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'Thanatology and Its Thesis of the Repression of Death: a Discursive

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'Thanatology and Its Thesis of the Repression of Death: a Discursive ‘Thanatology and its thesis of the repression of death: A discursive and generic analysis.’ by Irina Romanova A Doctoral Thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University June, 2017 © by Irina Romanova 2017 Abstract. This thesis examines the emergence of thanatology as a discipline, paying particular attention to the key thanatological theme that death has become a taboo topic in modern society and to the rhetorical construction of early thanatological texts. In order to study these issues, the thesis uses a variety of different methods. First I used corpus linguistic methodology to study the way repression proper was constructed in Time magazine, one of the most popular American news magazines of the time. This analysis showed that by the late 1950-early 1960s when thanatology had emerged as a discipline, the concept of repression proper had not completely lost its ties with psychoanalysis and had not become an integral part of ordinary discourse. Also, in the 1950s repression was often constructed as a pathology and this perception was shared by the early thanatological authors. In analyzing the publications by Geoffrey Gorer and Herman Feifel, the two important authors for the early history of the discipline, the methods of Discursive and Rhetorical Psychology, Critical Discourse Analysis and Genre Analysis were used, especially to analyse in discursive depth the essay “The Pornography of Death” by Geoffrey Gorer (1955) and the volume The Meaning of Death (1959) edited by Herman Feifel. Geoffrey Gorer in his essay “The Pornography of Death” contributed to the dissemination of the notion of repression and introduced to the public discourse the idea of the repression of death, death being the new taboo. Herman Feifel in his volume The Meaning of Death introduced the idea of repression of death as a characteristic feature of the Western society to the scholarly literature of the 1950s and 1960s. Feifel based his construction of the taboo on death on that of Gorer and legitimized the essay “The Pornography of Death” as a part of scholarly discourse on death. Using genre analysis it can be seen that neither the essay by Gorer, nor the volume The Meaning of Death can be viewed as conventional scholarly texts. Thus death studies as a scientific discipline can be viewed as originating at the essentially public level of communication. This has wider implications for understanding how new disciplines can be constructed and promoted both within and beyond the academic world. Key words: thanatology, death studies, repression of death, death denial, taboo on death, Herman Feifel, Geoffrey Gorer, rhetoric, genre, Discursive and Rhetorical Psychology. i Acknowledgements. First and foremost I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Michael (Mick) Billig who supported and encouraged me during these years, helped me grow as a researcher, and believed in me and my project even in times, when I did not believe in it myself. I am very grateful to Mick for his wisdom, his patience, his enormous erudition, his time. Thank you for being a wonderful mentor! It was a privilege working with you! I am also very grateful to my examiners Dr. Vivien Burr and Dr. Cristian Tileaga for their insightful comments, which helped me structure my thoughts and think more clearly about my project and about the next steps. I am deeply indebted to the late Dr. Alexey M. Matyushkin, my undergraduate advisor at the Moscow State University, who encouraged me to study psychology and was a true role model for me. Also, I am very grateful to Dr. Victor V. Znakov, my postgraduate advisor at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Scences. I would like to thank Dr. David Clark for sharing with me the transcript of his interview with Herman Feifel and Dr. Wade Pickren for providing access to his interview with Irving E. Alexander. These interviews were very important for my project. I am also very grateful to Dr. Thomas Greening, Dr. Robert R. Holt, Dr. Lois Jackson, Dr. Maura Mackowski, Dr. Harold Marcuse, Dr. Joseph Natterson, Dr. Robert C. Post, Dr. Andrew Spear, Dr. Stephen Strack for their willingness to help me with my project and for sharing valuable information with me. Thank you so much for your time and answering my endless questions. I would particularly like to thank all the librarians and archivists who helped me with my research and made my thesis possible. I am very grateful to Lisa D. Alberts (NIMH Office of Science Policy, Planning and Communications), Jackie Ben-Efraim (Ostrow Library, American Jewish University), Jodi Boyle (M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives University at Albany, SUNY), Jolie Braun (Duke University Medical Center Archives ), Josh Caster (University Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska- Lincoln Libraries), Tara Craig (Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library), Deborah Dandridge (Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas), Diane ii Ducharme (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University), Barbara Faye Harkins (Office of NIH History, National Institutes of Health), Lin Fredericksen (State Archives Division, Kansas Historical Society), Julia Gardner (Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library), Dan Hanlon (APA), Kerry Heimer (New York University Archives), Edward Helmrich (Ryan Library, Iona College), Lorna Kirwan (The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley), Kathy A. Lafferty (Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas), Natalie Lopez (Special Collections and University Archives, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona), Herbert Kopp-Oberstebrink (Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin), Dr. Sanders Marble ( Office of Medical History, Office of the Chief of Staff, US Army Medical Command), Rachel McArthur (Interlibrary Services, University of Texas at Austin), Gary McMillan (Melvin Sabshin Library and Archives, American Psychiatric Association), Rachel Misrati (Archives Department, The National Library of Israel, Jerusalem), Jessica Murphy (Center for the History of Medicine Harvard Medical School), Francesca Pitaro (Associated Press Corporate Archives), Chamisa Redmond (Library of Congress), Stephen Roeper (Archivzentrum - Universitaetsbibliothek, Goethe-Universitaet Frankfurt am Main), Lizette Royer Barton (Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, The University of Akron), Jessica Suarez (Andover Harvard Theological Library), Arthur Townsend (UCSF Library), Dr. Yvonne Voegeli (ETH-Bibliothek, Hochschularchiv der ETH Zürich), Monique Voyer (Division de la gestion de documents et des archives, Université de Montréal), Jocelyn Wilk (Columbia University Archives), Lewis Wyman (Manuscript Division, Library of Congress), Claud Zachary (University of Southern California Library), Susan Yates (City of Hope Archives). I am also very grateful to the librarians and archivists who work at the British National Archives in Kew and at the University of Sussex Library Special Collections. I am very grateful to my husband Costas Droussiotis without whose support (emotional, financial, psychological, spiritual and practical) I would not be able to complete my thesis. Finally, my sincere thanks go to Cristina Marinho, who made Loughborough a very warm and friendly place for me. iii Contents Abstract. ........................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements. ........................................................................................................................ ii 1. Introduction. ................................................................................................................................ 1 2. The origin of thanatology in the existing accounts of its history. ............................................... 8 2.1. Introduction. ....................................................................................................................................... 8 2.2. The existing accounts of the early history of thanatology. .............................................................. 10 2.2.1. The account of the early history of thanatology by Herman Feifel (1974). .............................. 10 2.2.2. The account of the early history of thanatology by Vanderlyn Pine (1977). ............................ 11 2.2.3. The account of the early history of thanatology by Kenneth Doka (2003). .............................. 15 2.2.4. The account of the early history of thanatology by Clifton Bryant (2007). .............................. 17 2.3. Common features of the existing historical accounts. ..................................................................... 19 2.4. The idea of the Western repression of death in the history of death studies. ................................... 21 2.5. “The New History” of psychology. .................................................................................................. 24 2.6. “The New History” and thanatology. ............................................................................................... 26 2.7. Conclusion. ...................................................................................................................................... 27 3. The historical context: Geoffrey Gorer, Herman Feifel and their contribution to the early history of thanatology. .................................................................................................................
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