Intellectually and visually stimulating, this important landmark book looks at the religious, political, social and artistic significance of the Imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). It traces the evolutionary development of the most elaborately beautiful imperial tombs to examine fundamental issues on death and the afterlife in one of the world's most sophisticated civilizations. Selected tombs are presented in terms of their structure, artistic programs and their purposes. The author sets the tombs in the context of Chinese attitudes towards the afterlife, the politics of mausoleum architecture, and the artistic vocabulary which was becoming the mainstream of Chinese civilization.

One of the first books to be published in the UK on bereavement, this ground-breaking study presents the results of a survey of widows in London. Focussing on younger women whose husbands had died the book deals first with grief and mourning then examines the consequences of bereavement through the help of relatives and friends and the changes it brings about to the widow's family life. Throughout the book the consequences of widowhood are discussed with relevance to psychological theory and to national policy. Originally published in 1958.

How do we picture ourselves dying? A 'death with dignity', the darkened room, and a few murmured farewells? Or in the lights' flashing, siren wailing, chest-pumping maelstrom of the back of an ambulance hurtling towards an ER? Over the last decade, the two most robust vehicles of popular culture: film and television, have opted for the latter scenario. This book examines the hi-tech death of the twenty-first century as enacted in our hospitals and as portrayed on our TV screens.

Contents:
Preface. D. Lester, Introduction: The Study of Personal Documents. Part 1: Katie. Who is Katie? D. Lester, The Diary: The Last Month. Part 2: Commentaries. J. W. Pennebacker, L. D. Stone, What does Her Language Tell Us? A Linguistic Analysis of Katie's Diary. A. A. Leenaars, Katie: A Protocol Analysis of her Diary. R. Fournier, Heart and Soul: Katie's Yearning for Well-being Amidst Chaos and Confusion. J. Hollis, Not Waving but Drowning: A Jungian Perspective on Katie. D. Lester, The Ophelia Complex. T. E. Ellis, Thoughts of Katie: A Cognitive Perspective. S. S. Canetto, Why did You Kill Yourself? L. Firestone, The Treatment of Katie. Part 3: Conclusion. D. Lester, Final Thoughts: Did Writing a Diary Help or Halm Katie?

This book reviews the spectrum of death, from when the living person turns to corpse until the person lives in the memory of mourners, and its impact on the ecology of the socio-cultural community and physical environment. This book demonstrates that American society today is in a pivotal period for re-imaging end-of-life care, funerary services, human disposition methods, memorializing, and mourning. The editors and contributors outline the past, present, and future of death care rituals, pointing to promising new practices and innovative projects that show how we can better integrate the dying and dead with the living and create positive change that supports sustainable stewardship of our environment. Individual chapters describe prevailing practices and issues in different settings where people die and in postmortem rituals; disposition and current ecologically and, in urban areas, spatially unsustainable methods; law of human remains; customs and trends among key stakeholders, such as cemeteries and funeral directors; and relevant technological advances. The book culminates in a presentation of emerging sustainable disposition technologies and innovative designs for proposed public memorial projects that respond to shifting values, beliefs, and priorities among an increasingly diverse population. Demonstrates the centrality of death care-from the deathbed to rituals of commemoration and mourning-in our individual and communal life and cultures Reveals promising trends in human disposition, burial places, funerary officiant profession, technologies of memorialization, and grief therapy Addresses how COVID-19 has accelerated and highlighted the need to address our changing death-care landscape on every level Points to paradigm shifts in the U.S. population's value system and beliefs that will impact how we manage death care individually and communally Presents innovative design proposals showing how spaces of remembrance and ritual can be integrated with urban life

The Silly Thing is an account of a woman's acceptance of and struggle with living and dying with a grade 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer of the brain. It is told from the perspective of her daughter, Esther Ramsay-Jones, a psychotherapist and academic. The book discusses the fears that people might have about dying and specifically about brain cancer: for the author's mother, the tumour affected her speech and, as an English teacher, whose life had so intimately been tied up with language the fear of language loss was at times unbearable. From a psychotherapeutic point of view, the book will explore what it means to be given a terminal diagnosis and what kinds of psychological responses the 'patient' and family members might have. It will touch on notions of family systems theory, and the roles people might then take up as reaction to the news. The author also looks at 'difficult conversations' in palliative care - what might help/what might hinder - and the value of listening skills, capacity for attunement and containment, in staff teams and in the medical profession at large. Though the main focus in this book is her mother's experience, vignettes from the lived experience of practising palliative psychotherapy will be woven into the narrative to highlight the value of talking and sharing fears, anger, confusion, loves and gratitude with those who are dying.

