Ines Testoni

The emergence of thanatology and current practice in death education.

Thanatology is a recent field that contemplates death studies and employs an interdisciplinary approach to practice. This science emerged in a historical context marked by intense social, economic, and political changes that contributed to the concept of death being excluded from social life. This literature review aims to outline the history and evolution of thanatology in Western society, delineating the contextual circumstances that led to its origin and drawing special attention to current works on death education. In our post-modern society, the call for studies in the field of thanatology appears to be increasing. However, although there have been significant contributions and promising research is underway, there are still many questions to be answered.

The Ontological Representation of Death: A Scale to Measure the Idea of Annihilation Versus Passage

Since the borders between natural life and death have been blurred by technique, in Western societies discussions and practices regarding death have became infinite. The studies in this area include all the most important topics of psychology, sociology, and philosophy. From a psychological point of view, the research has created many instruments for measuring death anxiety, fear, threat, depression, meaning of life, and among them, the profiles on death attitude are innumerable. This research presents the validation of a new attitude scale, which conjoins psychological dimensions and philosophical ones. This scale may be useful because the ontological idea of death has not yet been considered in research. The hypothesis is that it is different to believe that death is absolute annihilation than to be sure that it is a passage or a transformation of one’s personal identity. The hypothetical difference results in a greater inner suffering caused by the former idea. In order to measure this possibility, we analyzed the correlation between Testoni Death Representation Scale and Beck Hopelessness Scale, Suicide Resilience Inventory-25, and Reasons for Living Inventory. The results confirm the hypothesis, showing that the representation of death as total annihilation is positively correlated to hopelessness and negatively correlated to resilience.

Psychological Features of Hypnotizability: A First Step Towards Its Empirical Definition

Abstract This study examined the relationship between the Hypnotic Induction Profile (HIP) and several psychological tests: Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS), Spontaneity Assessment Inventory-Revised (SAI-R), Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Short-Form Boundary Questionnaire (SFBQ), Mini Locus of Control (MLOC), Testoni Death Representation Scale (TDRS), and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Two hundred and forty volunteers were administered the above tests; 78 of them were also administered the HIP, and its scores were compared to those on the other tests. A significant correlation was found among the TAS, DES, SFBQ, and IRI. The HIP was significantly correlated to the DES (r = .19 p1tail = .045), and the IRI-ec subscale (r = .19 p1tail = .044); 14 test items from DES, IRI, TAS, SAIR, and SFBQ were also significantly related to the HIP. The findings suggest that hypnotizability may relate to stronger perception of the inner world, decreased aptitude for managing memory processing, and increased sensitivity and empathy.

Pet Loss and Representations of Death, Attachment, Depression, and Euthanasia

ABSTRACT Studies that have examined pet loss hypothesize that attachment, representations of death, and the belief in an afterlife for animals may influence owners’ bereavement and depressive outcomes. The following instruments were administered to 159 Italian participants recruited through snowball sampling: the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), the Pet Bereavement Questionnaire (PBQ), the Testoni Death Representation Scale (TDRS), and Beck’s Depression Inventory II (BDI-II). Questions concerning pet euthanasia-related issues and the relationship between owners and veterinarians were also submitted to the participants. A path model was conducted, showing that the representation of death and the attachment to a pet had a direct effect on pet grief, which in turn had a direct effect on depression. The results show a positive correlation between the LAPS and PBQ factors, particularly with the PBQ factor Grief. The LAPS factors positively correlated with the TDRS representation of Death as a Passage and negatively correlated with the TDRS representation of Death as Annihilation. The LAPS People Substituting factor positively correlated with the total score and the Cognitive-Affective factor of the BDI-II. The PBQ factors positively correlated with the BDI-II, whereas only the TDRS Death as Annihilation factor positively correlated with the BDI-II. Belief in a transcendent dimension was associated with higher scores on the PBQ Guilt factor and the TDRS factors of Death as a Passage and Death as Change, whereas these beliefs were associated with lower scores on the TDRS factor Death as Annihilation. The results indicated that the sensitivity of the veterinarian and a veterinarian who helps owners make conscious and informed decisions for their pet and choose the right time to perform euthanasia are important variables in the management of pet loss. However, these factors are not sufficient and psychological support should be improved to help owners better cope with grief.

