Death, Society, and Human Experience

by Kastenbaum, Robert J.

• ISBN13: 9780205482627
• ISBN10: 0205482627
• Edition: 9th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Allyn & Bacon

Summary

"This landmark text in death education draws on contributions from the social and behavioral sciences as well as the humanities, such as history, religion, philosophy, literature, and the arts, to provide thorough coverage of understanding death and the dying process. "The text focuses on both individual and societal attitudes and how they influence both how and when we die and how we live and deal with the knowledge of death and loss. Robert Kastenbaum is a renowned scholar in the field who developed one of the world's first death education courses and introduced the first text for this market.

Table of Contents

Preface	xvii
As We Think About Death	3	(28)
Not Thinking About Death: A Failed Experiment	5	(2)
Listening and Communicating	6	(1)
Your Self-Inventory of Attitudes, Beliefs, and Feelings	7	(5)
Some Answers---And the Questions They Raise	12	(3)
Knowledge Base	12	(1)
Attitudes, Experiences, Beliefs, Feelings	12	(2)
How Does State of Mind Affect Death-Related Behavior?	14	(1)
Man Is Mortal: But What Does That Have to Do With Me?	15	(1)
Anxiety, Denial, and Acceptance: Three Core Concepts	16	(1)
Theories and Studies of Death Anxiety	16	(1)
Major Findings from Self-Reports of Death Anxiety	17	(3)
How Much Do We Fear Death?	17	(1)
Are There Gender Differences in Death Anxiety?	17	(1)
Are There Age Differences in Death Anxiety?	17	(1)
Is Death Anxiety Related to Mental Health and Illness?	18	(1)
Does Religious Belief Lower or Raise Death Anxiety?	18	(1)
Situational Death Anxiety	19	(1)
Theoretical Perspectives on Death Anxiety	20	(2)
Early Psychoanalytic Theory	20	(1)
The Existential Challenge	20	(1)
Edge Theory	21	(1)
Accepting and Denying Death	22	(5)
Types and Contexts of Acceptance and Denial	22	(2)
The Interpersonal Side of Acceptance and Denial	24	(1)
Anxiety, Denial, and Acceptance: How Should We Respond?	25	(1)
In the Shade of the Jambu Tree	26	(1)
Summary	27	(4)
What is Death?	31	(36)
What Does Death Mean?
Competing Ideas About the Nature and Meaning of Death	33	(1)
Death as Observed, Proclaimed, and Imagined	34	(5)
Death as Symbolic Construction	37	(2)
Biomedical Approaches to the Definition of Death	39	(5)
Traditional Determination of Death	39	(1)
Ways of Being Dead	40	(2)
Brain Death and the Harvard Criteria	42	(1)
The Harvard Criteria	42	(1)
The Current Scene	43	(1)
Event Versus State	44	(1)
What Does Death Mean?	44	(1)
Interpretations of the Death State	45	(5)
Enfeebled Life	45	(1)
Continuation	45	(1)
Perpetual Development	45	(1)
Waiting	46	(1)
Cycling and Recycling	47	(1)
Nothing	48	(1)
Virtual, Therefore Not Death	48	(1)
Implications of the Ways in Which We Interpret Death	49	(1)
Conditions That Resemble Death	50	(3)
Inorganic and Unresponsive	50	(1)
Sleep and Altered States of Consciousness	51	(1)
Beings Who Resemble or Represent Death	52	(1)
Death as a Person	53	(3)
How We Personify Death: The First Study	54	(1)
The Follow-Up Study	55	(1)
Conditions that Death Resembles	56	(2)
Social Death	56	(1)
Phenomenological Death	57	(1)
Death as an Agent of Personal, Political, and Social Change	58	(4)
The Great Leveler	58	(1)
The Great Validator	59	(1)
Death Unites/Separates	59	(2)
The Ultimate Problem or the Ultimate Solution?	61	(1)
The Ultimate Meaningless Event	61	(1)
Summary	62	(5)
The Death System	67	(40)
A World Without Death	72	(2)
General Consequences	72	(1)
Personal Consequences	73	(1)
Basic Characteristics of the Death System	74	(1)
