found that the paranoid individual
viewed death as "an enemy," inasmuch as the paranoid attempts
". . . to suppress their own homicidal tendencies by pro-
jecting them onto others, and ultimately into the final
enemy death." (p. 626) Klein (1948), however, sees ". .
the root of the persecutory fear of the paranoid individual
. . . is the fear of annihilation of the ego . . . ultimately
by the death instinct." (p. 118) Klein (1948) explains
this in the following manner:

The frustrating (bad) external breast becomes, owing to

projection, the external representative of the death

instinct; through introjection it reinforces the primary
internal danger situation and this leads to an increased
urge on the part of the ego to deflect (project) internal
dangers (primarily the activity of the death instinct)
into the external world. There is, therefore, constant
fluctuation between the death instinct acting within

and deflected outwards. (p. 118)

Loeser and Bry (1960) in a study of 29 patients found

a relationship between adult phobic attacks and childhood

87

death fears which had been repressed. Fenichel (1948),
however, contends that to understand pathological death
phobias, ". . . one has to find out what ideas unconsciously
are connected with the concepts of death." (p. 208)
Fenichel (1948) also questions whether there is any such thing
as normal fear of death ". . . because the idea of one's own
death is subjectively inconceivable . . . and so the fear
of death covers other unconscious ideas." (p. 208)

According to Choron (1964), the most radical position
in assigning death a role in the etiology of psychopathology
has been given by a Swiss analyst, Edgar Herzog, who viewed
the neurosis as "either a not attempted or not successful
coming to terms with the basic elements of the human situ-
ation of which death is the most important." (p. 144)
Caprio (1944) presents evidence that many of the anxiety
symptoms in neurotics can be attributed to traumatic experi—
ences related to death. Fenichel (1948) postulates that the
neurotic fear of death ". . . is regularly due to the un—
conscious conceptions associated with the idea of dying or
being dead and to the turning away from active impulses to
kill. If such a fear once has been established, it can
easily lead to disturbances of sleep by equating sleep and
death with each other." (p. 191) Rosenthal (1961) has
also cited insomnia as a symptom of death anxiety.

Bromberg and Schilder (1956) used the case history

method and studied the responses of psychoneurotics toward

88

death. These authors (Bromberg and Schilder, 1956) found
that in hysteric and anxiety states, death had the meaning
of separation from the beloved one. This seems to reflect
an early conception of death as suggested by the findings
of Chadwick (1927) who found that the very young child was
frightened by death because it represented separation from
the mother. Fenichel (1948) emphasizes the role of aggres-
sion in cases of anxiety hysteria which he also sees as be-
ing focused around a "morbid fear of death."

Bellak (1928) described the obsessive compulsive
individual's preoccupation with death as serving as a means
of self punishment. Schilder and Wechsler (1954) also report
that death and life become closely tied to punishment and
expiation in obsessional cases, but further contend that
the problem of death is also closely related to conceptions
of time. Others (Heidegger, 1954; Kastenbaum, 1955; Rubin,
1965) have also focused on the relationship between time and
death. Fenichel (1948) sees preoccupation with time as serv~
ing as a defense against death:

Many a fear of death means a fear of a state where the

usual conceptions of time are invalid. States in which

the orientation in time becomes more difficult, dusk

or long evenings, in winter, or even long days in

summer are feared by many compulsive neurotics.
(p. 285)

THE MEANING OF DEATH

 

Although Freud (1955) suggested that death anxiety is

a derivative of castration anxiety, few studies have

J

89

considered the sex of the subject as an important variable
in regard to his reSponses to death. McClelland (1964),
however, suggests that the meaning of death may be different
for women than men, postulating a "Harlequin complex" for
women which is described as follows: ". . . death is seen
as a lover . . . a mysterious dark figure who comes and takes
a woman away to her death, a theme which with all its vari-
ations we call the Harlequin complex." (p. 199) McClelland
(1964) suggests that the Harlequin complex accounts for the
positive meaning death often has for women. He (McClelland,
1964) cites a study by Greenberger (1961) who collected the
fantasies of women dying from cancer and compared them with
those of women who were hospitalized for a minor illness.
Greenberger (1961) found that women who were fatally ill
thought ". . . almost twice as often about punishment and
illicit sex as the women who were about to go home from the
hOSpital after a minor illness.“ (p. 199) The 58 responses
did not suggest that the "illicit love partner" was the
father, so Greenberger (1961) referred to him as Harlequin
”. . . the unknown seducer about whom women who are about to
die dream more often than those who are hOSpitalized for a
minor illness." (p. 220) McClelland (1964) notes that a

somewhat comparable figure for men, La belle dame sans merci,

 

is a castrating figure and generally quite different from
Harlequin. In McClelland's (1964) investigation of the

