Sociology of Death & Dying

Thanatology, Bibliography, Sociology of Death and Dying Syllabus

"The living don't want to die and the dead don't know that they are dead. There was this old man who married at 90 and built a home near a school" - vpr

"Everybody knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it." - Morrie Schwartz

We are conditioned to deny death. We are conditioned to relate to death indirectly, to hope to live and fear death, hope that we can postpone or avoid death. When the Western world was "flat" we lived in fear of exploring it because we might "fall off at the edge". Though we subconsciously fear that we will die, we are not yet "explorers" of "death".

Death And Dying (Life Balance) by Carol Antoinette Peacock

"How can anyone feel so important when we know death is stalking us? The thing to do when you're impatient is to turn to your left and ask advice from your death."-Don Juan

"If a man has learned to think, no matter what he may be thinking about he is always also thinking of his own death." Tolstoy

"The fact is, those who apply themselves correctly to philosophy are simply and solely practicing dying and preparing for death…" Socrates (Plato)

"Today approximately 200,000 people died…. We live in a society conditioned to deny death. It may be for this reason that many, at the time of their dying, feel so confused and guilty. Like sex, death has been whispered about behind closed doors. We feel guilty for dying, not knowing how to live." -Levine

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