ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how dominant values and patterns of American life are primarily responsible for the harshness and indignities of modern dying, and will pay particular attention to the role that technology, materialism, and individualism play in shaping the ways of life and death. Dying individuals are ill-at-ease in the modern era. Unlike in traditional patterns of death, where dying was “tamed” by ritual, guiding norms, and a culturally grounded sense of purpose, modern death has become wild and terrifying. Having been disengaged and isolated from dominant patterns of social life dying persons crave comfort, connectedness, and a sense of purpose. In typical fashion of the narcissistic individual, Ivan Ilych became obsessed with his own suffering, and with finding an explanation for his dying. Specifically, the new age and self-help movements have grown by leaps and bounds precisely because Americans are hungering for interpersonal and spiritual connectivity.
