Death expert likes to visit cemeteries
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By Kati Marjasuo
It is quiet at Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki. Behind the rows of tombstones only a few workers can be seen carrying stones or cutting grass.
For death researcher Gustaf Molander, 56, the cemetery environment is very familiar. For him death is a life's work.
"I usually visit the cemetery about once a month, but this summer I have been there much more often because of my work. I have been digging graves, for instance. While travelling abroad it is educational to visit cemeteries, out of cultural history interest, if nothing else", he says.
From the beginning of September, Molander, an MD with a number of other titles, has also held the post of Docent of Thanatology - a specialist in the study of death. He is not so interested in the long line of titles in front of his name, but he has been waiting anxiously for his newest job description.
After years of pondering, the idea was accepted. It is finally possible to study death in Finland", says Molander with enthusiasm about his new field, which will start up at the Social Sciences Department of the University of Kuopio.
His enthusiasm can be seen and heard, as he explains the topics of his upcoming lectures with a bundle of notes in his hand, and ponders the different angles from which death should be studied, and why it should be researched.
Molander's primary job is research. After extensive studies over death, in his newest project he wants to investigate how professionals who have to deal with corpses, and with the aftermath of death, cope with their jobs. "How do these jobs, which are often experienced as unpleasant and burdensome, feel?" Molander explains.
For his study, Matka mullan alle - kuolemantyöntekijöiden arki ja siitä selviytyminen ("Journey Below the Ground - the Everyday Life of Death Workers and How They Cope"), which has been financed by the Finnish Work Environment Fund, he has collected data by interviewing employees of church parishes, crematoriums, and chapels, as well as funeral home workers, and by taking part in the physical work of those working with death.
"I want to know what the difficult factors and the good sides linked with the work are. For instance, parish workers can find themselves in an awkward situation when they are at the receiving end of aggression sparked by grief and disappointment of a deceased person's next of kin.
Although Molander, who characterises himself as a work horse, has many questions linked with death, he does not think much about his own demise.
"The idea of everything coming to an end sometimes comes to mind, and it is an unpleasant feeling", he ponders. "You can't know how you'll die."
Molander's first studies on death made him think about his own mortality, but more recently, death has been more of a work-related matter for him. As he sees it, there is an emotional distance to one's own death as long as one is healthy.
"The point of view one has of a bull changes when the bull steps into the arena", Molander ponders, and changes the subject back to more general thoughts of death.
And there is no lack of aspects to think about. Different points of view of death and emotions, and the different times at which different body parts cease to function, indicate how his training in medicine and psychology can be combined.
"This work is also a hobby of sorts for me. I like to talk about death with other people. Naturally, a researcher should always manage to write and read a large pile of books.
Can a death researcher ever live without thinking about death?
"It was a great summer, and I was with friends at sea in a boat, and that was when I forgot all about the death thing. Well, I did pop over to a cemetery on an island."
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.9.2006
KATI MARJASUO / Helsingin Sanomat
kati.marjasuo@sanoma.fi
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| 26.9.2006 - THIS WEEK |
 Death expert likes to visit cemeteries |
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