Fear of Death and Dead Bodies

The belief behind the stones was specific. The dead might come back in a state that was neither living nor dead but undead, and the purpose of their return would be to harm the living. That expectation connects to a further belief, that body and soul separate at death and the soul continues in some other form, which leaves open both the possibility that it could be reconnected to its body and the possibility that some other spirit might take the vacancy.

In its cultural sense the word is still used exactly this way, for a group's fear of the dead rather than an individual's, as in a belief that the spirits of the dead will return to haunt the living.

What sets necrophobia off

The fear may run constantly or arrive with a trigger, and the triggers are ordinary: a close encounter with a dead animal, or the funeral of a friend or a relative.

Trauma accounts for many cases, whether the death of a person or a pet or the experience of coming upon a body. Learning accounts for others, since a phobia can be a cultural or learned response and an adult's anxiety, paranoia and fear are all transmissible to a child watching them, and some children are more prone to anxiety genetically in the first place.

Media has a documented role. Horror films and books generate a great deal of fear around the dead, and the researcher Matthew Hudson describes why the machinery works, noting that the brain is continuously anticipating and preparing for action in response to threat and that horror exploits this expertly to heighten excitement. Excitement is what it is aiming at. Fear is what it can leave behind. Unresolved stress makes matters worse, since it tends to produce defensive and escaping behaviour of its own.

What it feels like

The physical symptoms follow encountering a body or an animal or a portrayal of death, and they are the ordinary set:

• dizziness or lightheadedness
• a choking sensation and shortness of breath
• sweaty palms and a racing heart
• pins and needles, trembling and numbness
• tightness in the chest, with hot and cold flashes

The psychological ones are the harder half: intense fear and discomfort, a sense of losing control or of being about to faint, fear of dying, an inability to distinguish what is real, a feeling of detachment from one's own body, and the urge to escape or avoid.

What can be done

Nothing prevents or cures it, but several things treat it. Psychotherapy, particularly cognitive behavioural therapy, and exposure therapy, which has been found the most effective of them by way of desensitisation. Medication can be prescribed. One unusual option is D-cycloserine, an antibiotic thought to facilitate the extinction of fear, which is administered for specific phobias generally.

The self-directed measures are the standard set and are worth stating plainly because isolation makes this particular fear worse: relaxation practices such as meditation, yoga and deep breathing, confiding in a trusted person, joining a support group to hear how others have managed, adopting mindfulness, and not withdrawing from company, since withdrawal invites further complications.