Death : Current Perspectives

by Williamson, John B.; Shneidman, Edwin S.; Williamson, John B.

• ISBN13: 9781559340113
• ISBN10: 1559340118
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-08-05
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

Classic and contemporary essays explore the broad range of structural and social contexts of death. Death: Current Perspectives thoroughly covers the issues debated today concerning the psychology, sociology, and ethics of death and dying.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Epigrammatic Prologue

PART I. DIMENSIONS OF DEATH

Robert Kastenbaum, The Personification of Death / Avery D. Weisman, A Befitting and Appropriate Death / Geoffrey Gorer, The Pornography of Death / Michael C. Kearl, Death in Popular Culture / Ernest Becker, The Terror of Death

PART II. HISTORICAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Philippe Ariès, Western Attitudes toward Death / Yves Renouard, The Black Death as a Major Event in World History / Paul Farmer and Arthur Kleinman, AIDS as Human Suffering / Malcolm Gladwell, Strategies for Bringing the AIDS Epidemic under Control / Peter Metcalf, Death Be Not Strange / Judith Strupp Green, Days of the Dead in Oaxaca, Mexico: A Historical Inquiry

PART III. DYING IN VARIOUS SETTINGS

Gerald H. Friedland, Clinical Care in the AIDS Epidemic / Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss, The Ritual Drama of Mutual Pretense / David Sudnow, Death, Uses of a Corpse, and Social Worth / Jaber F. Gubrium, Dying at Murray Manor / Marian Gentile and Maryanne Fello, Hospice Care for the 1990s: A Concept Coming of Age

PART IV. FUNERALS

Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death / Vanderlyn R. Pine, Public Behavior in the Funeral HomePART V. GRIEF AND BEREAVEMENT / Erich Lindemann, Symptomatology and Management of Acute Grief / C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed / Terest Rando, Unresolved Grief / Kenneth J. Doka, Disenfranchised Grief

PART VI. CHILDREN AND DEATH

Maria Nagy, The Child’s Theories Concerning Death / Myra Bluebond-Langner, Worlds of Dying Children and Their Well Siblings / Robert S. Pynoos, Children Traumatized by Witnessing Acts of Personal Violence: Homicide, Rape, or Suicide Behavior / Beverty Raphael, The Death of a Child

PART VII. EUTHANASIA AND MEDICAL ETHICS

Dan Brock, Voluntary Active Euthanasia / Daniel Callahan, When Self-Determination Runs Amok / Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi ‘Euthanasia’ Program / Willard Gaylin, Harvesting the Dead

PART VIII. SUICIDE

Émile Durkheim, Egoistic Suicide / John L. McIntosh, Epidemiology of Suicide in the United States / Judith M. Stillion and Eugene E. McDowell, Examining Suicide from a Life Span Perspective / Edwin S. Shneidman, Suicide as a Psychache

PART IX. VIOLENT DEATH, DISASTERS, AND MEGADEATH

Gordon Witkin, Kids Who Kill / Jacob Weisberg, This is Your Death / Hans Zeisel and Alec M. Gallup, Death Penalty Sentiment in the United States / Kai T. Erikson, Loss of Communality at Buffalo Creek / Elie Wiesel, Night / R. J. Rummel, Megamurders

PART X. BEYOND DEATH

Robert Kastenbaum, Near-Death Experiences: New Evidence for Survival? / Bertrand Russell, Do We Survive Death? / Edwin S. Shneidman, The Postself

Annotated Bibliography

Name Index

Subject Index