You are here

Making Sense of Death, Dying and Bereavement
Share

Making Sense of Death, Dying and Bereavement
An Anthology

First Edition


December 2008 | 224 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

This anthology offers a unique collection of personal accounts of death, dying, and bereavement. It examines representations of death, dying, and bereavement in fiction, poetry, the media and the internet, as well as exploring visual representations of death and dying.

Key Features

  • Includes visual representations of the changing meaning of death within societies
  • Provides examples of the ways in which the web is being used to give and receive support when people are dying or when they have been bereaved
  • Examines the moral, ethical, and emotional issues involved in caring for people at the end-of-life
  • Offers personal accounts of miscarriage, the role of humor in coping with death, the death of a parent in early adulthood, suicide, and the impact of autopsy
  • Presents reflections from survivors and people who have been bereaved following traumatic and mass death and disaster

This highly distinctive book will be key reading for professionals, students, and those involved in the care of dying and bereaved people.


 
PART ONE: VISUAL IMAGES OF DEATH, DYING AND DISPOSAL
Sarah Earle and Carol Komaromy
Introduction
 
Afghanistan Woman
 
Sunrise
 
Purple Planet
 
Mask
 
A Woman and a Boy Visiting a Man in Hospital
 
A Deathbed Scene
 
Mila
 
Liza
 
A Death Certificate
 
The Death of Chatterton
 
Dead Face of a Girl
 
Dead Face of a Man
 
The Dissection of a Beautiful Young Woman
 
Human Bones in Paris Catacombs
 
Mass Grave, Belsen
 
Abandoned Grave
 
Roadside Memorial, Avenida España, Cadiz, Spain
 
Roadside Memorial, Groveway, Milton Keynes, UK,
 
Roadside Memorials and the Public Health
 
Memorial Quilt, Scotland,
 
PART TWO: DEATH AND DYING IN POETRY, FICTION AND THE MEDIA
Sarah Earle and Carol Komaromy
Introduction
Mitch Albom
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Jacqueline Wilson
Vicky Angel
Dylan Thomas
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
John Keats
Ode to a Nightingale
Wystan Hugh Auden
Funeral Blues
Jenny Hockey
Diary Notes
Wilfred Owen
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Siegfried Sassoon
Aftermath
Jenny Hockey
Placing the Dead
Joseph Heller
Catch
Yasmin Gunuratnam
For Phyllis
Yasmin Gunuratnam
Blind Date
Jacque Lynn Foltyn
Dead Sexy: Why Death Is the New Sex
The Times
Obituary - Dame Cicely Saunders
 
PART THREE: DEATH, DYING AND BEREAVEMENT ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Sarah Earle and Carol Komaromy
Introduction
Pamela Roberts
Here Today and Cyberspace Tomorrow: Memorials and Bereavement Support on the Web
 
Winston's Wish: For Young People
 
Bereavement UK: The Garden of Tranquillity
 
Andrea Rouen's Farewell
 
Cass Brown
 
Cancergiggles
 
Anna Davidsson Bremborg
 
Dead Bodies on the Internet
Katja Becker and Martin H. Schmidt
When Kids Seek Help Online: Internet Chat Rooms and Suicide
Sarah Earle
Resources on the World Wide Web
 
PART FOUR: CARING FOR PEOPLE AT THE END OF LIFE
Sarah Earle and Carol Komaromy
Introduction
Lydia Chant
Alzheimer's: My Mother's Death
Mary Twomey
Respect for Autonomy: Easier Said Than Done
Margaret Forster
Precious Lives
Elizabeth Young, Clive Seale and Michael Bury
It's Not Like Family Going, Is It?
Alun Morgan
A Fridge too Far?
Anonymous
A Porter's Story
Cynda Hylton-Rushton
Caregiver Suffering Is a Dimension of End-of-Life Care
Atul Gawande
Always Fight
Nancy A Hodgson, Sheila Segal, Maria Weidinger, and Mary Beth Linde
The Social Worker and Chaplain during and after a Death
Debbie Komaromy
The Intimacy of End-of-Life Care
Philip Ball
Intimacy and Relationships: The View from a Hospice
Tom Heller
Death in the Early Evening
 
