The Typology of the Image of Death and the Processes to Deal with It (A Case Study: Citizens Guilan Province)

  Death is a complex fact which is interdisciplinary studied by sciences and knowledges such as sociology, biology, psychology, history, philosophy, psychoanalysis, mythology, theology, and medicine.  One of the thanatophobia reasons is, its unknown and ambiguity.   Major purpose this article is, The typology of the Image of death and understanding  phenomenon of deathamong Guilan Province citizens.    Research method in this study is qualitative. Also, semi-structured interviews have been used among citizens aged 18 years and above the province of Guilan. The sample size was about 50 people and the subjects were studied by purposive and theoretical sampling. To determine the number of interviewees, theoretical saturation logic was used.    The results show that Most interviewees believed that the world after death, but some religious narrative and some moral narrative had about it. In terms of image the death that divided into four types: Hereafter-thinker, Secular-thinker, Ambiguity-thinker and Adaptation-thinker. Most of the interviewees have the narrative of the eternity. They have religious readings of death, and they see it as life again, attaining God, calming down, moving to another world, ending the concerns. This type of people have a sacred narrative of the death, that is, death is not the end of life, and everything is recreated. They have a narrative of displacement and a passage of death, meaning the phenomenon and abstract concept of death with the path of objectification and visualization.  They have a narrative of displacement and a passage of death; In other words, the phenomenon and the abstract concept of death are objectified and embodied with the passageway. The understanding and image of them from time is, circular and recursive. They believe that death is a divine providence that is tied to divine justice. They have a desirable image of death, and it see as the end of suffering and concern and to achieve calm. Some of them, who have an hereafter-thinker reading, look from the moral point of view to death adapted to the phenomenon of death and are not worried about it. A small group is in the Secular-thinker category. These people have nihilism look and secularism to death. Their perception and image of life is a linear time that ends with death. For some, the phenomenon of death is unclear and vague. This type of interviewee has neither a sacred nor a secular view. They have agnostic narrators of death This is related to Heidegger's view. In the book "Being and Time," he emphasizes the unknown death.  Some interviewees are Adaptation-thinker. They regard death as a natural and definite reality and narrates it with metaphors and natural and religious propositions. Metaphors such as: A camel that sleeps next to everyone's home or death is right. Individuals adapt to this complex phenomenon. This type of interviewee are in the group of believers and moralistic. About thanatophobia reasons the interviewees are categorized into several types: Some interviewees are compliance type, they are not afraid of death, and categorized into two groups: religious and ethical. But some people are afraid of death due to reasons of consequence, they are afraid of death due to post-death events. Some people are afraid of death because of the separation and breaking of this world. And finally, others are afraid of death due to the lack of knowledge and ambiguity of death, because death is a mystery and problem to them. Based on the findings of this research, a common element in all types of death-thinking suggests that death is necessary and man as an observer is approaching it. That is, human is considered as moving monitor, and the passage of time is conceptualized in the form of motion. The central concept of the thanatophobia is “inexistence and unknoweble” about death.