The term denoted to the “study of death and dying and the psychological mechanisms of dealing with them” is thanatology (britannica.com). The term thanatology comes from “Greek Thanatos, [meaning] death” (britannica.com). As suggested by the definition of thanatology, death is not just a concept. Death is an occurrence that affects not just the individual that it takes, but those who know that particular individual as well. How individuals within a society and societies as a whole view death stems from media, books, personal and non-personal experiences and beliefs. This is something I learned while attending the University of Rochester Medical School. Taking the following courses; History of the Body, Visual Arts in Healthcare, Healthcare and the Law, Bioethics at the Bedside, Stories in Healthcare and now Death, Body and the Law, I learned a great deal about how to view the human body – the mortal human body. This is a point that I will now elaborate on. After providing a lucid account of what I have learned, I will present my own academic…show more content… What I mean by this is that there has to be “something” for death to occur. Death does not occur in empty spaces, death happens to a physical body, a living organism. Therefore, in order to understand death, one must begin their study by understanding the body and how the body is viewed differently in different time periods and in different cultures. Now, in early western medicine dating back to Socrates and Aristotle and in religion, the body is talked about in relationship to the soul. While there was and still is controversy over whether or not the soul is immortal or even if there is a soul, it is not my concern at the present moment to develop such a theory. What I want to explain is solely how the body is viewed. Socrates, who was a Greek philosopher believed that the body was a hindrance to knowledge; in Plato’s Phaedo Socrates states