PART FIVE: WHEN SOMEONE DIES
 
Introduction, Sarah Earle and Carol Komaromy
Jacqueline H Watts
Being Orphaned in Early Adulthood
Linda Camborne-Paynter
Memories of Death
C S Lewis
A Grief Observed
Kier Hardie
Suicide
Kythé Beaumont
Suicide Is Painless?
Ingrid Nix
The Loss of Mango
Ricardo Estee-Wale
The Death of a Socialite
Ann Martin
Black Humour and the Death of a Child
Gayle Letherby
Experiences of Miscarriage
Josie Hughes
A Family's Experience of Autopsy
Joyce Cavaye
The First Death: A Student's Experience
Árnar Arnason
Death in Iceland, Hidden and Revealed
Maxine Birch
My Floral Tribute
Stuart Todd
Silenced Endings: Death, Dying and Learning Disabilities
 
PART SIX: REFLECTING ON TRAUMATIC DEATH, MASS DEATH AND DISASTER
Sarah Earle and Carol Komaromy
Introduction
Claire Wijayatilake
When The Tsunami Hit Sri Lanka
Prathap Tharyan
Traumatic Bereavement and the Asian Tsunami: Perspectives from Tamil Nadu, India
Lesley Moreland
Ruth: Death by Murder
Carol Komaromy
Reflections of Death: Continuing Memories
Disaster Action
When Disaster Strikes: Reflections on Personal Experience of Disaster
Tom Heller
Personal and Medical Memories from Hillsborough
Patricia Wiltshire
The Personal and Professional Reflections of a Forensic Ecologist
Lucy Payne
Returning Property after Death and Disaster
Anne Eyre
Collective Loss and Community Resilience AFTER September
 
PART SEVEN: MAKING SENSE OF THE AFTER-LIFE AND LIFE AFTER DEATH
 
Introduction
Sarah Earle and Carol KomaromyParanormal Database
Hospital Ghosts and Hauntings
Suzanne Perry
Family Ghosts
Simon J Sherwood
Deathbed Apparitions
Judith Okely
Traveller Gypsies
Justine Picardie
If the Spirit Moves You
Jo Dawson
Is Anybody There?
Dorothy Thornton and Gayle Letherby
Experience of the Loss of a Husband/Father
Roger Dobson
Sparkling Epitaphs: From Jewels to Web Portraits, We've Moved on from the Tombstone

Good user friendly book

Heulwen Morgan-Samuel
Department of Cancer Care, Swansea Univ.
July 7, 2014

The contents of this book are not that different from texts already being used on the course

Dr Brian Nyatanga
Institute of Health and Society, Worcester University
March 6, 2013

very informative and well written book, gives a variety of representations of death, dying and bereavement in different perspectives covering fiction, poety, the media etc. easy read and useful for studfent nurses to explore this issue

Ms Carol-anne Westwell
Nursing & Midwifery, Bangor University
November 19, 2012

Although an interesting anthology which covers a broad spectrum of aspects of death, dying and bereavement, it does not appear suitable for postgraduate students. I think it would be a good basic introductory text to early learners, but it does not carry sufficient scholarly weight for level seven candidates.

Mrs Valerie Sanders
Counselor Education , University of Greenwich
January 9, 2012

This is provides fanatsic and diverse accounts of the emotions involved through the dying process. It considers a electic mix of death experiences and the social issues involved both personal and public.

Ms Anna Davenport
Materials Science Research Centre, Glyndwr University
January 3, 2012

This is a useful resource for students presenting difficult issues in alternative formats. It give senior students food for thought.

Dr Diane Willis
School of Social and Health Sciences, University of Abertay, Dundee
September 15, 2011

An interesting book which looks at understandings made in relation to death.

Alison Brown
The School of Nursing & Midwifery, Robert Gordon University
July 4, 2011

This is a facinating book that explores all aspects of death and the dying person. It is well thought out and will prove to be very helpful particularly to the student nurse or care worker in a Hospice setting. The subject matter is always difficult to present however, I feel confident that the Nurse Tutor will find this a very useful resource as there are many and varied examples and illustrations to use.
Quite a remarkable textbook.

Mr PETER WALSHAM
Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health Pro, Northumbria University
June 2, 2011

This is necessary book which supplements and complements Death and Dying: a reader, and contains a huge Anthology of personal experiential narrative on this sensitive subject.

Mr Nick Purkis
Interprofessional Studies, Winchester University
April 12, 2011

This textbook will allow wider reading around the subject for the module Dimensions of Loss. Some really interesting aspects included. Particularly like the use of the Arts to explore the topic. Highly current, relevant content for the module within the BSc.

Mrs Pauline Williams
Health , Cheshire Hospices Education
March 22, 2011

Sample Materials & Chapters

Introduction PDF

Part One PDF