Il volontariato nelle cure palliative: religiosità, rappresentazioni esplicite della morte e implicite di Dio tra deumanizzazione e burnout

In Italia il volontariato e una realta sociale la cui importanza cresce costantemente. Le ricerche sul volontariato nel campo delle cure palliative stanno dimostrando come questo tipo di intervento sia di grande aiuto per le famiglie e per gli operatori sanitari. Un numero minore di ricerche si e pero rivolta direttamente a queste persone che decidono di dedicare il loro tempo a chi muore. Lo studio si pone l’obiettivo di indagare alcune variabili psicologiche che vengono ritenute importanti nel mondo del volontariato delle cure palliative. Si tratta di una categoria di caregiver studiata meno rispetto ad altre figure che intervengono in questo campo. A 71 volontari di importanti organizzazioni del Nord Italia, che svolgono attivita di supporto a domicilio, in day hospital o hospice, sono stati somministrati individualmente strumenti per indagare i livelli di ansia riguardo la morte, le rappresentazioni della morte, gli stili di coping, i livelli di burnout, di stress e la deumanizzazione delle persone assistite. Con un sottogruppo di 52 persone disponibili e stata indagata la rappresentazione di Dio implicita, per verificare se Dio fosse inteso come reale o come astrazione. I risultati mettono in evidenza la relazione tra deumanizzazione e ansia di morte, la quale a sua volta e in rapporto ad alcuni tratti del burnout e allo stress.

Literary plastination: From body's objectification to the ontological representation of death, differences between sick-literature and tales by amateur writers

This article presents a qualitative analysis of published and unpublished texts, aimed to understand a new narrative phenomenon named “sick-lit.” This is a genre of stories, written by professional novelists, rooted in disease, self-harm, suicide, sufferance from violence, death, and dying. In the Internet it has been considered as a trivialization of serious issues and even potentially encouraging readers to harm themselves. Our hypothesis is that this negative judgment is based on the ontological representation of death and the objectification of the body depicted in these stories. In order to inquire into this possibility and to compare this anomalous form of story-telling with another kind of narration reflecting the wider common sensibility, a qualitative analysis was realized on six sick-lit novels (SLNs) and 21 unpublished tales written by amateur writers (AWTs). The results confirm the hypothesis: the SLNs represent death also as an absolute annihilation and the body is always reified through medical language, while the AWTs represent death only as a passage or reincarnation and the description of the deteriorated body is minimal.

Deumanizzazione del paziente oncologico nei contesti medici

In this paper the authors explore the presence of infrahumanization effects when the target is cancer patients. Participants were physicians and nurses working in cancer institutes or oncology departments of hospitals. Participants were asked to judge their own category and that of cancer patients on a set of traits. Uniquely human (e.g., rationality, reasoning) and non-uniquely human traits (e.g., impulse, instinct) were used. Patients were also judged on traits expressing the essence of human nature, such as emotionality and relational capacities. The denial of traits of human nature leads to a type of dehumanization, that is called mechanistic dehumanization. Findings show that both physicians and nurses assign the unique features of human category less to patients than to health professionals (infrahumanization effect). In contrast, effects of mechanistic dehumanization were not revealed. In the discussion, the authors examine the potential consequences of cancer patients’ infrahumanization on the therapeutic relationship and treatment effectiveness.

Creativity and nonattachment: A relationship moderated by pride

Previous research has shown that nonattachment, or the ability to release from mental fixations, has many positive outcomes (Sahdra, Shaver, & Brown, 2010). Because creativity is one of the most im5 portant pro5social behaviors, we investigated the link between nonattachment and creativity. In addi5 tion, we investigated the moderating role of mood. We found that nonattachment was indeed positively related to creativity, but only when people were induced to feel authentic pride, that is, pride which re5 sults from attributing success to hard work. The link between nonattachment and creativity disappeared when people were merely induced to feel a positive or neutral mood.

Daphne European Research Project: Italian Validation of Hypothesis Model (SAI-R, CORE-OM and BDI-II)

This paper presents a discussion of the analysis per formed on the family atoms in the first meetings of the psychodra ma groups conducted in all the partner countries of the project Daphne Empower. Th e issue of the relationship with the mother is central and fundamental to the t arget of the project. Atoms and reports highlight three types of relationships that we have defined: positive, negative and uncorrelated which will be described b low.

Representations of Death Among Italian Vegetarians: An Ethnographic Research on Environment, Disgust and Transcendence

This paper focuses on the motives for vegetarian choices in contemporary Italian food culture, with specific reference to the role of the representations of death. The study adopts a qualitative research design aimed at an in-depth exploration of the reasons for avoiding meat, following an ethnographic method. Twenty-two participants (55% women, 45% men) aged 19-74, all vegetarians or vegans, mainly from Northern and Central Italy, were involved. Data from the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis were examined according to the qualitative thematic analysis: the results show the role of death in the construction of disgust towards meat, running parallel with an emphasis on spirituality, ethical treatment of animals and the environment as reasons for avoiding meat, in particular, the concern-generating disgust and its relationship with the representation of death as a contaminating essence. The basis of disgust lies in this connection, from which the idea that oral consumption of contaminants characterized by corruptive properties, passing through the flesh of dead animals to humans, derives. The role of anti-speciesism is considered as a latent perspective, which may influence the vegetarian and vegan choices.