Some Subjective Reactions of a Behavioral Scientist Involved in Thanatological Research

Abstract

Ethical and pragmatic considerations often preclude the application of classical experimental approaches to in vivo thanatological research. While quasi-experimental and correlational designs may be employed to circumvent a number of potential problems, many more empirically testable research questions simply remain unaskable in the applied setting. Clearly, extra-experimental sources of information are of particular value in such situations. The present paper reports some of the observations and subjective reactions experienced by the writer while engaged in a series of experimental thanatological research studies. The issues addressed include the motivations of thanatological investigators and research participants, personal awareness of death, displacement of grief, anxieties about personal utility, paternalism, and honesty (i.e., frankness) as a primary ethic in facilitating a peaceful, “natural,” death in the moribund individual.