History of Death
Philippe Aries
French historian. Wrote 'History of Death in the Western World'
Terror Management Theory
Awareness of mortality provokes existential terror, fear relating to the meaninglessness of death and life. To resist this terror, humans engage in proximal and distal defenses.
Burnout
Feelings of frustration, powerlessness, exhaustion arising from stressors in the workplace.
Postmortem 'detransitioning.'
Lack of recognition of a trans person's gender identity after death. Use of incorrect pronouns, names in death notices and at the funeral. Dressing the body in a way that would not align with their gender identity in life.
Traditional Obituary
-written by journalists, printed in newspapers
-written in third person
-biographical - tells story of life
-'dispassionate' - statement of facts, not an expression of sorrow
Thy Death
Renaissance and Victorian period. Social attitudes concerned with grief and bereavement. Death and grief are public events, there were elaborate mourning and memorialization practices.
Proximal and Distal Defenses
TMT theory.
Proximal: avoiding thoughts of death, suppression of awareness of vulnerability.
Distal: seeking meaning, significance in life, seeking a sense of immortality, leaving a 'legacy' (bolstering self-esteem and cultural worldviews).
Compassion Fatigue
Chronic worry and tension produced by the effect of the continuing impact of caregiving resulting in an inability to provide compassionate care. Burnout and vicarious (secondary) trauma lead to compassion fatigue.
AIDS Crisis
1980s-1990s. Gay men were disproportionately affected by AIDS during the initial emergence of the virus and the LGBTQ community faced enormous stigmatization leading to the worsening of the crisis and disenfranchised grief. Due to prevailing homophobic attitudes, the public and the government responded to the crisis with apathy and inaction for years.
Digital Obituaries
-written by family and friends
-written about anyone
-can use first person, second person (I miss you)
-often more emotional, confessional
-less formal
-allow for interactivity, education, outreach
Forbidden Death
Late 19-20th century. 1)Associated with medicalization, professionalization, secularization of death. Removal of death from the home. Death is hidden, feared, avoided, private. Less elaborate rituals, mourning practices.
5 Key Bioethics Principles
Autonomy
Beneficence
Non-maleficence
Fidelity
Justice
Posttraumatic Growth
Personal growth experienced by witnessing others’ posttraumatic growth (positive changes to a person's life following a traumatic event). Can lead to feelings of enrichment, empowerment, compassion satisfaction among caregivers.
Reynold's theory on the operation of language in relation to suicide.
1) Obscures Violence (depoliticizes the social context)
2) Hides resistance (ignores how people exercise agency)
3) Obscures responsibility (can obscure broader social culpability - structural violence, discrimination)
4) Blames the Victim (problematic language of 'commit')
Rural Cemetery Movement
Associated with Thy Death period.
-Located outside of towns/cities
-emphasis on symbolism of grief, hope, afterlife
-place for meditation on grief, death
Spectacular Death
Current time period. Renewed visibility of death through media (mediatization),increasing commercialization (expensive funeral packages), ongoing medicalization, and the emergence of new rituals, death care practices (re-ritualization).
Palliative Care
Goal is to improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Interdisciplinary approach to provide relief of pain, suffering and other symptoms without delaying or hastening death. Integrates physical, spiritual, and psychological aspects of care.
Glaser and Strauss. Awareness contexts affect the ways that people are able to cope with dying
Closed awareness
Suspected awareness
Mutual pretense
Open awareness
Femicide and Feminicide
Femicide: the intentional killing of women and girls due to their gender identity.
Feminicide: the continuum of violence against women that are often met with impunity and that lead to death.
Memorial Park Design
-associated with 'forbidden death' period
-extreme de-emphasis on visual reminders of death
-markers are flush with the ground.
Reversal of Death
Aries theory that death moved from being socially accepted during the 'tamed' period to shunned during the 'forbidden' period. Others argue we are experiencing the 're-reversal of death' in the spectacular death age.
MAID
Medical Assistance in Dying.
De-criminalized following 2015 Supreme Court Decision. Introduction of legislation legalizing MAID in 2016.
-eligibility criteria
-ethics: (pro/con)
4 Dimensions of Care
Physical
Psychological
Social
Spiritual
Beautiful photos
Activist movement in Mexico following femicide of Ingrid Escamilla. Meant to memorialize Escamilla, resist the dehumanizing practices of the media/social media.
Hamscher's 6 R's
1)Regret over loss
2)Remembrance of deceased & ‘earthly ties’
3)Respect for the dead & remains
4)Reunion in afterlife
5)Religion: ‘natural theology’ focus on moral uplift, positive vision of afterlife
6)Romanticism: hopeful symbols