ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that tragicomic attunement and intervention can be useful in helping people to "manage" their own death and the death of a loved one. It discusses the following concrete aspects of the so-called problem of death as it relates to the transformative, if not healing, power of tragicomic humour. The chilling awareness, if not terror, of dying as a backdrop to living the "good life"; coping with the awareness and practicalities that one is going to die imminently, such as from a terminal illness; tending to a dying other and grieving his or her passing; "God-talk" and other such matters of faith. The person with a developed tragicomic skillfulness is able, at times, to detach himself from the most terrifying and debilitating aspects of his death anxiety and put it into a more psychologically manageable perspective. The chapter focuses on describing and understanding tragicomic humour that emanates mainly from the seriously ill or dying person.