Components of the Death System	75	(4)
People	75	(1)
Places	76	(1)
Times	77	(1)
Objects	78	(1)
Symbols	78	(1)
Functions of the Death System	79	(11)
Warnings and Predictions	79	(1)
Preventing Death	80	(1)
Caring for the Dying	80	(1)
Disposing of the Dead	81	(1)
Social Consolidation After Death	82	(1)
Making Sense of Death	83	(2)
Killing	85	(2)
War as a Function of Society	87	(1)
A Deadly Species	87	(2)
Sacrifice: Killing for Life	89	(1)
Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina---Challenges to the Death System	90	(2)
Tsunami: A Stealth Wave and Its Impact	90	(2)
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita	92	(3)
The Katrina Timeline	92	(1)
Hurricane Katrina and the Death System	93	(2)
How Our Death System Has Been Changing---and the ``Deathniks'' Who are Making a Difference	95	(2)
Changing Ways of Life, Changing Ways of Death	95	(1)
The Beginnings of Death Education, Research, and Counseling	96	(1)
Causes of Death: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow	97	(1)
Basic Terms and Concepts	98	(4)
Leading Causes of Death in the United States Today	99	(1)
What Will Be the Cause of My Death?	100	(1)
Causes of Death in the Future?	101	(1)
Summary	102	(5)
Dying	107	(40)
Transition from Life
The Moment of Death: Is It Vanishing?	108	(3)
The Slipping Away	109	(1)
Dying as Transition	110	(1)
What is Dying, and When Does it Begin?	111	(6)
Individual and Interpersonal Responses	111	(2)
Onset of the Dying Process: Alternative Perspectives	113	(4)
Trajectories of Dying: From Beginning to End	117	(6)
Certainty and Time	117	(1)
The Lingering Trajectory	118	(1)
The Expected Quick Trajectory	119	(1)
The Unexpected Quick Trajectory	120	(1)
Life-or-Death Emergencies	121	(2)
Healthy People Who are at Risk: Hemophilia	123	(1)
Guarded Feelings, Subtle Communications	124	(6)
Difficulties in Communication	124	(2)
Doctor-Patient Communication: The Support Study	126	(1)
Improving Communication	127	(3)
Individuality and Universality in the Experience of Dying	130	(3)
Factors that Influence the Experience of Dying	130	(2)
Where and How We Die---From the Abstract to the Particular	132	(1)
Theoretical Models of the Dying Process	133	(8)
Do We Die in States?	133	(3)
A Developmental Coping Model of the Dying Process	136	(1)
The Dying Person's Own Reality as the Model	136	(1)
A Multiple Perspective Approach	137	(3)
Your Deathbed Scene	140	(1)
Improving End-of-Life Care	140	(1)
Summary	141	(6)
Hospice and Palliative Care	147	(28)
Outside Mainstream Society	149	(2)
Hospice: A Flowering from Ancient Roots	151	(3)
Standards of Care for the Terminally Ill	154	(2)
Hidden or Implicit Standards of Care	154	(1)
Proposed Standards Recommended by the International Task Force	155	(1)
Establishment of Hospice Programs in the United States	156	(1)
The Hospice in Action	157	(6)
Entering St. Christopher's	157	(1)
Mother's Last Moments: A Daughter's Experience	158	(1)
Dying from Two Worlds	159	(1)
Adult Respite Care	159	(1)
Hospice-Inspired Care for Children	160	(1)
Hospice Care for People with AIDS	161	(1)
Hospice Care on the International Scene	162	(1)
Relief of Pain and Suffering	163	(4)
Why Pain Must Be Controlled	163	(2)
Other Symptoms and Problems	165	(2)
Your Deathbed Scene, Revisited	167	(1)
Hospice Access, Decision Making, and Challenges	167	(2)
Dame Cicely Saunders' Reflections on Hospice	169	(2)
Summary	171	(4)
End of Life Issues and Decisions	175	(20)
From Description to Decision Making	176	(1)
Who Should Participate in End-of-Life Decisions?	176	(2)
The Living will and Its Impact	178	(1)
Right-to-Die Decisions that We Can Make	179	(5)
From Living Will to Patient Self-Determination Act	180	(2)
