Personification of Death: What Types of Death Are Personified by Macabre, Gentle Comforter, Gay Deceiver, and Automaton?

Abstract

Kastenbaum and Aisenberg identified a phenomenon, wherein American subjects personified death in four distinctive figures: Macabre, Gentle Comforter, Gay Deceiver, and Automaton. Until recently, though, researchers did not attempt to answer the question, “What specific aspects of the death experience can be attributed to each of those four personifications?” To answer this question, the current qualitative research asked individuals to envision the causes, places, and contexts of death after imagining each personification of death. The results have revealed that people associated each personification of death with distinct causes, places, and contexts of death: Macabre—murder taking place outside the home, Gentle Comforter—peaceful death by old age at home, Gay Deceiver—death from heart attack, and Automaton—death from cancer in a modern hospital. This article also discusses unanswered questions, limitations, and directions to take its research in the future.