Who introduced the term ‘death system’?
Robert Kastenbaum (1977)
Definition of death system
Interpersonal, sociocultural and symbolic network which an individual’s relationship to mortality is mediated by his or her society
What we’ve been taught =
Death system
4 ways that death denial is present in society
- Increased life expectancy
- Decreased exposure to death
- Control over nature (pushing death away)
- What it means to be a human person (deciding our own set of beliefs)
6 main factors that have affected mortality patterns in NA
- Industrialization
- Public health measures
- Preventive health care
- Modern cure-oriented medicine
- Nature of contemporary families
- Lifestyle
Define industrialization
Increased production = increased standard of living
Define public health measure
Quarantine and sanitization
Define preventive health care
Vaccines, education, media
Define modern cure-oriented medicine
Medical model, technology
Define nature of contemporary families
Mobile and distant families
Define lifestyle
Poor diet, smoking, inactivity
What is death ed?
Learning about death (formal vs. informal)
MAIN REASON why death ed is needed?
Ability to accept death and learn from losses helps us to live life more fully
Additional reasons why death ed is needed?
- Remove taboo language
- Appreciate diversity
- Understand alternate ways of caring for the dying
- Promote comfortable and intelligent interactions with dying
- Understand grief dynamics
- Understand children’s conceptions of death
- Assist in the development of a philosophy of life
Aries wrote a book titled
The Hour of Our Death
What four ways does Aries describe the evolution of Western attitudes towards death?
- Tame Death or Death as Neighbour (500-1100CE)
- Death of Self or One’s Own Death (1100-1600CE)
- Death of the Other or Death of the Beloved (1750-1900CE)
- Invisible or Forbidden Death (1900-present)
What is Tame Death or Death as Neighbour (500-1100CE)
- Familiar, natural, simple
- Accept inevitable
- Peaceful
- Exposure
- Everyone involved
- People died young
What is Death of Self or One’s Own Death (1100-1600CE)
- Elite
- Individual is key
- Good death
- Renaissance, protestant reformation period
- Death is no longer welcome due to fear of hell or the afterlife
What is Death of the Other or Death of the Beloved (1750-1900CE)
- Death is the intolerable separation of those bound together by human affections
- Romantic period in Europe and NA
- Burial grounds and grave markers symbols of love and remembrance
- Memorializing
- Spiritualism
What is Invisible or Forbidden Death (1900-present)
- Death = failure and shameful
- Remove death from the presence
- Focus on technology and science
- Embalming (preserving) and caskets
What are the 4 continua (Laugani)?
- Individualism vs. communalism
- Cognitivism vs. emotionalism
- Freewill vs. determinism
- Materialism vs. spiritualism
Individualism is
Achievement, independence, personal growth
Communalism is
Role of individual expressed in context of family or greater community (focus on groups)
Cognitivism is
Scientific endeavours, explanation of physical universe from tangible/rational theories and proof
