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Death is a frequently recurring theme in human psychology. It is surprising indeed how often thoughts of death creep into the consciousness of the average person during the course of his every-day activity. But ideas concerning death are especially prominent in psychopathology. Thoughts of death and dying occur as every-day symptoms among psychoneurotics of the anxiety, hysterical and obsessive types, in depressions, melancholias, schizophrenias, epileptic psychoses, panic reactions, etc.
Until psychoanalytic investigation had called attention to the deeper relations between death and the inner mental life there have been few studies on the meaning of one's attitude towards death. Theology and philosophy have, of course, always dealt with this problem. It is not necessary to go into the theological aspect of this discussion. Metaphysicians have given the question considerable thought. Thus, Heidegger1 speaks about life as being “an existence toward death” (Dasein zum Tode): for him death throws a shadow over our entire life. In modern psychiatry the problem of suicidal