The "moment of death"

The "moment of death," once a dominant concept in preparing for a "good death", has been eclipsed by a focus on the wider concept of the "dying trajectory". However, findings from interviews with 25 bereaved individuals suggest that dying loved ones' final moments may still be experienced as highly significant in their own right. In some accounts the dying individual's final moments did not feature or made little impression, either because the survivor was not present, or there was no obviously definable moment, or because other, usually medical factors, such as whether to resuscitate the person, took precedence. However, in six cases such moments were constructed as profound, special, and memorable occasions. These constructions are explored in relation to achieving a good death, the dying trajectory as a whole, and making sense of the bereavement experience. Their implications for sociological theories of identity and embodiment are also considered.     

"The wholeness of things": infusing diversity and social justice into death education

This article presents resources and strategies for the infusion of diversity and social justice themes into an undergraduate death and dying course. The intent is not to replace or dismiss existing thanatological insights and debates, but rather to widen the cultural perspective to bring these insights and debates into conversation with multiple ways of perceiving and understanding. The article covers definitions, goals and rationales, challenges in identifying and developing appropriate resources, and overall course design. It also explores readings, audiovisual materials, class activities, and pedagogical approaches to foster: student engagement with diverse world-views and experiences; understanding of "cultural competence" in various fields; awareness of the impact of race, class, gender, etc., on access to resources and care; commitment to activism for social justice; and exposure to many forms of resilience, meaning-making, and creative healing.     

Researching "good death" in a Hong Kong palliative care program: a clinical data-mining study

This study operationalizes and assesses the percentage of "good deaths" achieved among Chinese cancer patients in a palliative care program, the profile of these patients, the relationship between patients with a good death and psychosocial factors, and the differences in background factors, and physical and psychosocial conditions between patients who experienced a good death and those who did not. Clinical data mining was the research method used. Records of deceased cancer patients between 2003 and 2005 in a palliative care unit were the sole data source. Good death was operationally defined as the patient's record indicating no pain (physical) or anxiety (psychological), and having open and honest communication with family (social) in the final assessment by the Support Team Assessment Schedule (STAS) just before death. Using these criteria, about one-fifth of patients (21.5%; 137 out of 638) experienced a good death. Those with a good death were significantly older and were in palliative care longer. Their records also indicated lower levels of constipation, insomnia, oral discomfort, and family anxiety at their first and at their final STAS assessments. Good death was positively associated with recorded indicators of fullness in life, caregivers' acceptance and support, and negatively with reported feelings of upset about changes in the course of their illness. The results heighten awareness among social workers and other healthcare professionals about the value of good death in patients in palliative care. This empirically-based awareness can foster professionals' ability to set intervention objectives to help patients in palliative care achieve this universally accepted goal.     

Personifications of personal and typical death as related to death attitudes

The present article examined differences in personifications of personal and typical death as a function of attitudes about death. Ninety-eight students enrolled in psychology classes were randomly assigned to personify death as a character in a movie depicting either their own deathbed scene or the deathbed scene of the typical person prior to completing the Death Attitude Profile-Revised. The results supported the conceptual distinction between attitudes about personal death and death in general. Participants in the personal death condition personified death more frequently as a gentle-comforting image and less frequently as a cold-remote image than did participants in the typical death condition. The results also further validated the relation between personifications of death and death attitudes. Across both conditions, participants who selected the grim-terrifying image reported more fear of death and death avoidance; whereas, participants who selected the cold-remote or robot-like images reported more neutral acceptance.     

The role of psychotherapy and humor for death anxiety, death wishes, and aging

This article is part of a series of humor on social attitudes (Richmen, 1977), humor by the elderly (Richman, 1989), assessment (Richman, 1996a), and psychotherapy (Richman, 1996b). The present study is based on the topics of humor related to death anxiety and wishes, and aging that emerged during psychotherapy with elderly patients. The healing qualities of laughter and humor have been observed since Biblical times to the present, however the applications of humor to professional psychotherapy is still in its infancy. The examples in this study spell out how humor in therapy can bring people together, and help them affirm life and laugh at anxiety, depression, and their problems in living.     

