在所有族群中，死亡都是一特殊文化現象，除了許多社會一文化論述 外，並有各種喪葬儀式處理，且具有繁複的社會禁忌規範；同時，死亡與鬼 魂，及其相關物事，在民間也常引起恐怖，或焦慮、不安，或不舒服的感 受。
本研究調查經常且實際接觸死者的殯葬員工經驗。透過參與觀察以及深 度訪談台灣花蓮市一家民間葬儀社六位工作者，分析他們對死亡相關物事的 感受與相應行為，以瞭解他們如何面對在職業上不可避免的殯葬事務，而形 成其日常生活的情緒體驗，包括心理狀態、過程與調適方法。
本文發現，越資深者越沒有恐怖感，越資淺者則越表現出恐怖或「怪怪 的」感覺。資深員工不但不覺恐怖，且能敘說不恐怖的理由，甚至能提出具 體因應辦法以教導資淺者，助其抒解恐怖感。探索六位殯葬工作者的心理過 程，可以發現殯葬工作者對於死亡相關物事，並非全然不怖畏，卻有一種將 恐怖感減少到不影響工作的實踐方式。此方式的應用成功與否，決定他們 能否在此職業中繼續工作。這一實踐方式包含一套機制，而與認知的轉化、 巫術的應用，以及無傷害的親身體驗密切關聯。可以說，殯葬工作者對於文 化習性中，不可避免的「恐怖感」因應，在於建構一世界觀，濡化一精神氣 質，並且藉諸身體實踐，培育出一種「情緒的技藝」。
本研究亦由此「恐怖感」案例，進一步探討情緒的文化建構面，指出恐 怖並非立基於人類自然生理本質，因之，本文拒絕情感與認知、感覺與思 想、無意識與有意識等二元斷裂的理論趣向，從而建議個體的情緒實與個體生活所在社會的象徵分類、秩序、意義的「文化分類系統」，有相生相成的 關係。
本文分成四部分：第一部份解釋「恐怖感」以及「死亡的恐怖感」的意 義，並做死亡的文獻回顧；第二部份說明本研究對象葬儀社及其員工的一般 工作概況，並呈現六位殯葬工作者的訪談資料；第三部份探討恐怖情緒是習 得的或天生的、區辨六名員工恐怖感的差異實踐，再描繪恐怖感背後的世界 觀或文化分類，以顯示秩序與意義觀念；第四部份為結論。

Death is a universal cultural fact among all peoples. Besides many socio-cultural discourses about death, there are various funeral rites and complex taboos to handle and regulate it. Meanwhile, death, ghosts and other related matters constantly arouse fear, anxiety, unease, or uncomfortable feelings among people.
Cross cultural studies about death have analyzed the presentation and function of death or funeral rites. They assert that death is not only a natural phenomenon, but a cultural one which coexists with themes of ritual and taboo, and modes of burial and mourning. Similarly, this research maintains that the fear of death is just like death itself; it is not only a biological phenomenon, but also a cultural one.
This research examines the experience of funeral home workers, who frequently have contact with the dead. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews with six workers at a local funeral parlor in Hualien City, Taiwan, the author analyzes their feelings and correspondent behaviors regarding death-related events and other things, in order to understand how they face their emotions, which they cannot eschew occupationally and which form part of the emotional experience of their daily lives, including their psychological states, processes and adaptations.
The author finds that among the six workers, the more senior they are, the less fear they have. However, while the more junior staff experience more fear or “weird” feelings, the senior workers can explain and address their means of coping with the job and teach the junior staff members
how to relieve their fear. By inquiring into their psychological processes, the author finds that the workers’ attitudes toward death-related matters are not entirely without fear. However, they have certain practices to minimize this fear so that it does not affect their day-to-day work. The success or failure of these practices determines if they can remain in this occupation or not. These practices consist of a set of mechanisms closely related to the transformation of perception, the application of magic and the bodily experience of essentially coming to no harm. We might argue that these mechanisms constitute a worldview, encapsulating an ethos, and furthermore, by way of personal experience, thus nurture “techniques of the emotion” These techniques enable funeral home workers adjust their habits and create a calm skill to cope with the dead body.
In this case study, the author further investigates the cultural construction aspect of emotion, and suggests that the behavior, thinking, perception, and sensation of fear are not based on human physical nature. Therefore, this study rejects the theoretical dualism of emotion and cognition, feeling and thought, the conscious and the unconscious. This study suggests that individual emotions are correlative to “cultural classification system” constructed jointly by symbolic classification, order and meaning
This article consists of four parts. The first part explains the “feeling of horror” and “the horrible feeling of death” followed by the literature review. The second part introduces the studied funeral home and general working conditions of its workers, followed by interviews with the six funeral workers. The third part explores whether the feeling of horror is acquired or innate, as well as distinguishing the different feelings of horror of the six workers. There then follows the worldview or cultural classification behind these feelings of horror that manifest concepts of order and meaning. The fourth part is the conclusion which points out how funeral home workers construct a worldview, encapsulate an ethos, as well as cultivate “techniques of the emotion,” through their bodily experiences, which correspond to their occupational requirements.