The central concern of this pioneering study is the high rate of child mortality worldwide and the prospects for its reduction. Taking as his major focus socioeconomic factors and their effect on children's survival, George Kent asks not only what technical interventions might be undertaken within meager health budgets, but also why are those budgets so inadequate? He examines the social and political roots of child mortality around the world and finds that the problem arises from widespread powerlessness in the populations of less developed countries. Thus, he argues, remedies should center on strategies of empowerment, designed in such a way that their benefits persist long after the intervention has ended.

Following an introductory chapter which describes overall patterns of children's mortality, the author examines the individual and household factors which contribute to the problem and the programmatic responses associated with these factors. Subsequent chapters explore child survival in relation to larger societal issues, discussing in turn food, poverty, war, repression, and population as they affect child mortality. Kent then turns his attention to strategies for child survival that are sensitive to these social factors. Separate chapters address alternative designs of social systems, the idea of viewing children as a form of human capital, the problem of motivating the politically powerful to support child-survival work, rethinking the meaning of national development, and the challenge of planning for children's survival in concrete, site-specific situations. Finally, Kent discusses the potential of national and international law and institutions for improving children's prospects. An ideal supplemental text for courses in economic development and political economy, this book is also essential reading for policymakers and relief organization managers concerned with the widespread problem of child mortality.

Death And Anti-Death, Volume 9: One Hundred Years After Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) is edited by Charles Tandy, Ph.D.: ISBN 978-1-934297-13-1 is the Hardback edition and ISBN 978-1-934297-14-8 is the Paperback edition. Volume 9, as indicated by the anthology's subtitle, is in honor of Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911). The chapters do not necessarily mention him (but some chapters do). The chapters (by professional philosophers and other professional scholars) are directed to issues related to death, life extension, and anti-death, broadly construed. Most of the contributions consist of scholarship unique to this volume. As was the case with all previous volumes in the Death And Anti-Death Series By Ria University Press, the anthology includes an Index as well as an Abstracts section that serves as an extended table of contents. (Volume 9 also includes a BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS section.) Volume 9 includes chapters by some of the world's leading living thinkers and doers. There are 13 chapters, as follows: ------CHAPTER ONE Contingency, Autonomy And Inanity: Cornelius Castoriadis On Human Mortality (by Giorgio Baruchello) pages 27-54; ------CHAPTER TWO Cryonics: Introduction And Technical Challenges (by Ben Best) pages 55-74; ------CHAPTER THREE Technological Revolutions: Ethics And Policy In The Dark (by Nick Bostrom) pages 75-108; ------CHAPTER FOUR Is Personalism Dead At Boston University? (by Thomas O. Buford) pages 109-136; ------CHAPTER FIVE Practical Lessons In Preparing For Cryonic Suspension: The Example Of Robert Ettinger, Patient 106 (by David Ettinger and Connie Ettinger) pages 137-146; ------CHAPTER SIX Bad Metaphysics Does Not Make For Good Science (by Gary L. Herstein) pages 147-164; ------CHAPTER SEVEN Open Theism (by J. R. Lucas) pages 165-174; ------CHAPTER EIGHT Fostering Death In A Culture Of Life: The Ambiguous Legacy Of The Marketing Of Cryonics (by David Pascal) pages 175-198; ------CHAPTER NINE Agony As Entrancement: Dying Out Of Too Much Life: Emil Cioran And The Metaphysical Experience Of Death (by Horia Patrascu) pages 199-226; ------CHAPTER TEN Options For Proactive Cryopreservation (by R. Michael Perry) pages 227-236; ------CHAPTER ELEVEN The Many Worlds Of Dilthey: A Modest Defense Of The Irreducibility Of Meaning (by Charles Taliaferro) pages 237-248; ------CHAPTER TWELVE John Rawls And The Death Of Scarcity: A "Force Of Nature" Original Position (by Charles Tandy) pages 249-280; ------CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Convergence Of Nanotechnology, Biotechnology And Information Technology - The Potential Unlimited Renewable Resource Generation For The Extension Of Sustainability (by Sinclair T. Wang) pages 281-328. ------The INDEX begins on page 329.

