A Summary of Chapters 1-5 in Death and Dying the Psychosocial Aspect Essay Example

we sometimes forget that life does and will end and we try, and try, and try to prolong life so much so that sometimes we end up doing more harm than good. In this day and age Death is talked about as such a dreadful thing whereas 150 years ago our intimacy with death allowed us to grieve. It allowed us to accept that in life we are born, we live and then one day we die.

We realized that we were not immortal and death will, did and does happen.However, in this current day and age we seem to have forgotten that or at least attempt to ignore it in the hopes of being able to avoid dealing with this most unpleasant subject until absolutely necessary. In short America has lost their intimacy with death and instead we have come to fear it and agonize over its existence in our life. In the second chapter talks about our cultural attitudes toward death and people’s patterns and responses toward death.

There are three main responses that a culture can take to death.They can either accept death, try to defy death or, like, in the United States of America just out right deny death. According to Canine, “A society that accepts death views death as a natural part of the life cycle”. (Canine) He also goes on to say that in societies that defy death, “…the belief is that in death nothing need be lost—you can take it with you” (Canine).

In cultures that try to deny the thought of death such as the United States believe seem to have the philosophy that would suggest that death is an

unnatural occurrence.The chapter goes on to explore what different cultures such as the Jewish or African-American cultures believe and practice when it comes to the preparing the bodies of the dead and how they honor them. For instance in the Jewish culture according to Canine, “The reading of the body for burial traditionally is done by a cheura kadisha, or holy society”. (Canine) In the African-American culture they have “Nurses, who are dressed in white and care for those who are overcome with emotion” (Canine) The third chapter of this book we discuss Processing The Death Of A Loved One Through Life’s Transitions. Children go through phases of acceptance and understanding of death.

A young child for instance may not be able to grasp the concept that grandma will not be coming back. In their mind grandma is just sleeping and will be back at some later date. As a child gets older they then begin to understand the permanency of death and that their loved one will not be coming back. This being said when a loved one dies one should not tell a young child that grandma is simply sleeping. This will give the child a false understanding of death and could later in life cause issues.We in America tend to shy away from talking about death so much so that when we have to explain it to our younger counterparts we feel the need to protect them from this evil thing as if ignoring it and not talking about it will prevent it from happening.

This is not true and certainly is not healthy. The best thing to do is face your own fears

on death and not push them off onto a young and unsuspecting child. This chapter covers that and explains how people tend to view death over the years from childhood to adolescent to mid-life to old age. It talks about how frequently each age group tends to think about death and how it concerns them. Such as a child most likely would never think about death, a teenager may think because they are young they are invincible, a middle-aged person may think about the fact that death can come at any time and make a plan to protect their family just in case and an older person, around the age of 80 or older looks at death as something that is coming inevitably and tend to make what preparations they can to make the transition for their family easier to deal with and may at this point accept that whether they like it or not life will end for them most likely sooner than later.

Chapter four covers the psychology of dying. This chapter talks about peoples psychological responses to dying and how everyone goes through the same steps just not necessarily in the same order or at the same increments of time. There are five stages involved in the grieving process. They are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. The chapter goes into depth as to what each of these steps entail and how a person may act as they go though each step.The important thing to take from this is that in a time of grieving that no matter which stage the person may appear in, that is our job as Funeral Directors not

to say or do anything to minimize the experience of grief for them just because we may grieve in a different way.

There is nothing anywhere that says there is any right way to grieve or wrong way. Our job is to help people through the process in any way we can.The fifth and final chapter we will be discussing covers the social responses people have to various types of death. For example, you are a woman and your husband just died. You may have been married a few days or 50 years but the response evoked in people is stronger than if say your brother or sister had just died.

If a child dies before a parent the response from society will be stronger than if a parent dies before a child because for a parent to die first is part of the natural order of things and tends to be accepted as such.How others respond to your loss will be dependent upon whom in your life has passed away. In conclusion, our intimacy with death in America has seriously declined and as a result we as a society are suffering from our own self delusion that if we do not think about, talk about death then it will not affect us. The truth of the matter is we will all die at some point.It is a fact of life and if we would allow ourselves time to naturally grieve and go through the process of losing a loved one then perhaps we would learn not to fear death but to accept it and see it as a natural occurrence and be able to celebrate life

of the one who has passed on. Death is not something to be feared but something looked upon with acceptance, understanding.

Works Cited

1. Canine, John D. The Psychosocial Aspects of Death And Dying. Detroit: McGraw-Hill, 1996.