The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying » (8th Edition)

DeSpelder, Lynne Ann (Cabrillo Coll); Strickland, Albert Lee

The best-selling textbook in its field, The Last Dance offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of death and dying. Integrating the experiential, scholarly, social, individual, emotional, and intellectual dimensions of death and dying, this acclaimed text provides solid grounding in theory and research, as well as practical application to students' lives. The ninth edition has been updated to offer cutting-edge and comprehensive coverage of death studies.

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New edition of a basic text surveying attitudes, cross-cultural and historical perspectives, socialization, health care systems, living with life-threatening illness, funerals and body disposition, the experience of loss, death in children's lives, medical ethics, the law, suicide, and concepts of immortality. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Prologue David Gordon Gordon, David 1

Ch. 1 Attitudes Toward Death: A Climate of Change 5

Ch. 2 Learning About Death: The Influence of Sociocultural Forces 47

Ch. 3 Perspectives on Death: Cultural and Historical 85

Ch. 4 Death Systems: Mortality and Society 127

Ch. 5 Health Care: Patients, Staff, and Institutions 167

Ch. 6 End-of-Life Issues and Decisions 199

Ch. 7 Facing Death: Living with Life-Threatening Illness 239

Ch. 8 Last Rites: Funerals and Body Disposition 273

Ch. 9 Survivors: Understanding the Experience of Loss 311

Ch. 10 Death in the Lives of Children and Adolescents 351

Ch. 11 Death in the Lives of Adults 385

Ch. 12 Suicide 413

Ch. 13 Threats of Horrendous Death 453

Ch. 14 Beyond Death/After Life 491

Ch. 15 The Path Ahead: Personal and Social Choices 525

Epilogue David Gordon Gordon, David 551

Notes 553

Credits and Sources 627

Name Index 631

Subject Index 644