The death distress construct and scale

The purpose of this research was to construct a short scale to assess the death distress construct, that is, death anxiety, death depression, and death obsession as derivatives from the already existing scales. A sample of 630 volunteer undergraduates responded to scales of death anxiety, death depression, and death obsession. A Pearson correlation matrix was computed using the 51 individual items of the three scales. A forced three-factor principal components analysis with orthogonal varimax rotation was carried out. Eight items with factor loading > 0.5 on each scale was determined. The eight items with highest factor loadings on Factor I were with "Death obsession," whereas the Factors II and III were labeled: "Death anxiety," and "Death depression." Their alpha reliabilities ranged from 0.83 to 0.93, indicating high internal consistency. One week test retest reliability ranged between 0.76 and 0.91, indicating temporal stability. A single high-loaded factor of death distress was disclosed, demonstrating the discriminant validity of the death distress construct and scale. Women obtained a significantly higher mean scores on all three factors. It was concluded that the aforementioned three factors were sufficiently independent to justify their use in assessing partially distinct sub-constructs as sub-components of the generic high-order factor of death distress, with empirical and clinical implications.     

以"小"赢"大"

赢得国际市场的份额，是国内众多企业梦寐以求的。但很多企业认为小产品价廉利薄，难以做大规模，能出口的产品必须是高、精、尖的。其实不然，有不少企业仅凭着一些价格不过几毛钱甚至几分钱的小产品，在国际大市场上创出了品牌。宜兴兴达集团的文具胶，每支最高不过２元钱，却被认为是亚洲第一品牌，曾接下美国埃尔默公司１亿元的大订单；驰马拉链公司的一条拉链平均不过１元钱，目前年生产拉链上亿条，长度能绕地球两圈，在很多国际知名品牌服饰上都可见到驰马拉链；海门市以四分钱一根的机针做成了一个创汇大产业，其中的白鹤公司是目前…     

"特赦"

两名机修工在安装设备时一不留心,把刚从外地购来的特种电机滑落在地,端盖砸裂了,连轴摔歪了,厂里原计划明天试车的计划泡汤了.闻讯后我赶紧来到现场.两位机修工如同两尊塑像,正望着摔坏的电机发呆.     

Predictors of children's understandings of death: age, cognitive ability, death experience and maternal communicative competence

A child's age, cognitive ability, and exposure to death in the environment have been documented as major factors affecting the formation of a mature death concept. The present study investigated the relationships between these three factors (age, cognitive ability, and death experience) and children's understandings of death, as well as the relationship between mothers' communicative competence and children's understandings of death. Thirty-seven children (ages 48-96 months) completed three cognitive tasks and answered four dichotomous questions about death. Their mothers (N = 37) responded in writing to 16 questions about death that children are likely to ask. Results showed significant relationships between age and understanding, between seriation ability and understanding, and between death experience and understanding. There was no statistically significant relationship between maternal response competence and children's understandings of death. Implications are discussed.     

Quality insights of university students on dying, death, and death education--a preliminary study in Hong Kong

Death is a subject seldom studied in school and often misunderstood and feared by many people. Children often learn about death from their family and mass media. From the literature review on dying, death, and death education, it may be concluded that people are generally ignorant about the issues of death and dying. There is a need to investigate what young people, such as university students, know about death and dying, and their attitudes toward them. Eight university students were recruited for this study. Most participants have had death experiences. They seldom talked about death and loss. Some of these experiences were quite pleasant but some of them were not. Most participants addressed the need to have "life and death" education in schools at their young age. Such a need is further supported by the incidents of two participants who attempted suicide unsuccessfully when they encountered a life problem which they could not solve.     

Parental grief after a child's drug death compared to other death causes: investigating a greatly neglected bereavement population

This comparative survey contrasted 571 parents who lost children to various death causes: 48 to drug-related deaths and overdoses, 462 to suicide, 24 to natural death cases, and 37 to mostly accidental death cases. Groups were compared in terms of grief difficulties, mental health problems, posttraumatic stress, and stigmatization. Results did not show any appreciable differences in these respects between the suicide bereaved parents and those losing children to drug-related deaths. However, when the suicide and drug-related death survivors were specifically contrasted against accidental and natural death loss cases, a consistent pattern emerged showing the former group was consistently more troubled by grief and mental health problems than the latter two sub-groups. These differences remained when controls of time since the loss and gender differences were employed as covariates. These findings suggest that the powerful and intense stigma against drug use and mental illness, shared among the public-at-large, imposes challenges in healing of immense proportion for these parents as they find less compassionate responses from their significant others, following their losses.