[203] See my Jesus, the Christ, in the Light of Psychology, Chapters VII and XI.
[204] Am. J. Psychology, vol. 8, p. 67 et seq.
[205] “A Study of Fears,” Am. J. Psy., vol. 8, pp. 147–249; see also Street, “A Genetic Study of Immortality,” Ped. Sem., vol. 6, p. 167 et seq.
[206] L. Proal, L’éducation et le suicide des enfants, Paris, 1907, p. 204; G. Budde, Schülerselbstmorde, Hanover, 1908, p. 59; E. Neter, Der Selbstmord im kindlichen und jugendlichen Alter, 1910, p. 28; L. Gurlitt, Schülerselbstmorde, n. d., p. 59; Baer, Der Selbstmord im Kindesalter, Liepzig, 1901, p. 85; Eickhoff, “Die Zunahme der Schülerselbstmorde an den höheren Schulen,” Zts. f. d. evangel. Religionsunter, an höheren Lehranstalten, 1909, vol. 4; Eulenberg, “Schülerselbstmorde” in Der Saemann, 1909, vol. 5, p. 30; Gebhard, “Über die Schülerselbstmorde,” Monatss. f. höhere Schulen, 1909, vols. 3 and 4, p. 24; Wehnert, Schülerselbstmorde, Hamburg, 1908, p. 81.
[207] Mersey “La Tanatophilie dans la famille des Hapsbourg,” Rev. d. Psychiatr. Nr. 12, 1912, p. 493, describes the strange case of love of death in the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and also Charles V. The former, after the death of her husband, Philip the Beautiful, whom she loved with a consuming jealousy, had his body embalmed and only with great difficulty could she leave the coffin where it lay. Sometimes she had it open for a time to kiss the bare corpse and did so with the greatest passion. This state had periods of remission and exacerbation. The history of Charles, too, can be paralleled in many modern instances, while dreams show us still more clearly how necrophilic man can be.
Witry says that from his own practice he believes thanatophobiacs are almost always from the professional or upper middle classes, those from the lower classes meeting death with more stoicism than those of the upper. Catholics, he says, have little fear of death. Thanatophobes are usually neuropaths of degenerate heredity. One of his cases, a girl of 18, was suddenly seized by a violent fear that she was to die within an hour. She was put to sleep by suggestion and woke up normal. A woman teacher of 49 had three acute attacks, cured by suggestion. A middle-aged physician, after being drunk, had acute fear of death and Hell, which yielded to medical treatment. Old priests, we are told, are especially subject to it if neuropathic or “scrupuleux.” Some feel it acutely when, after fighting a long reluctance to do so, they have compelled themselves to make a will.
Ferrari, “La peur de la morte,” Rev. Scient., 1896, vol. 5, p. 59, describes several cases of tolerably healthy people who have had sudden premonitions of death, with acute fear, and who have shortly thereafter died, some of them from no ascertainable cause. Hence he raises the question whether an obsession of death can be so strong as to cause it.
Fiessinger gives a case, which he thinks directly due to the symptoms of angina pectoris, and discusses whether patients should be told their disease and its gravity, in view of this possible phobia.
Ferrero, “La crainte de la morte,” Rev. Scient., 1895, vol. 3, p. 361, thinks the natural man has little fear or thought of death and its representations in art and religion are not painful, on account of the sustaining influences of our organic sensations. Still, the thought of death does have much influence upon our ideas, and to some extent our sentiments. The mathematical chances of death plays a small rôle in affecting the choice of professions. It is only the prospect of impending death that shocks. Chronic invalids have little fear but only hope for life, for example, consumptives, while to some, for example, Indian widows, lovers, it is attractive. Hence he thinks it normally indifferent and sometimes agreeable but becomes an object of fear only by association.
Levy, “Die agoraphobie,” Wien. allg. medizin. Zeitung, 1911, nr. 10, gives a case of an agoraphobia that was rooted in a very distinct dread of death by a special disease. A Dubois psychotherapeutic conversation, which proved the fallacy of its grounds and to which the patient attended, although with great effort, did not quiet but only increased excitement. Excitement and exhaustion were the chief symptoms and the case yielded only to isolation and rest.