This is the first large-scale study of suicide in a population of institutionalized older adults. From their findings, the authors identify the most "at risk" groups and highlight the major factors contributing to suicide in older adults in institutions. The study described in this work employed a sample survey design. More than 1000 administrators of long-term care facilities in the United States were randomly selected and surveyed about their staff and facilities, and the incidence and type of suicidal behaviors which occurred among residents in 1984 and 1985. Results of the study confirmed that suicidal behavior occurred in approximately 20 percent of the facilities who responded. High risk groups of residents included white males and the "old-old" (75 years and older). The survey reveals that certain environmental factors such as the size of the facility, staff turnover rate, per diem cost, and auspices (public, private, and religious) were related to the occurrence and outcome of suicidal behavior. Suggestions for suicide prevention, based on these findings, are also presented. The book is divided into three parts. Part One examines various types of long-term care facilities, including skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, and adult homes. Part Two highlights design, methodology, and findings from the national study of suicide in long-term care facilities. Case profiles of suicidal residents are included to provide a more personal account of suicide behavior, and to illustrate important factors in the older individual's decision to end her/his life. Case profiles of four institutions are also included to highlight environmental factors related to suicidalbehavior. Part Three focuses on suicide prevention. Suggestions on the treatment of depression in the elderly, suicide prevention techniques, and the ethics of suicide are discussed in detail. This book makes valuable reading for professionals involved in the care of the elderly.

A social tragedy is a collective representation of injustice. Baker demonstrates how social tragedies facilitate moral action and discusses a series of contemporary case studies - the death of Princess Diana, Zinedine Zidane's 2006 World Cup scandal, KONY 2012 - to examine their social and political effects.

Originally published between 1920-70, the "History of Civilization" was published at a formative time within the social sciences, and during a period of decisive historical discovery. The aim of the general editor, C.K. Ogden, was to summarize the most up to date findings and theories of historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and sociologists. This reprinted material is available as a set or in the following groupings: "Prehistory and Historical Ethnography" set of 12 (0-415-15611-4, u800); "Greek Civilization" set of 7 (0-415-15612-2, u450); "Roman Civilization" set of 6 (0-415-15613-0, u400); "Eastern Civilizations" set of 10 (0-415-15614-9, u650); "Judaeo-Christian Civilization" set of 4 (0-415-15615-7, u250); "European Civilization" set of 11 (0-415-15616-5, u700).

This is a collection of original essays which focuses on the causes, meanings and significance of female suicides in Ming and Qing China. It is the first attempt in English-language scholarship to revise earlier views of female self-destruction that had been shaped by the May Fourth Movement and anti-Confucian critiques of Chinese culture, and to consider the matter of female suicide in the wider context of more recent scholarship on women and gender relations in late imperial China. The essays also reveal the world of tensions, conflicting demands and expectations, and a variety of means by which both women and men made moral sense of their lives in late imperial China. The volume closes with an extensive bibliography of relevant and important Chinese, Japanese, and Western publications related to female suicide in late imperial China.

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1996. This new book gives voice to an emerging consensus among bereavement scholars that our understanding of the grief process needs to be expanded. The dominant 20th century model holds that the function of grief and mourning is to cut bonds with the deceased, thereby freeing the survivor to reinvest in new relationships in the present. Pathological grief has been defined in terms of holding on to the deceased. Close examination reveals that this model is based more on the cultural values of modernity than on any substantial data of what people actually do. Presenting data from several populations, 22 authors - among the most respected in their fields - demonstrate that the health resolution of grief enables one to maintain a continuing bond with the deceased. Despite cultural disapproval and lack of validation by professionals, survivors find places for the dead in their on-going lives and even in their communities. Such bonds are not denial: the deceased can provide resources for enriched functioning in the present. Chapters examine widows and widowers, bereaved children, parents and siblings, and a population previously excluded from bereavement research: adoptees and their birth parents. Bereavement in Japanese culture is also discussed, as are meanings and implications of this new model of grief. Opening new areas of research and scholarly dialogue, this work provides the basis for significant developments in clinical practice in the field.

