The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying

by DeSpelder, Lynne Ann; Strickland, Albert Lee

• ISBN13: 9780078035463
• ISBN10: 0078035465
• Edition: 10th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-03-28
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education

Summary

The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying provides a comprehensive, up to date, and readable introduction to the study of death and dying. It directs attention to the evolving understanding of death and dying in today's culturally diverse environment. In a straightforward, conversational style, with an extensively illustrated format, The Last Dance provides a solid grounding in theory and research as well as in methods for applying what is learned to readers' own circumstances, both personal and professional. No other textbook so successfully combines the research and theories of such diverse disciplines as anthropology, art, ethics, health science, literature, philosophy, psychology, public policy, religion, and sociology. The tenth edition of The Last Dance includes new coverage of key topics yet retains the focus, writing, and pedagogy instructors have come to expect from the best-selling text in death studies.

Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

Chapter 1 - Attitudes Toward Death: A Climate of Change

Chapter 2 - Learning About Death:Socialization

Chapter 3 - Perspectives on Death: Historical and Cultural

Chapter 4 - Death Systems: Mortality and Society

Chapter 5 - Health Care: Patients, Staff, and Institutions

Chapter 6 - End-of-Life Issues and Decisions

Chapter 7 - Facing Death: Living with Life-Threatening Illness

Chapter 8 - Last Rites: Funerals and Body Disposition

Chapter 9 - Survivors: Understanding the Experience of Loss

Chapter 10 - Death in the Lives of Children and Adolescents

Chapter 11 - Death in the Lives of Adults

Chapter 12 - Suicide

Chapter 13 - Risks, Perils,and TraumaticDeath

Chapter 14 - Beyond Death / After Life

Chapter 15 - The Path Ahead: Personal and Social Choices

Epilogue

Notes

Credits and Sources

Name Index

Subject Index