Facing Cancer and the Fear of Death

In Facing Cancer and the Fear of Death: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Treatment, Dr. Norman Straker proposes that "death anxiety" is responsible for the American society’s failure to address costly futile care at the end of life.

Norman Straker, MD, offers an approach for facing death and the treatment of cancer patients based on 35 years of clinical experience. One of the original faculty members of the very first psycho-oncology services under the leadership of Dr. Jimmie Holland at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Straker is still engaged in pedagogy and research at the center. He also teaches at Weill Cornell College of Medicine, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, and the New York Psychoanalytic Institute. A psychoanalyst by trade, Dr. Straker has chaired the discussion group, "Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy of Cancer Patients" at the American Psychoanalytic Association for more than 25 years. He is in private practice in New York City.

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Norman Straker MD MEDICAL SECTION Chapter One: Where We Are Now The Avoidance OF Death, Its Consequences to Our Patients, Families, Medical Students, Young Physicians. Norman Straker MD Chapter Two: A Psycho Oncology Fellow's Perspective On Facing Death David Yuppa MD & Norman Straker MD Chapter Three: Confronting the Fear of Death: Trying To Detoxify Norman Straker MD Two Memoirs Dan Birger MD, Hillel Swiller MD PSYCHOANALYTIC SECTION Chapter Four: The Denial Of Death by Psychoanalysts Norman Straker MD Chapter Five: Finding Meaning in Death: Terror Management Among the Terminally Ill Molly Maxfield, Tom Pyszczynski & Sheldon Solomon Chapter Six: The Psychoanalytic Literature On The Treatment Of Dying Patients Norman Straker MD Chapter Seven: An Update In The Psychoanalytic Treatment Of Cancer Patients Facing Death Norman Straker MD CASE PRESENTATIONS SECTION Chapter Eight: "That The Darkness Is About To Pass" The Treatment Of a Dying Patient Abby Adams Silvan PhD Chapter Nine: Guidelines to Live By and Rules To Break John W. Barnhill MD Chapter Ten: "Titration Of Psychotherapy For Patient And Analyst" Alison C Phillips MD Chapter Eleven: Psychotherapy With A Hospitalized Patient Dying Of Cancer M. Philip Luber MD Chapter Twelve: Being a Cancer Patient In Analysis, While Continuing To Work As An Analyst Patricia Plopa PhD CONCLUSION: Norman Straker MD References Index About the contributors