Death Grief and Mourning

How do Americans cope with death? Do our feelings about dying influence the way we live? How are our ideas of death different from those of our ancestors?. These questions and others are addressed in this innovative new book -- a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach to the processes practices and experiences concerning death and dying in the United States. Drawing on sociology and psychology as well as history and literature John S. Stephenson surveys the range of individual and social responses to death -- from our very conception of its meaning to the complex ethical dilemmas surrounding suicide and euthanasia.. Stephenson synthesizes a theoretical perspective of death from the contributions of such important thinkers as Freud Jung Ernest Becker and Robert Jay Lifton. He reviews the evolution of American attitudes and behaviors toward death -- from the Puritan era to the present and charts the significance of such organizations for the dying as hospitals hospices and nursing homes. Bereavement as both personal reaction (grief) and social convention (mourning) is also discussed as is the denial of death as a coping mechanism for individuals and institutions alike.. In his final chapters Stephenson analyzes the ceremonies of death (including gravestones as social indicators) and provides a psychosocial overview of suicide as a final desperate attempt to assert control. He concludes by exploring the implications of euthanasia at a time when technology can extend life dramatically but is not always capable of assuring its quality.. Throughout authentic case examples -- many drawn from Stephensons own clinical work -- illustrate the multi-faceted imagery and experiences that comprise the American way of death.. Stephensons book will be welcomed by sociologists psychologists social workers religious leaders nurses and others concerned with caring for the dying and the bereaved. It is a brilliant and elegantly written work that crosses disciplinary boundaries to provide a valuable synthesis of existing knowledge and offer educators and professionals a firm foundation for teaching practice and research.