Mourning and memorialization are at the very centre of literary culture. They take on forms deeply resonant of the sundry traditions of poetic elegy even when those elegiac conventions are displaced, concealed, or plainly unintentional. For all of its pervasiveness, however, the "elegy" remains remarkably ill-defined: sometimes used as a catch-all to denominate texts of a somber or pessimistic tone, sometimes as a marker for textual monumentalizing, and sometimes strictly as a sign of a lament for the dead. This Handbook is the single most comprehensive study of its subject. It provides both a historical survey and a thematic engagement with the relevant issues in elegy. It is responsive to a pressing need for clarification of the relevant issues, and to the exciting developments currently under way in elegy studies.
Such a volume is especially timely, since in recent years there has been a veritable explosion in interest in elegies about AIDS, cancer, and war; various reconsiderations of the role of women in the history of elegiac writing; and readings of elegy in relation to ethics, philosophy and theory, and political structure.
With 38 chapters by leading specialists, ranging from Gregory Nagy's reconsideration of Ancient Greek elegy through Stuart Curran's novel engagement with Romantic elegiac hybridity, and on to Elizabeth Helsinger's consideration of elegy and painting, this Handbook offers groundbreaking scholarship and remarkable historical breadth.

Contents:
Part 1: Contexts and Perspectives; Death and Politics: A Psychosocial Perspective; Living Our Dying and Our Grieving: Historical and Cultural Attitudes. Part 2: Data; Death Anxiety; The Dying Process; Institutional Dying: A Convergence of Cultural Values, Technology and Social Organisation; Care of the Dying: The Hospice Approach; Legal Perspectives on Planning for Death. Part 3: Issues and Challenges; AIDS: The Second Decade; Suicide; Rights and the Dying; The Definition of Death: Problems for Public Policy. Part 4: Conclusion; Some Closing Reflections; Resources.

Between Poverty and the Pyre examines the history of the experience of widowhood across different cultures. It brings together a collection of essays by historians, anthropologists and philologists. The book shows how difficult it is to define the 'typical' widow, as the experiences of these women have differed so widely, not simply because of their different time periods and locations, but also becuase of their varying legal and religious status and economic conditions.
The study is diverse with subjects ranging from:
*Hindu wives who followed their husbands to the pyre
*widows who were burned as witches
*and widows who had to become prostitutes to stay alive.
The book also explores Jesus's interest in widows and the experience of some well-known widows, such as Mohammed's first wife.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203036980

Suicide has long posed problems for philosophy. Philosophers, such Albert Camus, have situated in the center of the debate about metaphysics and the meaning of life. Hegel understood death to be the raison d'etre of philosophical project. And scores of other since them have treated suicide as central to the West's understanding of itself. In "Contemplating Suicide," Gavin Fairbairn takes a fresh and philosophical look at suicide. He examines the nomenclature of suicide, and how the language of suicide affects our understanding and denigration of "suicidal bodies."
Fairbairn offers cogent reasons for abandoning the mindless use of terms such as "attempted suicide" and "parasuicide," and introduces a number of terms including "cosmic roulette," which he uses to describe a family of human acts in which people gamble with their lives.
By elaborating a richer model of suicidal self harm than most philosophers and most practitioners of caring professions currently inhabit, Fairbairn has contributed to the development of understanding in this area. Among other things a richer model and vocabulary may reduce the likelihood that those who come into contact with suicidal self harm, will believe that familiarity with the physical facts of the matter - the actions of the suicider and the presence or absence of a corpse - is always sufficient to justify a definite conclusion about the nature of the self harming act.

Named a Best Book of 2014 by The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, and Chicago Tribune, now in paperback with a new reading group guide.

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming the dangers of childbirth, injury, and disease from harrowing to manageable. But when it comes to the inescapable realities of aging and death, what medicine can do often runs counter to what it should.