Harlequin complex, he used 40 male and 58 female college

90

students who ranked the following descriptive metaphors of
death: "An understanding doctor, a gay seducer, a grinning
butcher, a last adventure, a threatening father, a misty
abyss, the end of a song." (p. 201) The only significant
difference in the rankings was for the women to rank the
Harlequin image, "a gay seducer," more often than men.

There was also a trend for men to rank "a grinning butcher,"
more often than women. McClelland (1964) suggests extending
his findings to schiZOphrenic women who he considers having
a heightened concern with death, pointing out that key ele-
ments in the Harlequin complex, "a concern with punishment
and illicit sexuality" also characterize schizophrenic
women. McClelland (1964) says in this regard:

For death stands for the demon lover--the symbol of a

woman's own life urges which is expressed paradoxically

in the thought of yielding or dying. He appears in
many guises. We have called him Harlequin. . . . But
whatever he is called, he has seduced many Columbines,
both on the stage and on real life; he comes to comfort
middle-aged women who tire of their husbands and to
thrill older women nearing death when no mortal lover
can take his place; and he has trapped many a wretched
woman into a terrifying death while She is yet alive,

a state which modern science has labeled schizophrenia.

(p. 212)

Bromberg and Schilder (1956) have likewise noted that
death represents for certain individuals ". . . an equivalent
for the final sexual union with the ideal mate. . . ."
McClelland's (1964) findings further suggest the develop—
mental study by Nagy (1948) of the childs' conception of
death. Nagy (1948) described an early stage where death is

personified by the child and depicted as either ”the reaper

91

idea" or the "death man." Death is also personified in
Freud's (1915) essay, The Theme of Three Caskets, a story of
a man who has to choose among three women. According to
Freud's (1915) interpretation of this folklore, the third
woman, the one chosen symbolizes death.

Others (Bromberg and Schilder, 1956; Murphy, 1955;
Feifel, 1955; Rosenthal, 1961; choron, 1964) have focused on
the meaning of death anxiety or what is frightening about
death for their Ss. The following list has been compiled
from the conclusions of these authors:

1. Fear of dying. (Bromberg and Schilder, 1956;

Choron, 1964)
2. Fear of what happens after death. (Choron, 1964)
a. Fear of the hereafter. (Rosenthal, 1961)
5. Fear of ceasing to be. (Choron, 1964)
a. Death as the end. (Murpny, 1955)
b. Death as cutting off. (Rosenthal, 1961)

4. Fear of losing consciousness. (Murphy, 1955)

a. Fear of falling asleep. (Rosenthal, 1961)

5. Fear of loneliness. (Murphy, 1955; Rosenthal, 1961)

6. Fear of the unknown. (Murphy, 1955; Rosenthal, 1961)

7. Fear of punishment. (Murphy, 1955; Rosenthal, 1961)

a. Self punishment, masochism. (Bromberg and
Schilder, 1956)
8. Fear of what happens to ones' family. (Murphy, 1955)

9. Fear of failure. (Feifel, 1965, Murphy, 1955)

92

Feifel (1965) suggests that death has the meaning of
personal failure and loss of identity in our present society,
commenting, "Fear of death is no longer so much a fear of
judgment as it is the fear of infringement on the right of
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (p. 64)

Feifel (1965) concludes that "Death is a multifaced symbol
whose Specific importance depends on the nature of the

individual's development and his cultural context." (p. 62)

RESPONSES TO DEATH

 

Choron (1964) reports the three following modes of
responding to death: 1. Ignoring it. 2. Focusing on it.
5. Minimizing death and along with this having a diminished
interest in life. In regard to "focusing on death," Choron
(1964) quotes Thomas Wolff as saying, "Because I have seen
and known you so well and have lived so long with loneliness,
your brother, I do not fear you any longer friend. . . ."
(p. 114) Choron (1964) contends that the most popular
reSponse is to deny death. He (Choron, 1964) states in this
regard:

