This book explores the cultural meanings of the criminal body in the west through historical and multidisciplinary frameworks, examining both how the criminal corpse was viewed as a repository of power and how it held significant cultural meaning as material relic. Authors situate the criminal body at different historical junctures to examine ways in which the criminal corpse was displayed and managed for social, political, magical and medicinal powers and purposes. They explain how this legacy persists in significant ways in the contemporary west, primarily through the commodification of criminal bodies in popular and public displays. The role of notorious criminal bodies in contemporary culture also reverberates in political and scientific realms in which criminal bodies often carry symbolic meanings related to ambivalence over interpretations of death. Drawing on examples from history as well as more contemporary criminal bodies, the book will be of interest to those studying death and criminology, and show how the criminal body can retain an iconic status in the collective memory of the living. This book was originally published as a special issue of Mortality.

Although the distinctive - and sometimes bizarre - means by which Roman aristocrats often chose to end their lives has attracted some scholarly attention in the past, most writers on the subject have been content to view this a s an irrational and inexplicable aspect of Roman culture. In this book, T.D. Hill traces the cultural logic which animated these suicides, describing the meaning and significance of such deaths in their original cultural context. Covering the writing of most major Latin authors between Lucretius and Lucan, this book argues that the significance of the 'noble death' in Roman culture cannot be understood if the phenomenon is viewed in the context of modern ideas of the nature of the self.

With intense and violent portrayals of death becoming ever more common on television and in cinema and the growth of death-centric movies, series, texts, songs, and video clips attracting a wide and enthusiastic global reception, we might well ask whether death has ceased to be a taboo. What makes thanatic themes so desirable in popular culture? Do representations of the macabre and gore perpetuate or sublimate violent desires? Has contemporary popular culture removed our unease with death? Can social media help us cope with our mortality, or can music and art present death as an aesthetic phenomenon? This volume adopts an interdisciplinary approach to the discussion of the social, cultural, aesthetic, and theoretical aspects of the ways in which popular culture understands, represents, and manages death, bringing together contributions from around the world focused on television, cinema, popular literature, social media and the internet, art, music, and advertising.

The pursuit and love of death has characterized Western culture since Homeric times. Foundations of Violence enters the ancient world of Homer, Plato and Aristotle to explore the genealogy of violence in Western thought. It uncovers the origins of ideas of death from the 'beautiful death' of Homeric heroes through to the gendered misery of war. Jantzen examines the tensions between those who tried to eliminate fear of death by denying its significance, and those like Plotinus who looked to another world for life and beauty.

Through a cultural analysis of the symbols of death - flesh, blood, bones, souls, time numbers, food and money - Chinese Death Rituals in Singapore throws light upon the Chinese perception of death and how they cope with its eventuality. In the seeming mass of religious rituals and beliefs, it suggests that there is an underlying logic to the rituals. This in turn leads Kiong to examine the interrelationship between death and the socioeconomic value system of China as a whole.

All will welcome this authoritative and up-to-date Handbook of current knowledge on the incidence of suicide and attempted suicide, the biological, genetic, psychological and sociological processes related to suicidal behaviour, and the practical assessment and treatment of suicidal individuals. Interventions for prevention at the local and national levels are also reviewed. The contributors include most of the internationally respected experts in the field, and this important Handbook will be seend to define this field for many years to come.

It aims to provide the practitioner with a description of depression, an explanation of factors that contribute to mood disorders and guidance on their assessment and treatment in adolescence. In addition, it aims to provide a framework for the assessment and management of adolescence that have threatened or attempted suicide.

Suicides in institutions are a major problem. Relatives and friends, staff and fellow patients/prisoners are all affected. In any type of institution, closed or open, common themes emerge in suicide prevention. This book explores the prison setting and describes the development of suicide prevention strategies. These issues are relevant across the wider forensic setting.

Suicide in Prisons provides an up-to-date review of recent research into suicide and self-injury in prisons, and makes links between the research, the prison context and related practice-based issues. Key issues covered included suicide prevention, self-injury, risk assessment, peer group support and staff training. It provides the reader with a good background to aid informed practice.

In this compelling book Nigel Saul opens up the world of medieval gentry families, using the magnificent brasses and monuments of the Cobham family as a window on to the social and religious culture of the middle ages.

Death Talk is about the healing power of conversation. It gives numerous examples of children and their families being released from the grip of sadness, isolation, and fear by talking about their own experiences of death.