College Students' Attitudes Toward End-of-Life Issues	182	(1)
Advance Medical Directives: What Should We Do?	183	(1)
A Right Not to Die? The Cryonics Alternative	184	(3)
Historical Background	184	(1)
Rationale and Method	185	(1)
Heads of Stone: A Radical New Development	186	(1)
More Questions	187	(1)
Organ Donation	187	(1)
Funeral-Related Decisions	188	(3)
A Perspective on End-of-Life Decisions	190	(1)
Summary	191	(4)
Suicide	195	(38)
What Do the Statistics Tell Us?	199	(3)
Suicide Patterns in the United States	200	(2)
What About Suicide Attempts?	202	(1)
The Human Side	202	(1)
Four Problem Areas	202	(12)
Youth Suicide	202	(4)
Do Children Commit Suicide?	206	(1)
Suicide Among Elderly Persons	207	(1)
The Lethality of Suicide Attempts in Later Adult Years	208	(1)
Preventing Suicide in Later Adult Years	208	(1)
Suicide Among Ethnic and Racial Minorities	209	(2)
Suicide Risk for War Combatants and Veterans	211	(1)
High-Risk Situations for Suicide	212	(1)
Gender and Suicide	213	(1)
Balancing Individual and Cultural Influences on Suicide	214	(1)
Some Cultural Meanings of Suicide	214	(4)
Suicide as Sinful	214	(2)
Suicide as Criminal	216	(1)
Suicide as Weakness or Madness	216	(1)
Suicide as ``The Great Death''	217	(1)
Suicide as a Rational Alternative	217	(1)
A Powerful Sociological Theory of Suicide	218	(1)
The Importance of Social Integration	218	(1)
Four Types of Suicide	219	(1)
Some Individual Meanings of Suicide	219	(5)
Suicide for Reunion	220	(1)
Suicide for Rest and Refuge	220	(1)
Suicide for Revenge	220	(1)
Suicide as the Penalty for Failure	221	(1)
Suicide as a Mistake	222	(1)
A Psychoanalytical Approach to Suicide	223	(1)
The Descent Toward Suicide	223	(1)
Facts, Myths, and Guidelines	224	(1)
Popular Myths about Suicide	224	(1)
Suicide Prevention	225	(3)
Individual Guidelines to Suicide Prevention	225	(1)
Systematic Approaches to Suicide Prevention	226	(1)
Three Emerging Challenges	227	(1)
Summary	228	(5)
Violent Death: Murder, Terrorism, Genocide, Disaster, and Accident	233	(34)
Murder	236	(10)
Murder: The Statistical Picture	236	(1)
Patterns of Murder in the United States	237	(3)
Young Men with Guns	240	(1)
School Shootings	241	(1)
Mass and Serial Killers: Who Are They and Why Do They Do It?	242	(2)
Political Murder: Assassination in the United States	244	(2)
Terrorism	246	(7)
Terrorism in History	246	(4)
Twentieth Century Terrorism and Genocide	250	(3)
Twenty-First Century Terrorism and Genocide	253	(5)
World Trade Center Attacks	253	(1)
Immediate Responses to the Loss and Trauma	254	(1)
Later Responses	255	(2)
The Darfur Genocide	257	(1)
Accident and Disaster	258	(4)
Accidents	259	(3)
Natural Disasters	262	(1)
Summary	262	(5)
Euthanasia, Assisted Death, Abortion, and the Right to Die	267	(38)
``I Swear by Apollo the Physician'': What Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?	271	(1)
Key Terms and Concepts	272	(5)
Nazi ``Euthanasia''	274	(1)
The Black Stork	274	(2)
The Ventilator and the Slippery Slope	276	(1)
Our Changing Attitudes Towards a Right to Die	277	(2)
The Right-to-Die Dilemma: Case Examples	279	(6)
The Ethics of Withdrawing Treatment: The Landmark Quinlan Case	279	(2)
``It's over, Debbie'': Compassion or Murder?	281	(1)
An Arrow Through the Physician's Armor	282	(1)
A Supreme Court Ruling: The Nancy Cruzan Case	283	(2)
Terri Schiavo: Who Decides?	285	(4)
The Ordeal Begins	285	(1)
Comments I	286	(1)
The Public Controversy	287	(2)
Comments II	289	(1)
Dr. Kevorkian and the Assisted-Suicide Movement	289	(6)
Assisted Death in the Kevorkian Manner	290	(1)
Kevorkian's Agenda	290	(1)
Kevorkian's Method	291	(1)
Evaluating Kevorkian's Approach	291	(2)