There is no doubt that the denial of the finality of

death is the most satisfying solution to the problem

of death. The belief in a future life fulfills what

Freud readily admitted in the Future of an Illusion to

be the 'oldest, strongest, and most insistent wish of

mankind."(p. 14)

Bromberg and Schilder (1956) found that three-fourths

of their SS believed their own death to be improbable and

concluded, "We never die psychologically and belief in

95

immortality is but the expression of the inherent tendency
of our psychic life." (p. 5) Loeser and Bry (1960) also
report from their studies of phobic patients that "Whatever
the meaning of death to the young child, the fantasy of im-
mortality is consistently found. . . ." (p. 289) Wahl
(1955) describes the extent to which man goes to deny his
own death:

Firstly, we do not even refer to death as death, but

instead employ cumbersome and elaborate euphremisms such

as 'passed away' or 'passed on' or 'departed'. . . . We
attempt to preserve and prettify the corpse and endeavor
to create the illusion in it of momentary sleep. More—
over the vast majority of us identify ourselves with
religious and philosophical systems of belief which

assert that death is not death at all, but rather a

futive experience, a brief transition between one or

more important existence and another. We flee from the
reality of our eventual deaths with such purpose and
persistence and we employ defenses so patently magical
and regressive that these would be ludricously obvious
to us if we should employ them to this degree in any

other area of human conflict. (p. 19)

Feifel (1965), however, maintains that ". . . there is a
need to face death and also a need to face away from it."
(p. 74) He (Feifel, 1965) reports in this regard, the case
of WW II pilots who were able to keep from breaking down
psychologically in times of extreme danger by believing in
their own invulnerability.

The following are some of the factors listed by Feifel
(1965) as determining an individual's reactions to death:

1. The psychological maturity of the individual. 2. The

kinds of coping techniques available to him. 5. The influence

of such varying frames of reference as religious orientation,

94

age, sex. The religious orientation of the subject as a
variable in determining his response to death was considered
by Kelish (1965) who studied the attitudes toward various
methods of destroying life, e.g., euthanasia, abortion,
capital punishment, and religious beliefs. He (Kelish, 1965)
found that "Fear of death correlated significantly and nega-
tively only with approval of abortion, indicating that those
who express overt fear of death are opposed to abortion."
(p. 142) No significant difference was found regarding
religious groups and fear of death.

Hall (1896) in a study of fears found that a religious
orientation generally increased the fear of death. Later,
Hall (1915), however, reversed this notion and suggested
that Christianity aided in alleviating death anxiety.
Alexander and Adlerstein (1960) used a religious and non-
religious group of Princeton undergraduates and found that
there was no difference in regard to their affective reSponse
to death words as measured by PGR and reaction time on a
word association task. These authors (Alexander and
Adlerstein, 1960), however, did find that the defenses for
these two groups differed, with the religious SS focusing on
thoughts of an after life, and the nonreligious Ss trying
to ban the topic of their own death from consciousness.
Alexander and Adlerstein (1960) also administered the
Semantic Differential to their 85 and found that both groups
saw the death words as "bad" and "potent." The religious

group, however, considered death words to be "active,' while

95

the nonreligious Ss saw death as "passive." Both the
religious and nonreligious SS felt that their conviction made
them less fearful toward death. The religious group held to
the position that death was not the end, and the nonreligious
group maintained that by accepting death as the end, uncer-
tainty was removed. Related to these beliefs, however,

were the aSpects of death that were of most concern to them.
According to Alexander and Adlerstein (1960), "the religious
85 were troubled about the possibility that an after life

may not exist or that they would not be able to attain it,
while the nonreligious SS expressed concern that their lives
might end without having accomplished anything of importance."
(p. 27) In describing what was most unpleasant about death,
both groups contended that "the fear of a painful death"

was of the most concern. This fear was followed in import-
ance by the thought of separation from loved ones, the prob-
lem of facing death properly and the thought of being buried
in the ground. However, both groups said they had little
concern or feeling regarding death. Alexander and Adlerstein
(1960) conclude that "death anxiety is not dissipated by a
religious approach to life . . . that death is a threat to
the intact ego and as such must be handled by all humans no
matter what their religious conviction . . . finds support

in our results." (p. 28)

APPENDIX 1

Q-SORT UNIVERSE

. I feel uncomfortable while talking with someone.

