Death is a personal event that man cannot describe for himself. As far back as we can tell, man has been both intrigued by death and fearful of it; he has been motivated to seek answers to the mystery and to seek solutions to his anxiety. Every known culture has provided some answer to the meaning of death; for death, like birth or marriage, is universally regarded as a socially significant…
This paper will summarize chapters 1-5 in the book The Psychosocial Aspects of Death and Dying. We will take a deeper look at each of these chapters and explain what they mean. The chapters we will be talking about will be the following: Death: Awareness and Anxiety, Cultural Attitudes Toward Death, Processing the Death Of A Loved One Through Life’s Transitions, The Psychology of Dying and last but not least Social Responses To Various Types of Death. By taking a deeper look at the above mentioned chapters we will obtain a better understanding about society’s and individual’s viewpoints on death and dying as well as the many different responses that both society and individual’s have, and how it affects the grieving process.…
Culture and spiritual belief influence end of life care in three different aspects. It affects the communication strategy that the medical professional will use in interacting with the patient or the patients family. Cultural beliefs determine the person or people that will be responsible for making the decisions. Third, religious and cultural beliefs influence the attitudes of the patient and their families towards advance care directives (Searight and Gafford, 2005). Delivering culturally sensitive end of life care requires that the medical practitioner understand how the individual patient's attitudes towards end of life care may differ. It is possible to adopt strategies that cater to the needs of the patient without causing undue anguish due to an unintentional violation of the cultural beliefs of the person during the healthcare delivery process.…
Death is perceived in differently in various cultures and tends to impact an individual personally as compared to a group.…
Death is something that every human must face. It is the inevitable conclusion to life and is something that humans have had to come to terms with since the dawn of their existence. This is very clear in many of the writings and stories that human beings have told throughout history. This obsession about the ultimate culmination of life is heavily expressed in literary works like The Epic of Gilgamesh, Virgil’s The Aeneid, and Beowulf.…
Death is inevitable. Everything that lives must eventually face death. There are two certainties and guarantees in the passage of life. The indubitable is the birth of an individual and death of the individual. The end of life for an individual is perceived as an enemy to humanity and a horrid event the individual and family are encountering. The pronouncement of the death is an afflictive and gut wrenching pain for the caregiver as well as the family. While dying can be considered a joyous occasion for the person dying, the thought of death is faced with uncertainty and fear. The dying often experience grief. Although the dying is experiencing grief, the semblance is not the same as the gut wrenching pain the caregiver will understand. The…
* Hindus believe that the human soul journeys through one life and then dies and is born again into a new body through "reincarnation" or "transmigration"…
“‘The sense of the dead is that of the final,’ says a Vietnamese proverb, meaning that funeral ceremonies must be solemnly organized,” as stated in the Vietnam Tourism website. The way a funeral is organized in Vietnam is strongly influenced by Chinese; as stated in the article “Culture of Vietnam,” ones with various rites and activities. Most funerals in Vietnam consist of three stages. In the tourism website they also state that, “The date and time for the funeral procession, le dua tang, must be carefully selected.” This is an important factor, as the mourning process of a loved one in Vietnamese customs the funeral goes on for two years. The length of a Vietnamese funeral is after three days of mourning, the family visits the tomb again, le mo cua ma or worship the opening the grave; after 49 days, le chung that, the family stops bringing rice for the dead to the altar. And finally, after 100 days, the family celebrates tot khoc, or the end of the tears. After one year is the ceremony of the first anniversary of the relative’s death and after two years is the ceremony of the end of mourning.…
The fear of death is the second most common phobia in the United States, with sixty-eight percent of the population that feel afraid of death. (Statistic Brain) People have always been afraid of death, and it is a common theme in literature, especially after the Black Plague swept through Europe in the 14th century, killing 20 million people, nearly one-third of the population. (History.com) Death was at an all time high, and it was everywhere. But are people really afraid of dying, or of what comes after death?…
In every human society one can find manifestations of the human desire for some kind of continuance beyond death. In the modern West, much of human experience has been with religious theories of continuance that stress the fate of the individual, often conceived as a discrete spiritual "self" or "soul." Typically, a person is encouraged to live in a way that prepares one for personal salvation, whether by moral self-discipline, seeking God's grace, or other means. Indic traditions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, include similar assumptions about the human self/soul and personal salvation. In premodern China, especially if one discounts Buddhist influence, a person's desire for continuance beyond death was rooted in different assumptions and manifested in practices not closely related to the pursuit of individual salvation.…
Philippe Aries gives a depiction of the historical perception of death in his writing on ‘Western Attitudes toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present.’ Aries classifies the social history of death into varies categories; each one defines the meaning of death by individual and community view. He even defines death through social institutions beginning in the Middles Ages to present times of Western history. Aries historical research of varies attitudes toward death from one time period showed that social concepts and perception concerning death changed drastically over time. His research was documented based upon historical writing centered around death, art, archaeological, last will and testament documents, funding to churches based upon death, biographies, letters, and study of cemeteries’ practices from varies time periods.…
What is the afterlife? What would you bring? In Ancient Egypt, the Egyptians believed that the afterlife was a generous place. The afterlife is life after death. When a person dies, his or her body becomes a spirit, the ka is still linked to the body and it can’t leave its burial site. What would you bring into afterlife?…
Whenever you hear talks about the elderly, it’s always either about elderly care centers, or their physical and mental health, or how to live their final years to the fullest. The line of command in charge of the caring process is completely focused on making the oldie’s life as fulfilling as possible in the material world. Stepping into an elder’s shoes, I find myself concerned not of the remainder of my tangible life but on a more pressing matter: the question of afterlife. What happens after you leave the material world? Maybe it’s like Socrates said “no one knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest blessings of human beings. And yet people fear it as if they knew for certain it is the greatest evil.”…
Before explaining Hinduism in depth, Sumegi points out that there is a noticeable change for the religious response to death between the earliest and the latest Vedic texts (165). Based on the premise, she begins to discuss Hindus’ belief in afterlife from the early age. Sumegi specifically stresses the story of the Purusha Sukta because it informs us that a ritual death and dismemberment result in creation (170). Death is not the end but the new beginning of creation. And, death leads the deceased to the two paths: the way leading to the world of the fathers and the way leading to the world of the gods (171). Those who have a correct knowledge of the hidden interconnections between all things go to the world of the gods without reincarnation, while those who think that immortality is the result of rituals go to the world of the…
Electronic waste is defined as the term used to describe end-of-life or discarded devices using electricity. The majority of these devices contain toxins such as mercury, lead and cadmium, that can make their way into the earth once the device is discarded. According to “A Hazardous Afterlife”, an editorial written for the New York Times, recycling is the best option for disposing of electronic waste. Although this is the recommended way according to the article, many places such as Washington do not regulate recycling, and consequently, only 10 states have programs for recycling electronics as of 2008. The article forecasted that in 2010, consumers would no longer be allowed to throw electronics in the trash without…