ABSTRACT

In this introductory text on thanatology, Alan Kemp continues to take on the central question of mortality: the centrality of death coupled with the denial of death in the human experience. Drawing from the work of Ernest Becker, Death, Dying, and Bereavement in a Changing World provides a multidisciplinary and multidimensional approach to the study of death, putting extra emphasis on the how death takes place in a rapidly changing world.

This new, second edition includes the most up-to-date research, data, and figures related to death and dying. New research on the alternative death movement, natural disaster-related deaths, and cannabis as a form of treatment for life-threatening illnesses, and updated research on physician-assisted suicide, as well as on grief as it relates to the DSM-5 have been added.

part I|95 pages

Introduction and Context

chapter 1|19 pages

Lifting the Pall

The Quest to Uncover Wisdom about Life Through the Study of Death

chapter 3|25 pages

For Everything There Is a Season

The Developmental Context

chapter 4|25 pages

Coureurs de Bois

Cross-Cultural and Interfaith Dimensions

part II|81 pages

Death

chapter 5|26 pages

The Grim Reaper through Time

Historical and Cross-Cultural Look at Undertaking

chapter 6|25 pages

The Grim Reaper Today

Emerging Trends in Contemporary “Death Care”

chapter 7|28 pages

Traumatic Death

part III|62 pages

Dying

chapter 8|31 pages

In the Valley of the Shadow

chapter 9|29 pages

Intensive Caring

Hospice and Palliative Care

part IV|57 pages

Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning

chapter 10|30 pages

Life after Loss

Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning

chapter 11|25 pages

When Grief Goes Awry

Complicated Grief

part V|47 pages

Legal and Ethical Borderlands

chapter 12|20 pages

Physician-Assisted Death

part VI|51 pages

Into the Future

chapter 14|25 pages

Life after Life

chapter 15|24 pages

The Road Ahead