Lesson 6: Interviewing in Death and Dying

Attention

Abani (2008) describes the term “Ubuntu” as the defining feature of understanding our own humanity, which he explains: “the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me.”

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able

• Use the bio-psycho-social perspective and the socio-cultural perspective to raise and explore questions about death and dying issues or situations within a personal interview with family, friends, and/or co-workers about their belief systems and experiences.
• Relate the social and cultural context of death and dying to wider social structures.
• Explain some cultural and theological approaches to death.
• Relate the social and cultural context of death and dying to wider social structures.

Students will create their own questions, and will explore the implications of this analysis for their own experience within an interview reflection. Questions may include, for example, business practices, uses of technology, reproductive rights, social class structures, institutional racism, sexual behavior, death penalty, abortion, suicide, religions and/or cultural traditions, etc.

Teaching

Read Chapter Four & Five in Kubler-Ross text.

The aim of education about death, dying, and bereavement is to contribute to general education as a basis for personal development and responsible social participation. It must also contribute to the specific education of those who, as a result of personal or professional circumstances, are closely associated with death, dying and bereavement.

This lesson surveys the social and cultural aspects of death, dying and bereavement. We will begin to take a look at key theoretical perspectives, historical and cross cultural comparisons, and major studies in the field of human mortality.

The beliefs instilled in us from a young age from family, media, educational professionals and religious sources, as well as from our personal experience of death can often have a profound impact on how we perceive death and dying. Some religious practitioners, Roman Catholics, for instance, appear comfortable when speaking about death as they see death as a momentous event that should not be feared. Catholics believe in life after death, stating the soul leaves the body and will normally spend a period in Purgatory and when the soul is cleansed of the temporal consequences of sin they will enter heaven. However some anxiety remains, for many, as there is uncertainty of how long the soul will remain in purgatory. “They do not fear the next world, but rather the passage, the crossing over........” (Toscani, et al. 2003). 

What religious experiences or expectations, if any, inform your understanding of death? Why? Why not?
Research and studies regarding the beliefs and views of individuals in life after death vary from person to person depending on their religious or non-religious beliefs. For example the article Life at the end of Life: beliefs about individual life after death presents “good death” models within a qualitative study. Toscani, et al (2003) highlights two different models and arguments regarding death and what would be classified as a “good death.” The attitudes and assumptions regarding ‘good death,’ however, may depend on whether the individual is a believer or non-believer, if there are conflicting opinions between faiths, and their own experiences/beliefs regarding ‘the beyond.’ Toscani, et al. (2003) indicated: “If I am, death is not; if death is, I am no longer: why, then, fear death?” (p 8).

What, do you think, is a good death? Why? Do you agree with the quotation above?

The management of death and dying has changed over time. French Historian, Phillipe Aries claimed that in the Middle Ages people appeared more optimistic regarding death, as they acknowledged death as part of life. Death was thought of as unavoidable. Death affected not only the family of the deceased but the community as a whole. Death was a common occurrence and this may explain why death was seen as inevitable and therefore not feared. Aires argued that after the 19th century, death in western society was hidden and following the First World War, death became a taboo subject and was no longer seen as a natural process of life.

Throughout most of history, individuals who were close to the family were assigned particular roles in death practice, for example: preparing the body for burial, announcing the death, organizing the viewing. As the taboo of death gained traction, these rituals were more hidden, and separated from the family and community. Death was beginning to become its own industry with specialization.

German Sociologist, Norbert Elias (1985) claimed death was painful, and life was much longer than it had been before. Elias (1985) would argue that in today's society the role of preparing the deceased has been taken over by funeral directors who offer a wide range of services to the family in order to remove death from our own reality. This includes professional industries collecting and preparing the body for burial or cremation, hiding the decay/pain/ and/or finality of death, and depersonalizing the rituals that had formerly assisted, perhaps, in the grieving process.

It is possible that the idea of life after death allows us to cope with what can only be seen as a natural human fear: non-existence; Maybe, this is unimaginable and we are psychologically inept to deal with this?

What are your thoughts?

We need to ask the question: is death something feared by all? Is this a truth, or could it be that for many individuals, especially, those in old age or with a terminal illness, death could be the beginning of something better??

It can be argued that whilst individuals and society have diverse opinions regarding death and what happens to a person when they die, the majority do have a fear of how they will die. For example being alone, suffering pain, dying young or, being forgotten.

What do you think?

Tibetan Buddhism describes, in great detail, the process of death and the ‘passage over.’ Tibetan Buddhists are encouraged to read “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” and when an individual is dying, there is a common conception that it is good to read this book to the dying person. Similarly, the “Egyptian Book of the Dead” is an interesting multicultural perspective.

We’ve addressed different religious and/or cultural practices. But, what about the views of atheists? Or, agnostics? Although the consensus in atheism is that there is no life after death, and when we die, we die, and that is it, this does not mean that atheists do not have a fear of death. Like individuals who ascribe to certain religious or cultural beliefs, atheists may have similar concerns with regards to how they will die and where they would like to die.
I worked with a family whose child was dying. When trying to support the family through this difficult time they spoke of feeling angry at individuals who had questioned why they were not in church praying. They let me know that as far as they were concerned that when their child died that was the end. They stated their only fear was that their child would die alone if they left his side. They stayed near him, avoiding their own care.

What are the stories we tell ourselves? And, why?

Watch TWO of any of the ted.com talks below.

Assessment

Lesson 6 Journal Entry

Discuss the resources and talks within this lesson. How do these stories affect you? How can meaning making and story-telling practices support you in your personal and professional life?