The Netherlands: A Social Experiment Watched Closely by the World	293	(2)
Australia: Yes, and Then No	295	(1)
Assisted Death in the United States	295	(3)
Compassion and Choices	295	(1)
The Oregon Death Dignity Act	296	(2)
Abortion	298	(2)
Basic Facts about Abortion	298	(1)
Difficult Issues and Questions	299	(1)
Summary	300	(5)
Death in the World of Childhood	305	(40)
Respecting the Child's Concern and Curiosity	306	(2)
Adult Assumptions About Children and Death	308	(1)
Children Do Think About Death	309	(12)
Early Experiences with Death in Childhood	309	(3)
Death in the Songs and Games of Childhood	312	(1)
Research and Clinical Evidence	313	(1)
Research Case Histories	314	(4)
Reflections and Questions	318	(3)
Concepts of Death: Developing Through Experience	321	(6)
``Auntie Death's'' Pioneering Study	321	(2)
Evaluating Nagy's Contributions	323	(1)
Are Concepts of Death Related to Cognitive Level, Gender, and Social Class?	323	(1)
Does Anxiety Influence Children's Thoughts About Death?	323	(1)
Cultural Influences on Children's Concepts of Death	324	(1)
Do Imaginary Friends Die?	325	(2)
How Do Children Cope with Bereavement?	327	(6)
A Death in the Family: Effects on the Child	327	(2)
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Following a Violent Death	329	(1)
Long-Term Effects of Childhood Bereavement	330	(1)
Helping Children Cope with Bereavement	331	(2)
The Dying Child	333	(5)
Care of the Dying Child	335	(1)
Siblings of the Dying Child	336	(1)
The Stress of Working with Dying Children	337	(1)
Sharing the Child's Death Concerns: A Few Guidelines	338	(1)
The ``Right'' to Decide: Should the Child's Voice be Heard?	339	(1)
Summary	340	(5)
Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning	345	(42)
Some Responses to Loss	346	(2)
Defining Our Terms: Bereavement, Grief, Mourning	348	(8)
Bereavement: An Objective Fact	348	(1)
Grief: A Painful Response	348	(3)
Mourning: A Signal of Distress	351	(5)
Theoretical Perspectives on Grief	356	(1)
Types of Grief	356	(3)
Normal and Complicated Grief	356	(1)
Anticipatory Grief	357	(1)
Resolved and Unresolved Grief	357	(1)
Hidden and Disenfranchised Grief	358	(1)
Theories of Grief	359	(5)
The Grief-Work Theory	359	(3)
Other Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Grief	362	(2)
How Do People Recover From Grief?	364	(8)
When a Husband or Wife Dies	364	(6)
The Family That Has Lost a Child	370	(2)
Bereavement in Later Life	372	(2)
Sorrow upon Sorrow, Loss upon Loss	373	(1)
Are Bereaved People at Higher Risk for Death?	374	(1)
Differential Mortality Risk: The Statistical Pattern	374	(1)
Who is Most at Risk?	374	(1)
What are the Leading Causes of Death Among the Bereaved?	374	(1)
How Well Do We Support the Bereaved?	374	(2)
American Society's Discomfort with Grief and Mourning	375	(1)
Meaningful Help for Bereaved People	376	(3)
Widow to Widow: The Phyllis Silverman Interview	376	(2)
Helpful and Unhelpful Responses to the Bereaved Person	378	(1)
Professional Help: When Is It Needed?	378	(1)
Widows in Third World Nations	379	(1)
Summary	380	(7)
The Funeral Process	387	(42)
A Sampler of Responses to the Dead	388	(3)
What Do Funerals Mean to Us?	391	(2)
From Dead Body to Living Memory: A Process Approach	393	(8)
Common Elements of the Funeral Process	393	(6)
The Funeral Service	399	(1)
Memorializing the Deceased	400	(1)
Getting on with Life	400	(1)
Making Death ``Legal''	401	(1)
Establishing the Facts of Death	401	(1)
What Does the Funeral Process Accomplish?	402	(6)
When Great People Die	402	(4)
Balancing the Claims of the Living and the Dead	406	(2)
Memories of Our People: Cemeteries in the United States	408	(4)
