ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author discusses the sociological, judicial, and medical fields. He began by stating that one of the keys to understanding man's contradictory reactions and behavior toward death stems from the fact that he is fascinated by death. The author focuses on Freud's observation that everybody is convinced of his own immortality in his unconscious and irrational mind, no matter how logical, reasonable, and scientific he may be on a conscious level. Hence the psychoanalytic school could venture the assertion that at bottom no one believes in his own death, or, to put the same thing in another way, in the unconscious, everyone of us is convinced of his own immortality." The largest group of death-lovers he have encountered are those who seek partial death. They are the searchers for bliss, peace of mindlessness, an end to fears, uncertainties, insecurities, and feelings of unlovableness. Death mobilizes dread and hate but it may also be appealing, glorious, and irresistible.