Psychologia religii a tanatopsychologia

Abstract

Unlike the psychology of religion, which has been a branch of psychology for a long time, thanatopsychology, i.e. psychological knowledge about death, dying and bereavement, is a relatively new psychological discipline. The Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow was the first in Poland to launch lectures and research work in this field already in 1981. Since then a lot of research projects have been accomplished and a considerable number of dissertations on the subject have been published. The paper, dedicated to Rev. Prof. Władysław Prężyna from the Catholic University of Lublin, the doyen of the psychology of religion and promoter of thanatopsychology in Poland, presents mutual relations between these two branches: the psychology of religion and thanatopsychology. The main objective was to show mutual inspirations of different, though in a sense complementary, psychological analyses in regard to the condition of man, and to show possible areas of research.