Without exception, all people are faced with the inevitability of death, a stark fact that has immeasurably shaped societies and individual consciousness for the whole of human history. Mirrors of Passing offers a powerful window into this oldest of human preoccupations by investigating the interrelationships of death, materiality, and temporality across far-flung times and places. Stretching as far back as Ancient Egypt and Greece and moving through present-day locales as diverse as Western Europe, Central Asia, and the Arctic, each of the richly illustrated essays collected here draw on a range of disciplinary insights to explore some of the most fundamental, universal questions that confront us.

This is a comprehensive account of the psychology of death and bereavement, which places the subject within the contexts of the major world religions and their associated mourning and funeral customs. Clearly written, well referenced and carefully organized, the book examines the thinking of Freud and Jung and of modern psychiatrists, and also discusses those aspects of death - bereavement visions, euthanasia, grief for a pet and suicide - which are not covered elsewhere.The second edition has enabled the contents to be updated and enlarged. There are five new chapters, including one dealing with the scientific assessment of death: another looks at the psychological insights provided by Shakespeare, whilst a third deals with the beliefs and customs of minority groups - the Bahais, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Quakers, Spiritualists and Seventh-day Adventists. The text is highly accessible and uses case histories to bridge the gap between theory and experience in an novel and creative way.

In this book, Sarah Tarlow provides an innovative archaeology of bereavement, mortality and memory in the early modern and modern period. She draws on literary and historical sources as well as on material evidence to examine the evolution of attitudes towards death and commemoration over four centuries.

The book argues that changes in commemorative practices over time relate to a changing relationship between the living and the dead and are inextricably linked to the conceptions of identity and personal relationships which characterize later Western history. The author's approach is different from most previous work in this area not only because of its focus on material culture but also because of its incorporation of experiential and emotional factors into discussions of human relations and understandings in the past.

As well as introducing readers to the study of death and rememberance in the past, this book contributes to wider archaeological debates about the interpretation of meaning and the place of emotion and experience in archaeological study. It will be of interest to all scholars and students interested in critical and theoretically informed approaches to the study of people in the past.

This volume explores the fascinating phenomenon of noble death through pagan, Jewish and Christian sources. Today's society is uncomfortable with death, and willingly submitting to a violent and ostentatious death in public is seen as particularly shocking and unusual. Yet classical sources give a different view, with public self-sacrifice often being applauded. The Romans admired a heroic end in the battlefield or the arena, suicide in the tradition of Socrates was something laudable, and Christians and Jews alike faithfully commemorated their heroes who died during religious persecutions. The cross-cultural approach and wide chronological range of this study make it valuable for students and scholars of ancient history, religion and literature.

A source of comfort and expert guidance

Like a knowing and sympathetic companion, this unique journal is designed to help you work through the painful emotions, thoughts, and memories that surface when you have lost someone dear to you. Written by a professional counselor, this book supplies you with important information about grief and the grieving process. But, more importantly, it invokes the healing power of writing to provide you with a means for collecting your thoughts, sorting out your feelings, and taking an active part in your own recovery.

Acclaim for The Healing Journey Through Grief . . .

"A wonderful guide for the bereaved. This journal not only provides valuable information, but it also allows the griever to make his or her own way through the painful mourning process." —Catherine Sanders, PhD, Author of Grief: The Mourning After, Surviving Grief . . . and Learning to Live Again, and How to Survive the Loss of a Child

Other books in the Healing Journey series include:

• The Healing Journey, 208 pp., Paper (0-471-24712-X)
• The Healing Journey for Couples, 288 pp., Paper (0-471-25470-3)
• The Healing Journey Through Divorce, 264 pp., Paper (0-471-29575-2)

Rabbi Ronald H. Isaacs' highly acclaimed series of Every Person's Guides provides modern readers with the essential information necessary to grasp the topics he explores. A gifted educator, Rabbi Isaacs understands the needs of his readers as he provides them with a wonderful balance between background material and the details of religious practice. While Rabbi Isaacs is not offering halachic (legal) guides, he does give modern readers both the fundamentals as well as rich supportive materials. Whether Rabbi Isaacs is walking his readers through a Jewish holy day or a topic like death and dying, he does so in a user-friendly, warm and upbeat style. This new series by one of America's most prolific Jewish writers is destined to become a classic.

The proposed volume is distinctive in that it offers different and even competing perspectives on loss, grief and bereavement, which is essential given the complexities of the tragic human experience of perinatal, neonatal, and pediatric death. The Editors have selected an impressive array of contributors who have provided new theoretical approaches and explored extant concepts in new ways. The book is foundational for both novice scholars in the field of perinatal and pediatric grief and bereavement and for clinicians who seek a trusted resource in their care of bereaved women and families. Combining all of the theories into one provides easy access for the emerging canon on perinatal and pediatric loss.