Through eye-opening research and gripping stories of his own patients and family, Gawande reveals the suffering this dynamic has produced. Nursing homes, devoted above all to safety, battle with residents over the food they are allowed to eat and the choices they are allowed to make. Doctors, uncomfortable discussing patients' anxieties about death, fall back on false hopes and treatments that are actually shortening lives instead of improving them.

In his bestselling books, Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, has fearlessly revealed the struggles of his profession. Here he examines its ultimate limitations and failures―in his own practices as well as others'―as life draws to a close. Riveting, honest, and humane, Being Mortal shows how the ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life―all the way to the very end.

Ancient Egyptian antiquities are dominated by art and artifacts depicting the Netherworld -- the alternate universe mummified bodies would enter at the end of their physical lives, where they would live on for eternity. In this dazzling book, photographs and exhaustive texts illustrate how the promise of a glorious rebirth pervaded the daily life of Egyptians, from commoners to the most powerful pharaohs.

The Quest for Immortality accompanies an exhibition of Egyptian funerary art by the same name, which dates from nearly two thousand years before the Christian era. Drawn from the collection of Cairo's Egyptian Museum, this major exhibition opens at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 2002 and travels throughout the United States over a five-year period before an extended tour in Europe. Objects such as coffins, tombs, masks, jewelry, papyri, sarcophagi, and monumental and small-scale sculpture reveal the reverence and awe with which this highly developed ancient culture considered the mystery of death. Fascinating essays explore Egyptian art history, customs, and worship, with specific focus on the Amduat, a book devoted to the pharaoh's twelve-hour journey to the afterlife. Additional writings detail the background of the collection and focus upon the role of art in ancient Egypt. Throughout, readers will experience the artistry of the ancient Egyptians as it comes to life in this magnificent book.

This stimulating and thought-provoking book is focused on the various spaces, places and material culture with which people come into contact when dealing with death. It covers the disciplinary perspectives of anthropology, history, sociology and theology and its scope, ranges across the spaces in hospitals where death occurs, to the spaces in which bodies are viewed after death; considers the political nature of memorialising activities, and the therapeutic value of visiting places of death, for example after suicide. The chapters provide rich and current data from a large number of recent UK-based and international projects that examine various forms of death, dying and bereavement, providing insight into the different ways in which dying and bereaved people interact with the environment around them, and 'the matter' of death

This book on end of life examines how to include people with intellectual and developmental disability in the inevitability of dying and death. Comprising 17 chapters, it addresses challenging and under-researched topics including suicide, do-not-resuscitate, advance care planning, death doulas and accessible funerals. Topics reflect everyday community, palliative care, hospice and disability services. The book proposes that the rights of people with disabilities should be supported up to and after their death. Going beyond problem identification, the chapters offer positive, evidence-supported responses that translate research to practice, together with practice examples and resources grounded in lived experience. The book is applicable to readers from the disability field, and mainstream health professionals who assist people with disability in emergency care, palliative care or end-of-life planning

Here is an excellent new book packed with state-of-the-art information on thanatology. It presents valuable insights on the history, current issues, and future directions for the modern death movement. This comprehensive volume is unique in that it offers multiple perspectives on the issues and problems facing the thanatology movement in the United States from well-known experts in a variety of fields, including nursing, psychology, death education, medicine, ethics, and suicide prevention. By crossing disciplinary boundaries, these authoritative contributors are able to critically examine the entire thanatological community and provide glimpses of an agenda for the 1990s. The Thanatology Community and the Needs of the Movement provides valuable insights on important issues in the field such as: ethical concerns in thanatology setting standards for the field of thanatology advocacy and empowerment for the dying, the bereaved, and their caregivers effective approaches to death education for professionals and for the public sector suicide prevention Individual chapters address such pertinent topics as educational needs in thanatology, the undervaluation of caregiving, policy legislation for issues facing the terminally ill or bereaved, and the care of children facing death. This groundbreaking book gives death educators, academic nurses, clergy, divinity school faculty, and academic and clinical psychologists the keys to advancing scholarship and practice in the field of thanatology. Its interdisciplinary focus facilitates better cooperation between academics and practitioners to ultimately enhance all services for the dying and bereaved.