Mortality Salience and Cemetery Memorialization: An Inquiry of Thanatological Concepts for Pastoral Care

Abstract

The investigation focuses on two previously unrelated thanatological concepts that support pastoral care when facing the loss of a loved one to death: mortality salience and cemetery memorialization. Two research questions are explored: (a) What positive psychological structures from mortality salience buffer existential death anxiety? and (b) How may pastoral deathcare providers reframe modern cemetery memorialization practices to influence the outcomes of mortality salience among the bereaved? Findings from current literature discuss the priming of worldview defenses, self-esteem, and nostalgia as important buffering mechanisms to strengthen psychosocial and spiritual well-being. To assist in the healthy adaptation of loss, the investigation examines the contemporary practices of cremation and permanent placement of dead human bodies and the interplay between mortality salience and cemetery memorialization within the death-avoidant context of deritualization. The investigation elucidates how deathcare practitioners may assuage grief and support active mourning among the bereaved.