Thanatology

Thanatology is the study of death, dying, and bereavement. It is concerned with notions and attitudes about death, including those of the dying, and how they and people around them deal with their imminent death.  One of the pioneers in the field of Thanatology was Herman Feifel whose book, The Meaning of Death, is considered to be the single most important work that helped establish scholarly interest in death, dying, and bereavement.