Dying, Death, and Bereavement

Death, Dying, and Bereavement, Fourth Edition is a brief but comprehensive interdisciplinary survey of research, writings, and professional practices concerned with death and dying. It is intended for courses on the topic but may also serve as a supplementary text in other subjects. The focus of the book is interdisciplinary and eclectic: medical, psychological, religious, philosophical, artistic, and demographic matters concerned with dying, death, bereavement, and widowhood are all considered, but with an emphasis on the psycho-logical aspects of death and dying. A variety of view-points and research findings on topics subsumed under "thanatology" receive thorough consideration in individual chapters.The new edition features the most recent material on moral issues and court cases concerned with abortion and euthanasia, the widespread problem of AIDS and other deadly diseases, the tragedies occasioned by epidemics, starvation, and war, and the resumption of capital punishment in many states.The current edition also boasts a more multicultural flavor to reflect the increased economic, social, and physical interdependency among the nations of the world.In addition to including a wide range of empirical findings and theoretical viewpoints, questions, activities, and projects have been included at the end of each chapter to enhance reflection and to make the material personal and realistic.The topics that receive increased attention in the fourth edition are: terror management; multicultural perspectives; attitudes, and practices concerning death; cross-cultural concepts of afterlife; gallows humor, out-of-body experiences; spiritualism; mass suicide; pet death; romantic death;AIDS; euthanasia; right to die; postbereavement depression; firearm deaths in children; children's understanding of death; child and adolescent suicide; suicide and the elderly; physician-assisted suicide; religious customs a