Learning about Death

Learning about Death
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Learning about Death
 A. Why did death "come out of the closet" in the 1970s? What events related to the "thanatology movement" helped change Americans' awareness of dying and death?
 In the 1970s in America, death came out of the closet because of the AIDS crisis. During this time, many Americans felt uncomfortable with how society treated homosexuality and AIDS patients, so they started coming out in droves. The thanatology movement is a school of thought that emerged in 1943 as an extension of Freudian psychoanalysis (Aguilera, Granja, De Albuquerque & Malheiro, 2020). It was initially used to study the psychological effects of death on people. It has since evolved into studying near-death experiences and other phenomena such as reincarnation. The movement played a major role in changing the perception of death among Americans. The belief that death is not the end of life, but rather the beginning to another existence, has gained traction in current American culture. The movement is responsible for the development of near-death experiences and the belief in reincarnation. Such information enables people to change their perspective about death because they normalize death.
B. American avoidance of death and dying and viewed as fearful
Death itself is an intricate process involving many different constituents: There are living aspects such as dead bodies that are cremated and buried. Hence, the Americans consider this experience fearful due to the grief it causes (Aguilera, Granja, De Albuquerque & Malheiro, 2020). The Americans understand that every person has to die. However, this is a reality that many Americans are unwilling to accept. They avoid thinking about their own death by living in the present and by trying to be constantly busy with work and family.
C. Perceptions of death as one goes from birth to age 12.
Perceptions of death fr...