The Final Transition

This text is not just another reader on death, but rather a carefully developed book, created specifically for those persons whose major interests are either death education, death counseling, or, of course, both. The audience which this book addresses include: persons who have had either experience in death counseling or education or previous academic work; those who are contemplating professional work in the field or who are already in the process of developing this area as one of their fields of competence; and individuals who are already either counselors or educators or otherwise involved in the fields of mental health or education and who wish to learn more about the relationship of death and grief to their work.

Richard Kalish

Editor's Preface Introduction Robert J. Kastenbaum PART 1: Death, Dying, and Grief: The Basic Issues Coping With Death Richard A. Kalish An Overview of Death Attitudes and Expectations Richard A. Kalish and David K. Reynolds The Human Experience of Death, or What Can We Learn from Near-Death Experiences? Russell Noyes, Jr. Funeral Roles: Ritualized Expectations Tillman Rodabough Death and Survivorship: The Final Transition Richard A. Kalish Children's Anniversary Reactions to the Death of A Family Member Sandra Sutherland Fox The Impact of Parental Death on Middle-Aged Children Miriam S. Moss and Sidney Z. Moss Weathering Widowhood: Problems and Adjustment of the Widowed During the First Year Raymond G. Carey PART 2: Institutional Care A Group Awaiting Death: The Social System's Perspective on a Naturally Occurring Group Situation Steven Starker and Joan E. Starker The Social Organization of Terminal Care in Two Pediatric Hospitals Kenneth J. Doka Hospice Care in the United States: The Process Begins Robert W. Buckingham PART 3: Death and Grief in a Cross-Cultural Context How Death Came to Mankind: Myths and Legends Alain Corcos and Lawrence Krupka The Cultural Construction of Aging and Dying in a Melanesian Community Dorothy Ayers Counts and David R. Counts He Died Too Quick!" The Process of Dying in A Hutterian Colony Peter H. Stephenson The Impact of Urbanism on Death and Dying among Black People in a Rural Community in Middle Tennessee Arthur C. Hill PART 4: Counseling and Psychotherapy Counseling Dying Clients Daniel McKitrick Clinical Thanatology and Psychotherapy: Some Reflections on Caring for the Dying Person Loma Feigenberg and Edwin S. Shneidman Clients Nearing Death: Behavioral Treatment Perspectives George W. Rebok and William J. Hoyer Bereaved Parents and the Compassionate Friends: Affiliation and Healing Dennis Klass Volunteers and the Care of the Terminal Patient Chwee Lye Chng and Michael Kirby Ramsey PART 5: Death Education Death Educator as Deacon Richard A. Kalish Teaching about Dying and Death in a Multidisciplinary Student Group David Barton, Miles K. Crowder, and John M. Flexner The Arts: A Source of Comfort and Insight for Children Who Are Learning About Death Sandra L. Bertman A Group Desensitization Procedure for the Reduction of Death Anxiety Ronald L. Peal, Paul J. Handal, and Frank H. Gilner Counseling in Catastrophic Illness: A Self-Instructional Unit Ronald Koenig Comparison between Experiential and Didactic Methods of Death Education Joseph A. Durlak Coping: Effects of Death Education Larry A. Bugen Epilogue Appendix