Death, Society, and Human Experience, 10th Edition

This landmark text on the sociology of death and dying 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.

Found in This Section:

1. Brief Table of Contents

2. Comprehensive Table of Contents

BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 

Preface

Chapter 1: As We Think About Death

Chapter 2: What is Death?

Chapter 3:  The Death System   

Chapter 4: Dying

Chapter 5: Hospice and Palliative Care

Chapter 6: End of Life Issues and Decisions

Chapter 7: Suicide

Chapter 8: Violent Death: Murder, Terrorism, Genocide, Disaster, and Accident

Chapter 9: Euthanasia. Assisted Death, Abortion, and the Right to Die

Chapter 10: Death in the World of Childhood

Chapter 11: Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning

Chapter 12: The Funeral Process

Chapter 13: Do We Survive Death?

Chapter 14: How Can We Help?

Chapter 15: Good Life, Good Death?    

COMPREHENSIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS:

*Every chapter ends with Summary, References, and Glossary

 

Chapter 1: AS WE THINK ABOUT DEATH

• Not Thinking About Death: A Failed Experiment
• Your Self-Inventory Of Attitudes, Beliefs, And Feelings
• Some Answers–And The Questions They Raise
• Man Is Mortal: But What Does That Have To Do With Me?
• Anxiety, Denial, And Acceptance: Three Core Concepts
• Studies And Theories Of Death Anxiety 18 Major Findings From Self-Reports Of Death Anxiety
• Major Findings From Self-Reports of Death Anxiety
• Theoretical Perspectives on Death Anxiety
• Accepting and Denying Death

 

Chapter 2: WHAT IS DEATH?

• Ideas About The Nature And Meaning Of Death
• Death as Observed, Proclaimed, and Imagined
• Biomedical Approaches to the Definition of Death
• Event Versus State
• What Does Death Mean?
• Interpretations of the Death State
• Conditions that Resemble Death
• Death as a Person
• Conditions that Death Resembles
• The Undead
• Death as an Agent of Personal, Political, and Social Change

 

Chapter 3: THE DEATH SYSTEM

• A WORLD WITHOUT DEATH
•  BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DEATH SYSTEM
• COMPONENTS OF THE DEATH SYSTEM
• Functions of the Death System
• Tsunami, Cyclone, Earthquake, and Hurricane Katrina–Challenges to the Death System
• Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
• How Our Death System Has Been Changing–And the “Deathniks” Who are Making a Difference

 

Chapter 4: DYING

• The Moment of Death: Is It Vanishing?
• What is Dying, and When Does it Begin?
• Trajectories of Dying: From Beginning to End
• Guarded Feelings, Subtle Communications
• Individuality and Universality in the Experience of Dying
• Theoretical Models of the Dying Process

 

Chapter 5: Hospice and Palliative Care

• Hospice: a New Flowering from Ancient Roots
• Standards of Care for the Terminally Ill
• The Hospice in Action
• Relief of Pain and Suffering
• Hospice Access, Decision Making, and Challenges
• Dame Cicely Saunder’s Reflections on Hospice

 

Chapter 6: End-0f-Life Issues and Decisions

• From Description to Decision Making
• Who Should Participate in End-Of-Life Decisions
• The Living Will and its Impact
• Right-To-Die Decisions that We Can Make
• A Right Not to Die? The Cryonics Alternative
• Organ Donation
• Funeral-Related Decisions

 

Chapter 7: Suicide

• What Do the Statistics Tell Us?
• Four Problem Areas
• Some Cultural Meanings of Suicide
• A Powerful Sociological Theory of Suicide
• Some Individual Meanings of Suicide
• Facts and Myths about Suicide
• Suicide Prevention

 

Chapter 8: Violent Death: Murder, Terrorism, Genocide, Disaster, and Accident

• Murder
• Terrorism
• Accident and Disaster

 

Chapter 9: Euthanasia, Assisted Death, Abortion, and the Right to Die

• “I Swear By Apollo the Physician”: What Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?
• Our Changing Attitudes Toward a Right to Die
• The Right-To-Die Dilemma: Case Examples
• Terri Schiavo: Who Decides?
• Dr. Kevorkian and the Assisted-Suicide Movement
• Assisted Death in the United States
• Induced Abortion

 

Chapter 10: Death in the World of Childhood

• Respecting the Child’s Concern and Curiosity
• Adult Assumptions About Children and Death
• Children Do Think About Death
• Concepts and Fears: Developing Through Experience
• How Do Children Cope with Bereavement?
• The Dying Child
• Sharing the Child’s Death Concerns: A Few Guidelines
• The “Right” to Decide: Should the Child’s Voice Be Heard?

 

Chapter 11: Bereavement, Grief and Mourning

• Some Responses to Loss
• Defining Our Terms: Bereavement, Grief, Mourning
• What Kind of Grief?
• Theories of Greif
• How Do People Recover from Grief?
• Bereavement in Later Life
• Are Bereaved People At Higher Risk for Death?
• How Well Do We Support the Bereaved?
• Meaningful Help for Bereaved People
• Widows in Third World Nations
• On the Future of Grieving and Mourning

 

Chapter 12: The Funeral Process

• A Sampler of Responses to the Dead
• What Do Funerals Mean to Us?
• From Dead Body to Living Memory: A Process Approach
• Making Death “Legal”
• What Does the Funeral Process Accomplish?
• Memories of Our People: Cemeteries in the United States
• The Place of the Dead in Society: Yesterday and Today
• The Funeral Director’s Perspective
• Improving the Funeral Process
• Spontaneous Memorialization in Response to Violent Death
• Integrity and Abuse in the Funeral and Memorial Process

 

Chapter 13: Do We Survive Death?

• Concept of Survival in Historic Perspective
• Heavens and Hells
• The Desert Religions and Their One God
• What Other People Believe Today
• Can Survival Be Proved?
• When Spiritism Was in Flower
• Near-Death Experiences: Evidence for Survival?
• Should We Survive Death?
• But What Kind of Survival?
• Assisted and Symbolic Survival
• The Suicide-Survival Connection

 

Chapter 14: How Can We Help?

• “Compassionate Fatigue”: Burnout and the Healthcare Provider
• Death Educators and Counselors: The “Border Patrol”
• Death Education in Historical Perspective
• Death Education and Counseling: The Current Scene
• Counseling and The Counselors
• How We All Can Help

 

Chapter 15: Good Life, Good Death?

• Three Paths to Death
• A Father Dies: A Mission Begins
• A Shift in the Meaning of Life and Death
• Utopia: A Better Death in a Better Place?
• “The Good Death”: Fantasy or Reality?
• Extinction: Death of Life or Death of Death?
• From Good Life to Good Death: A Personal Statement