Death and Dying

The act of death itself and the rituals surrounding it vary enormously and shed a fascinating light on the cultures of which they are a part. In this brief and lively history, Douglas Davies - internationally acknowledged as one of the leading experts in this field - tackles some of the most significant aspects of death and weaves them into a compelling story about our changing attitudes to dying.

This volume proposes to integrate scholarship on the processes of grief, dying, and bereavement, using a range of disciplines. De Vries and contributing authors examine the ways in which individuals at the end of life are influenced by aspects of their interpersonal and social environments. They explore topics including: particular preferences for place of death, attitudes toward funerals, widowhood, family bereavement, and life-prolonging decision-making, among others. Appropriate for all health professionals working with the dying.

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten. Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

FUNERAL CUSTOMS THE WORLD OVER presents for the first time in a single richly-illustrated volume, profiles of primitive, folk, rural and urban funeral and burial customs of peoples and cultures on every continent. Sociologist Habenstein and historian-educator Lamers have selected distinctive cultural and national groupings to show the diversities and continuities of the manner in which the problems of death and the care of the dead are defined and met. They carry the reader through the total process in each culture beginning with the meaning of death and including the immediate care of the body, funeralization, mourning, burial, memorialization and post-funeral ceremonies and practices. While the viewpoint of this work is not historical, it is clearly evident that funeral beliefs, practices and customs endure and are strongly resistant to change. Funerals lie at the very. innermost core of life's experiences.

Key features include: more than 100 contributors representing authoritative expertise in a diverse array of disciplines such as: anthropology; family studies; history; law; medicine; mortuary science; philosophy; psychology; social work; sociology; and theology.

One of the most important psychological studies of the late twentieth century, On Death and Dying grew out of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this remarkable book, Dr. Kübler-Ross first explored the now-famous five stages of death: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Through sample interviews and conversations, she gives the reader a better understanding of how imminent death affects the patient, the professionals who serve that patient, and the patient's family, bringing hope to all who are involved.

Subjects: Death--Religious aspects--African religion. Mythology, African. Death. Mythology. Religion.

This book richly explicates a relatively new scholarly awareness of the wealth of ethnographic and historical materials concerning death, and of the possibilities involved in exploring the religious perspectives reflected in such materials. Insights are presented into many of the ways in which humans in various parts of the world have encountered death, come to terms with it, and - in some sense - transcended it. Following a general introduction to the psychological, linguistic, literary, artistic, and religious aspects of confrontation with death, there are two major chapters on mythic and sacramental responses, by Mircea Eliade and Victor Turner. These are followed by explorations into individual and communal encounters with death in a variety of traditions: Aztec, Muslim, Zoroatrian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Bugandan, and Christian. Changes in these traditions are discussed, with attention to the impact of such events as the Nazi Holocaust and American Presidential assassinations.

In recent years there has been an increasing amount of research into the sociology of death and dying. This volume offers an introduction to the full range of theoretical and empirical endeavour, along with a discussion of some key methodological questions. Issues covered include: the concept of "social death"; the relationship between death and high modernity; death across the life course; cultural and historical perspectives on death and dying; the social management of death; the meaning of ritual; the role of the caring services; and problems of research, method and analysis.

At once funny, wistful and unsettling, Sum is a dazzling exploration of unexpected afterlives--each presented as a vignette that offers a stunning lens through which to see ourselves in the here and now. In one afterlife, you may find that God is the size of a microbe and unaware of your existence. In another version, you work as a background character in other people's dreams. Or you may find that God is a married couple, or that the universe is running backward, or that you are forced to live out your afterlife with annoying versions of who you could have been.nbsp; With a probing imagination and deep understanding of the human condition, acclaimed neuroscientist David Eagleman offers wonderfully imagined tales that shine a brilliant light on the here and now.

Important and provocative, The Undead examines why even with the tools of advanced technology, what we think of as life and death, consciousness and nonconsciousness, is not exactly clear and how this problem has been further complicated by the business of organ harvesting. Dick Teresi, a science writer with a dark sense of humor, manages to make this story entertaining, informative, and accessible as he shows how death determination has become more complicated than ever. Teresi introduces us to brain-death experts, hospice workers, undertakers, coma specialists and those who have recovered from coma, organ transplant surgeons and organ procurers, anesthesiologists who study pain in legally dead patients, doctors who have saved living patients from organ harvests, nurses who care for beating-heart cadavers, ICU doctors who feel subtly pressured to declare patients dead rather than save them, and many others.

"This happened on December 30, 2003. That may seem a while ago but it won't when it happens to you..." In this dramatic adaptation of her award-winning, bestselling memoir (which Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times called "an indelible portrait of loss and grief...a haunting portrait of a four-decade-long marriage," Joan Didion transforms the story of the sudden and unexpected loss of her husband and their only daughter into a stunning and powerful one-woman play. The first theatrical production of The Year of Magical Thinking opened at the Booth Theatre on March 29, 2007, starring Vanessa Redgrave and directed by David Hare.