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Death in Life: Approaches to the Contemporary Denial of Death in Theoretical & Experimental Psychology and Continental Philosophy

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Death in Life: Approaches to the Contemporary Denial of Death in Theoretical & Experimental Psychology and Continental Philosophy DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 3-2015 Death in life: approaches to the contemporary denial of death in theoretical & experimental psychology and continental philosophy Madeline R. Runstrom DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Runstrom, Madeline R., "Death in life: approaches to the contemporary denial of death in theoretical & experimental psychology and continental philosophy" (2015). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 180. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/180 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Death in Life: Approaches to the Contemporary Denial of Death in Theoretical & Experimental Psychology and Continental Philosophy A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts March, 2015 Madeline R. Runstrom Department of Interdisciplinary Studies College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences DePaul University Chicago, Illinois Abstract Using an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis explores the theme of death in life. This thesis particularly examines the work of Phillipe Ariès, Ernest Becker, Terror Management theorists (TMT), Martin Heidegger, and Friedrich Nietzsche. These thinkers are united in their diagnosis of a severe and unhealthy contemporary denial of death. Death has never been repressed as thoroughly as it is in the current era in western culture, to the point that the exclusion of death may well be the characteristic that centrally distinguishes, and threatens the welfare of, our age. However, as I show in Chapter One, in a number of previous historical epochs people have understood death as a fundamental and constitutive aspect of life, making it clear that death need not be denied as it is now. In Chapters Two and Three, I describe the psychological theory and experimental research that asserts our denial of death oftentimes leads to negative attitudes and the harming of others who are different from us. Although the psychological approach succeeds in its critique of our rejection of death, I argue that its positive response proves less than satisfying. At this point, in Chapters Four and Five, the thesis turns to representatives of continental philosophy, who advance an alternative way of relating to death. These philosophers explain that it is because we die that we can take hold of the possibilities of our lives. They suggest that we have the possibility of authentically understanding ourselves as the mortal creatures we are, affirming and even expressing gratitude for death as a meaning-giving element in life. Thus, death need not be the regrettable moment of our demise, but an essential aspect of who we are as human beings. 2 Table of Contents Introduction An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Theme of Death in Life 4-5 Chapter One: Phillipe Ariès, Historian Modern Problem of Death 6-15 Chapter Two: Ernest Becker, Interdisciplinary Anthropologist Denial of our Death 16-44 Chapter Three: Terror Management Theorists, Experimental Psychologists Support for Becker 45-64 Chapter Four: Martin Heidegger, Continental Philosopher Ontology of Death 65-101 Chapter Five: Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosophical Therapist Embodiment of Death 102-134 Conclusion 135-145 Notes 146-154 Works Cited 155-158 3 Introduction: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Theme of Death in Life A number of years ago I stumbled upon a documentary titled “Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality.” Captivated, I listened to various intellectuals and thinkers discuss how humans deal with their mortality. In this, it was the scientists who fascinated me most, for nowhere before had I heard of experimental scientists investigating such existential matters. I was impressed by the courage it took for these scientists to confront a subject matter typically left to the arts and poetry, or perhaps to theology and philosophy. Fascinated by this unique existential-scientific perspective, I read some of the published studies conducted by these researchers who were working in a subfield of psychology called Terror Management Theory (TMT). In the documentary, many of these researchers referenced an anthropologist named Ernest Becker, so I set myself the task of also familiarizing myself with his works. Interestingly, when I brought Becker and TMT to the attention of the psychology professors in my MA program, I was met with hesitation, even unease. The few people who had heard of this area of psychology seemed to think it highly questionable, and they recommended I pursue other topics for course projects. The limited experiments read about in class that investigated anything about our mortality usually only involved participants in the elderly population or people with terminal illnesses. Furthermore, when authors of articles, professors, and fellow students could not avoid talking about death, I noticed them using indirect language such as “pass away” or “perish.” I was shocked that no one in the psychology department seemed to care to acknowledge, let alone investigate, this aspect of our existence, an aspect that affects every single human being and does so in such a profound way. Considering that psychology is the examination of the human 4 functioning, the topic of death and its relation to life, including the revolutionary work of Becker and TMT, seemed to me in need of much more consideration than it was receiving. Despite my excitement for the ingenuity of the scientific examination of death in life, as I better familiarized myself with the work, I came up against what I saw as a significant limitation of the scientific approach. Through Becker and TMT’s descriptions of how our mortality influences our everyday thoughts, behaviors, and emotions, I began to see how I am constantly affected by my finitude. However, Becker and TMT were unable to help me understand what, if anything, could or should be done about it. As I continued my interdisciplinary education, my studies in continental philosophy seemed to address the gap left by Becker and TMT. In particular, Martin Heidegger’s rigorous ontological study of what he calls Dasein, something like ‘human existence,’ and Friedrich Nietzsche’s lived and embodied philosophical methodology seemed to me to speak about death in the way that was required, namely as a part of who I am as a human being. As I pursued the topic of mortality, I was introduced to the work of Phillipe Ariès, which helped me gain a historical context of the concept of death in the Western world. This project was not started in attempt to fully elucidate the massive, elusive concept of death, but is offered as a discussion that recognizes the simple fact that death is not situated within any particular discipline. Each field examines mortality on different levels, through a variety of approaches and methodologies. When taken together, Becker, TMT, Ariès, Heidegger, and Nietzsche are able to say much more about our death, my death, than if they remained isolated in their own disciplinary perspectives. As a result, this work takes an interdisciplinary approach to flesh out these preliminary theses about death in life. 5 Chapter One: Phillipe Ariès, Historian: Modern Problem of Death I. Introduction to Ariès Philippe Ariès (1914-1984) examined the historical transformation of the concept of death in the Western world in the last few millennia. He breaks the perspectives down into four major periods with their own fairly distinct conceptualizations of our mortality. The first three periods Ariès delineates span from over a millennium ago through the nineteenth century, and he describes them as fundamentally similar. Ariès says that the concept of death “resisted the pressures of evolution for about two thousand years. In a world subject to change, the traditional attitude toward death is like a bulwark of inertia and continuity” (HOD 28). While there was some transformation across these first three periods, it occurred slowly over hundreds of years until contemporary times when “a complete reversal of customs seems to have occurred in one generation” (HOD 560). The previous ways we have conceptualized our perishing have been “so obliterated from our culture that it is hard for us to imagine or understand” (HOD 28). Since the 20th century, we perceive death as terrifying and wild, a phenomenon that should be rejected and banished from thought. Even though we feel our responses are natural and could not be different, they have been so throughout recorded history. In order to understand the distinctly modern way of dealing with death, this chapter unpacks the general differences between how we have previously conceived of death and how we approach it now. II. Previous Conceptions of Death 6 Ariès began his historical investigation in the early Middle Ages, and titles this first period “tame death” (HOD 5). Although people did not want to die nor were they apathetic towards their demise, during this period death was familiar and accepted as a part of life. In this way, people did not reject and rebel against the fact that they and their loved ones would eventually die. Ariès references Alexander Solzhenitsyn who describes, “‘they didn’t puff themselves up or fight against it and brag that they weren’t going to die- they took death calmly’” (qtd. in WA 13). Similarly, Ariès illustrates, “Naturally, the dying man feels sad about the loss of his life, the things he has possessed, and the people he has loved. But his regret never goes beyond a level of intensity that is very slight” (HOD 15).
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