When her husband was dying from prostate cancer, Governor Barbara Roberts had to look inside herself to survive. What she found in that journey fills the pages of this frank but inspiring book, written for both the patient facing death and those he or she leaves behind.
Whether people have a right to control their own death has become a topic of increasing interest to everyone involved - governments that try to impose their will on individuals, advocates on both sides of the question, and those most directly affected, the terminally ill. This book, inspired by the Compassion in Dying Federation, looks at the issue personally, from the standpoint of the dying and those directly involved in the process. Editor Barbara Coombs Lee highlights stories of individuals and their graceful release into death that can happen when people are given a choice. But there are also powerful accounts by family members, friends, and religious advisers who respected and supported that choice - including those who opted for physician-assisted death. This publication coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Compassion in Dying Federation.
A straight-to-the-point, honest-as-hell grief recovery handbook, offering a refreshingly honest approach to healing, empowering you to navigate your journey without the fluff and generic advice. Embrace the concept of radical honesty with a raw and unfiltered perspective on the grieving process. From acknowledging the messy and complex nature of grief to exploring unconventional methods for healing, this book is your partner in reclaiming your emotional well-being and mental health. Features: Unflinching Approach: Break free from societal norms and discover a guide that encourages you to embrace your grief honestly, without judgment or platitudes. Actionable Strategies: Navigate your unique grief journey with confidence using practical techniques, exercises, and thought-provoking prompts. Authentic Healing: Explore unconventional methods that resonate with you personally, fostering true healing and emotional growth. Empowerment: Reclaim control over your emotions, allowing yourself to feel deeply and process grief in your own way and at your own pace. Step away from the conventional and embark on a transformative journey toward healing, resilience, and renewed hope. Also check out the companion Hardcore Grief Recovery Workbook for journaling your way through grief.
The star of "Long Island Medium" shares inspiring, spirit-based lessons on how to work through and overcome grief, in a guide that also offers example testimonies about the experiences of her clients
In the post-9/11 moments, months, and years, America has come to develop a new mortality awareness. Death, and our understanding that it can be sudden and is certainly inevitable, is being talked about more than ever before. As the team in this volume shows through groundbreaking research, surveys, interviews, and vignettes, death awareness has grown strong, and has changed the way we think and act, not only in relation to ourselves and our loved ones, but in relation to society overall. Those changes include nuances from increases in the number and size of college courses focused on death, rapid growth of death books, death photography, television shows dealing with death, as well as the recording and dissemination of death videos from those that show family members dying peacefully to the execution of terrorists or their captives. Impromptu street creations to memorialize common people who have died have emerged, as have new ways to dispose of dead bodies, including blasting ashes into space or placing them under the sea or giving them a green resting place in a natural forest. Our means of grieving, coping, and beliefs about afterlife have been altered, too. This work also includes a look at cosmologists and physicists who have revised their theories on humanity's legacy when our world meets a fateful end, who propose a means by which mankind's achievements might survive indefinitely, transporting from one universe to another without violating the known laws of physics. This book will intrigue all with an interest in considering not only death and how 9/11 changed America's views on and beliefs about it, but also considering what could lie beyond that end for all of us.
A Grief Observed is a collection of Lewis's reflections on the experience of bereavement following the death of his wife, Joy Davidman, in 1960. The book was first published under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk as Lewis wished to avoid identification as the author. Though republished in 1963 after his death under his own name, the text still refers to his wife as "H" (her first name, which she rarely used, was Helen). The book is compiled from the four notebooks which Lewis used to vent and explore his grief. He illustrates the everyday trials of his life without Joy and explores fundamental questions of faith and theodicy. Lewis's step-son (Joy's son) Douglas Gresham points out in his 1994 introduction that the indefinite article 'a' in the title makes it clear that Lewis's grief is not the quintessential grief experience at the loss of a loved one, but one individual's perspective among countless others. The book helped inspire a 1985 television movie Shadowlands, as well as a 1993 film of the same name. Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was a British novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. He is best known for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain.
How do Americans cope with death? Do our feelings about dying influence the way we live? How are our ideas of death different from those of our ancestors? These questions and others are addressed in this innovative new book -- a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to the processes, practices, and experiences concerning death and dying in the United States. Drawing on sociology and psychology as well as history and literature, John S. Stephenson surveys the range of individual and social responses to death -- from our very conception of its meaning to the complex ethical dilemmas surrounding suicide and euthanasia. Stephenson synthesizes a theoretical perspective of death from the contributions of such important thinkers as Freud, Jung, Ernest Becker, and Robert Jay Lifton. He reviews the evolution of American attitudes and behaviors toward death -- from the Puritan era to the present, and charts the significance of such organizations for the dying as hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes. Bereavement as both personal reaction (grief) and social convention (mourning) is also discussed, as is the denial of death as a coping mechanism for individuals and institutions alike. In his final chapters, Stephenson analyzes the ceremonies of death (including gravestones as social indicators) and provides a psychosocial overview of suicide as a final, desperate attempt to assert control. He concludes by exploring the implications of euthanasia at a time when technology can extend life dramatically but is not always capable of assuring its quality. Throughout, authentic case examples -- many drawn from Stephenson's own clinical work -- illustrate the multi-faceted imagery and experiences that comprise the American way of death. Stephenson's book will be welcomed by sociologists, psychologists, social workers, religious leaders, nurses, and others concerned with caring for the dying and the bereaved. It is a brilliant and elegantly written work that crosses disciplinary boundaries to provide a valuable synthesis of existing knowledge and offer educators and professionals a firm foundation for teaching, practice, and research.
Taking a life education approach, this resource offers helpful tips and techniques for mastering a fear of death, suggests helpful ideas for taking care of the business of dying, and encourages students to live longer by adding excitement into their lives.
When adults face a significant loss, they must grapple with their own profound grief, and they are often called upon to nurture and support their grieving children. This is the first book to address this very common dual grieving challenge. As a practicing psychotherapist for twenty-nine years, Robert Zucker can offer parents and other concerned readers important insights into managing their own grief while supporting their grieving children. He offers: • Understanding how adults and children grieve differently • Learning how to explain the meaning of death to children • Knowing what to do when grief gets complicated • Deciding when they and/or their child need counseling • Helping their family members stay connected with loved ones even after death. For the countless parents who have tried blocking out their own grief in order to be available to their child, Robert Zucker provides a measure of comfort. This book will reassure readers that a grieving parent can still be an effective parent.
FINISH STRONG is for those of us who want an end-of-life experience to match the life we've enjoyed-defined by love, purpose, and agency. Written with candor and clarity by a former nurse, physician assistant and attorney, FINISH STRONG's stories, facts and dialogue will help prepare for latter days that reflect your priorities and values.