The Neighborhood Cemetery	409	(1)
Ethnic Cemeteries in the United States	409	(3)
The Place of the Dead in Society: Yesterday and Today	412	(6)
When are the Dead Important to the Living?	412	(2)
American Memory and the Casualties of War and Terrorism	414	(2)
Who ``Owns'' Human Remains?	416	(1)
``You Were the Best Dog Ever'': The Pet Cemetery	417	(1)
The Funeral Director's Perspective	418	(2)
Improving the Funeral Process	420	(3)
Alternative Funerals, The Memorial Society Option	420	(1)
Green Funerals	421	(1)
Virtual Memorials	421	(1)
Spontaneous Memorialization in Response to Violent Death	422	(1)
Integrity and Abuse in the Funeral and Memorial Process	423	(1)
Summary	424	(5)
Do We Survive Death?	429	(42)
Concept of Survival in Historical Perspective	431	(7)
Key Points	435	(1)
The Journey of the Dead	436	(2)
Heavens and Hells	438	(1)
The Desert Religions and Their One God	438	(4)
Jewish Survival Belief in the Ancient World	438	(1)
Heaven and Hell for Christians	439	(1)
Islamic Paradise and Jahannam	440	(1)
Science Rocks the Boat	441	(1)
What Other People Believe	442	(2)
Can Survival Be Proved?	444	(1)
Near-Death Experiences: Evidence for Survival?	444	(7)
Evidence Favoring the NDE as Proof of Survival	444	(2)
Biomedical Attempts to Verify NDE Phenomena	446	(1)
Eliminating other Explanations	447	(1)
The Case Against the NDE as Proof of Survival	447	(1)
Mystical, Depersonalization, and Hyperalertness Responses to Crisis	448	(1)
Why Do People Not Have NDEs? An Alternative Explanation	448	(1)
Are NDEs Hallucinations?	449	(1)
NDEs as Exercises in Religious Imagination?	450	(1)
What has been Learned from NDERs?	450	(1)
The Dead as Evidence for Survival	451	(7)
Deathbed Escorts: Safe Conduct to the Other World	452	(1)
Communicating with the Dead: The Medium and the Channeler	453	(1)
When Spiritism Was in Flower	453	(1)
Channeling and Past Life Regression	454	(1)
Ghosts	454	(2)
The Ghost Dance: A Peaceful Vision Becomes a Tragedy	456	(1)
Reincarnation	457	(1)
Should We Survive Death?	458	(1)
But What Kind of Survival?	459	(2)
Assisted and Symbolic Survival	461	(3)
Symbolic Immortality	461	(1)
Assisted Immortality	462	(2)
The Suicide-Survival Connection	464	(1)
Summary	465	(6)
How Can We Help?	471	(22)
Caregiving and death education
``Compassionate Fatigue'': Burnout and the Health Care Provider	474	(4)
Caregivers in Death-Salient Situations	475	(1)
Staff Burnout: What Effects on Patients?	476	(1)
How Can We Protect Ourselves from Burnout?	477	(1)
Death Educators and Counselors: The ``Border Patrol''	478	(1)
Death Education in Historical Perspective	478	(4)
From Ancient Times	478	(2)
The Medieval Heritage	480	(2)
Death Education and Counseling: The Current Scene	482	(3)
SimMan: An Interview with Beatrice Kastenbaum	484	(1)
Counseling and the Counselors	485	(1)
Characteristics of Professionals in the Death System	485	(1)
Counseling and Psychotherapy	486	(1)
How We All Can Help	486	(2)
Summary	488	(5)
Good Life, Good Death?	493	(30)
Trying to make sense of it all
Three Paths to Death	496	(1)
A Father Dies: A Mission Begins	497	(2)
A Shift in the Meaning of Life and Death?	499	(2)
Horrendous Death	501	(5)
The Golden Rule Revisited	502	(2)
Are We Live or on Tape? The Life-and-Death Challenges of Virtual Reality	504	(2)
Utopia: A Better Death in a Better Place?	506	(4)
Death in Utopia	508	(1)
A Better Death in a Better Place?	509	(1)
``The Good Death'': Fantasy or Reality?	510	(3)
Extinction: Death of Life or Death of Death?	513	(4)
St. Paul's Cathedral, 1623	513	(2)
The Death of Species	515	(2)
From Good Life to Good Death: A Personal Statement	517	(1)
Summary	518	(5)
Index	523