The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying
By:
Lynne Ann DeSpelder Albert Lee Strickland
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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Description:
The best-selling textbook in the 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, the seventh edition of this acclaimed text has been thoroughly revised to offer cutting-edge and comprehensive coverage of death studies. Together with its companion volumes, this edition of The Last Dance provides solid grounding in theory and research, as well as practical application to students' lives.
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Thank you - Thank you for your service. Thank you for allowing me to purchase my book from you.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Good Overview of the Subject - These authors have been doing this series for a while, and have a good overall grasp of the issues involved in the areas of grief, loss, death and dying. There is also an associated website with summaries and flashcards. A good way to learn the basic terrain of the subject matter quickly and thoroughly. This was a prescribed book for me, and I bought several other books I thought would be good. This was the best of what I found for a historical and contemporary overview of the different parts and how they relate. For specialization in any area, look into that area elsewhere.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
The Last Dance - It was an affordable option to the most current issue. Very few changes from previous additon and simply a fraction of the cost...
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
".for those curious what books the professionals study about death, this is your ticket to the secret knowledge" ~JC Angelcraft - I have the third and seventh editions of this book and not surprisingly there is not much change. In their treatise on death, Authors Bruce and Dorothy DeSpelder offer an interesting glimpse into the multicultural world of death.
Developmentally speaking the authors take us through phases that humans experience and how they interpret death at each phase in the early life cycle. From infancy and toddlerhood, to early and middle childhood, we learn how the ever evolving concept of death changes within us until our schema matures.
The authors do a good job pointing out ever vital sociocultural factors that influence our understanding of death bringing to forefront how the agents of socialization such as the family unit, our peers and colleagues, the mass media and children's literature and Religion play in shaping the views that we hold on death.
What I found most interesting were the Cross cultural and Historical perspectives on death especially the postulations of the early primitive cultures that have in effect given us a good part of our mythology of death. Native American, African, Mexican, Asian, and Celtic death traditions are featured and expounded upon in small but satisfying detail.
The effect of death as reflected through Healthcare Systems involving critical issues such as how to be with some one who is dying, modern health the its institutions that care for the dying were informative. More critical are chapters that deal with issues involving such matters as how best to deal with children who are facing the reality of a life threatening illness with lessons and valuable advice on helping both children and adults in coping with terminal illness and loss.
The chapter on end of life issues and decisions covers such areas as informed consent, advanced directives, and matters of probate. It elucidates well on the dynamics that encompass the Caregiver-Patient Relationship such as responsibilities and ethical issues involved when disclosing a life threatening diagnosis and those involved when a person chooses to die.
I feel that most important part of this book is how it deals with understanding the experience of loss. It compares and contrasts the mental verses the emotional response of grief and mourning and carefully and responsibly explains the course of grief in simple and easy to understand terms. The chapter also provides models of grief each of which offer forth their own interpretations involving the tasks of mourning. For those who are pursuing a career in the helping services this book will most likely be required post graduate reading. However for those are curious what books we professionals study about death, this is your ticket to the secret knowledge and also the keys to the gates of understanding on how this subject is taught at the graduate level in Universities worldwide.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
WONDERFUL AND ENLIGHTENING - I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT THE AUTHOR THIS BOOK DID A SUPERB JOB IN PLACING THE EMPHASIS AND KNOWLEDGE OF VARIOUS CULTURES HANDLING OF DEATH. I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH FROM THIS BOOK.
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