Thanatology: the study of death

This is a discipline that places great importance on helping to manage the grieving process.

Among the contexts in which psychology professionals are involved is the fact of supporting people in their grief processes. And there is a discipline that studies death and its process. This is thanatologyand its objective in psychology is to help individuals to understand their losses and to find or recover the meaning of life.

In this article we will see which are the fundamental characteristics of thanatology, and the psychological aspects in which it intervenes.

What is thanatology?

It is not an area of study of psychology as such, but it does converge in several points. It works directly with terminally ill patients and their families or anyone who has suffered a loss. The role of psychology is to guide the individual through the bereavement, making sure that he/she is having a satisfactory one and helping him/her to recognize, normalize and control all the emotions that arise in the process.

The main objectives of thanatology are to pay attention to these aspects of our relationship with death. these aspects of our relationship with death:

• Psychological suffering.
• The patient's significant relationships.
• Physical pain.
• The last will and testament.
• Legal aspects.

The stages of grief

The Swiss psychiatrist, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, has been one of those who has most studied the process of death, grief and everything related to palliative care for terminally ill patients. She proposed a model of the five stages of grief:

1. denial

Temporary defense of someone who has had a loss or is about to lose his or her life due to some health condition. The individual does not accept what is happeningbelieves it is a dream, a vague idea; anything but its reality. "This can't be happening to me."

2. anger

The subject feels helpless and angry about the situation he/she is going through. Normally, anything that represents energy, lucidity and life are totally repelled by it. "Why me and not someone else?" Bargaining: the hope that time can be extended a little longer and death postponed is reflected. The individual thinks of making improvement commitments to enjoy if he/she had more time.. "If I could stay, now I would really take care of my health." "I just want to see my children's graduation."

3. Depression

Begins the process of understanding that death is imminent, so that may isolate, refuse visits from loved ones and cry frequently.. "I'm going to die, what would be the point of being with my family?" It is when the weight of loss falls, knowing that person is gone and feelings of melancholy and nostalgia are superimposed.

4. Acceptance

Total understanding that death will come and there is nothing to do to avoid it. The individual no longer mournsRather, he/she prepares to die. "I know I will die, there is nothing I can do". Whoever has had a loss accepts that the person is gone, will not return, but is already at peace.

Facing the process of death

Each person lives their grieving process differently, they can change from one step to another without a specific order; live the same step several times; and live their grief in various durations. There is no standardized rule of how it should be and it is for the same reason that you should never force someone to manage it in a certain way, as this could have negative rather than beneficial consequences.This could have negative consequences instead of beneficial ones.

Thanatology is not based on religious beliefs, customs or rituals, but on the relationship we each have with death and our conception of it.It is based not on religious beliefs, customs or rites, but on the relationship we each have with death and our conception of it. That is why one of the most important points within it is autonomy, which seeks to allow people to make their own decisions regarding the dying process.

Although it is not a recent discipline, it has been gaining more recognition for the benefits it has provided to people who have suffered a loss or are terminally ill to have a much more bearable process and over which they feel they have control. Now, one of the challenges in society is to continue to break the taboo surrounding this topic and to educate children about the process of dying; what it entails; and to provide psychological strategies for good grief management.