Why are We Obsessed with the Image of Death?
Dean Cantu |
TEDxUofISpringfield
• March 2021
One of the obsessions we have had throughout history has been that of Death. In particular, the image or personification of Death. As Dr. Dean Cantu, Associate Dean and Director of Education, Counseling and Leadership at Bradley University, has found in his research, our attempt to personify Death in the current COVID-19 pandemic with the illustration of the Coronavirus, is something we have done with other diseases and pandemics throughout history. To be certain, the illustration of the ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the Coronavirus that was created by the CDC in 2020 has now become synonymous with the image or personification of Death itself. In addition, within the context of the current pandemic, the resurgence of the depiction of Death as the Grim Reaper or the Plague Doctor, for example, reminds us that the personification of Death has occurred throughout time, and serves as a nexus of history, culture, and biology.