. I put on a false front.

1
2
5. I am a competitive person
4. I make strong demands on myself.
5. I often kick myself for the things I do.
6. I often feel humiliated.
7. I doubt my sexual powers.
8. I am much like the opposite sex.
9. I have a warm emotional relationship with others.
10. I am an aloof reserved person.
11. I am reSponSible for my troubles.
12. I am a reSponsible person.
15. I have a feeling of hopelessness.
14. I live largely by other people's values and standards.
15. I can accept most social values and standards.
16. I have few values and standards of my own.
17. I have a hard time controlling my sexual desires.
18. It's difficult to control my aggression.
19. Self control is no problem to me.
20. I am often down in the dumps.

21. I am really self-centered.

22. I usually like people.

96

25.
24.
25.
26.
27.

28.

29.
50.
51.
52.
55.

54.

55.
57.
58.
59.
40.
41.
42.
45.
44.
45.
46.
47.

48.

97

I express my emotions freely.

Usually in a mob of people I feel a little bit alone.
I want to give up trying to cope with the world.

I can live comfortably with the people around me.

My hardest battles are with myself.

I tend to be on my guard with people who are somewhat
more friendly than I had expected.

I am optimistic.

I am just sort of stubborn.

I am critical of people.

I usually feel driven.

I am liked by most people who know me.

I have an underlying feeling that I'm not controbuting
enough to life.

I am sexually attractive.

I can usually make up my mind and stick to it.
My decisions are not my own.

I often feel guilty.

I am a hostile person.

I am contented.

I am disorganized.

I feel apathetic.

I am poised.

I just have to drive myself to get things done.
I often feel resentful.

I am impulsive.

It's important for me to know how I seem to others.

98

49. I don't trust my emotions.

50.
51.
52.
55.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
65.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
75.

74.

It is pretty tough to be me.

I

I

am a rational person.

have the feeling I'm just not facing things.

am tolerant.

try not to think about my problems.

have an attractive personality.

am Shy.

need somebody else to push me through on things.
feel inferior.

am no one. Nothing really seems to be me.

am afraid of what other people think about me.
am ambitious.

despise myself.

have initiative.

shrink from facing a crisis or difficulty.

just don't reSpect myself.

am a dominant person.

take a positive attitude toward myself.

am assertive.

am afraid of a full-fledged disagreement with a person.
can't seem to make up my mind one way or another.
am confused.

am satisfied with myself.

am a failure.

am likeable.

75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
85.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
95.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.

100.

99

My personality is attractive to the opposite sex.

I

I

I

I

am afraid of sex.

have a horror of failing in anything I want to accomplish.
feel relaxes and nothing really bothers me.

am a hard worker.

feel emotionally mature.

am not accomplishing.

am naturally nervous.

really am disturbed.

All you have to do is just insist with me and I give in.

I

I

feel insecure within myself.
have to protect myself with excuses, with rationalizing.
am a submissive person.

am intelligent.

feel superior.

feel hopeless.

am self-reliant.

often feel aggressive.

am inhibited.

am different from others.

am unreliable.

understand myself.

am a good mixer.

feel adequate.

am worthless.

dislike my own sexuality.

APPENDIX 2

List of words used in word association task. 5 sex words
(romance, lover, maiden), 5 school words (college, scholar,
lecture), 5 death words (burial, death, funeral), and 8
basal words.

SUBJECT

 

WORD TIME RESPONSE

A. Harvest

 

 

 

B. Saddle

 

 

 

C. Ideal

 

 

 

D. Holiday

 

 

 

Column

 

 

 

. mirror

 

 

 

. college

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E
1
2
5. burial
4
5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

willow
velvet
6. bureau
7. autumn
8. death
9. voyage
10. estate
11. feather
12. funeral

 

 

 

15. rabbit

 

 

 

100

101

14. meadow

 

 

15. scholar

 

 

 

16. ribbon

 

 

 

17. romance

 

 

18. lecture

 

 

 

19. lover

 

 

 

20. garden

 

 

 

 

21. circle

 

 

22. pponder

 

 

 

25. kettle

 

 

 

 

24. maiden

 

 

25. insect

 

 

 

 

26. sunset

 

 

 

27. napkin

 

 

 

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