Every year in the UK over 10,000 babies die before birth or shortly afterwards. For the parents, the grief is hard to bear. In this book, parents who have lost a baby tell their stories. They speak about what happened, how they felt, how they have been helped by others and how they helped themselves.
Using letters from and interviews with many bereaved parents, Nancy Kohner and Alix Henley have written a book which offers understanding of what it means to lose a baby and the grief that follows. When a Baby Dies also contains valuable information about why a baby dies, hospital practices, the process of grieving, sources of support, and the care parents need in future pregnancies.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203164881

Every year in the UK over 10,000 babies die before birth or shortly afterwards. For the parents, the grief is hard to bear. In this book, parents who have lost a baby tell their stories. They speak about what happened, how they felt, how they have been helped by others and how they helped themselves.
Using letters from and interviews with many bereaved parents, Nancy Kohner and Alix Henley have written a book which offers understanding of what it means to lose a baby and the grief that follows. When a Baby Dies also contains valuable information about why a baby dies, hospital practices, the process of grieving, sources of support, and the care parents need in future pregnancies.

This text is not just another reader on death, but rather a carefully developed book, created specifically for those persons whose major interests are either death education, death counseling, or, of course, both. The audience which this book addresses include: persons who have had either experience in death counseling or education or previous academic work; those who are contemplating professional work in the field or who are already in the process of developing this area as one of their fields of competence; and individuals who are already either counselors or educators or otherwise involved in the fields of mental health or education and who wish to learn more about the relationship of death and grief to their work.

Social media is full of dead people. Nobody knows precisely how many Facebook profiles belong to dead users but in 2012 the figure was estimated at 30 million. What do we do with all these digital souls? Can we simply delete them, or do they have a right to persist? Philosophers have been almost entirely silent on the topic, despite their perennial focus on death as a unique dimension of human existence. Until now. Drawing on ongoing philosophical debates, Digital Souls claims that the digital dead are objects that should be treated with loving regard and that we have a moral duty towards. Modern technology helps them to persist in various ways, while also making them vulnerable to new forms of exploitation and abuse. This provocative book explores a range of questions about the nature of death, identity, grief, the moral status of digital remains and the threat posed by AI-driven avatars of dead people. In the digital era, it seems we must all re-learn how to live with the dead.

New infections with HIV remain an urgent problem among young people in Africa, but many young Africans pursue sexual relationships with little thought about the epidemic. This book examines young people's sexual relationships in a region typical of rural sub-Saharan Africa and investigates why the risk of HIV infection generally was not a salient concern for them. It is based on an extraordinarily large and representative qualitative study that was affiliated with an adolescent sexual health intervention trial and included three person-years of participant observation conducted by young East Africans in nine Tanzanian villages. The book describes typical patterns of sexual relationship formation in adolescence and early adult life, the variety of young people's relationships and practices, and the contradictory social ideals and expectations that led premarital and extramarital relationships to be concealed. Young men's main motivations for sex were pleasure and masculine identity, while young women's was to receive money or materials to meet their basic needs, such as soap or a daytime meal. By their late teens most young people had experienced one-time sexual encounters, open-ended opportunistic relationships, and "main" sometimes semi-public partnerships. Relationships could involve desire, possessiveness, and affection, but romantic idealization of a partner was rare. Many young people expected their partners to be monogamous, but themselves had had concurrent relationships by age 20. The practice of hiding premarital sexual relationships from adults often also concealed them from other sexual partners, which helped maintain concurrency and inhibited realistic risk perception. Understanding of the biology of HIV/AIDS was very limited. Condoms were rarely used because they were associated with reduced pleasure, infection and promiscuity. Sexually transmitted infections were common, but several factors hindered young people from seeking biomedical treatment for them. Many instead relied on tradit

Opening with a useful overview of the literature on user involvement, the book goes on to look at the policy and professional context within which user involvement is undertaken, in particular user involvement in palliative care. In this section, the authors discuss two key concepts - palliative care and empowerment - and analyse the role of self-help groups and new information and communication technologies in this context. The last section of the book focuses on the detailed narratives of people coping with three life-threatening illnesses - cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease - and in this way the views and experiences of the 'user' are brought into play to critique current policy and practice
Too Ill to Talk? addresses a current health services issue in a refreshingly critical manner. It challenges the assumption that user involvement is either easy to achieve or that it is necessarily welcomed by all parties. It will be valuable reading for students on health studies courses, health professionals and policy makers in health and social care.