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Winner of the 2008 Gradiva Award! Can something as negative as loss also be a positive, transformative experience? Is it possible that not only individuals but also societies can be developmentally arrested by problematic mourning? On Deaths and Endings brings together the work of psychoanalytic scholars and practitioners grappling with the manifold issues evoked by loss and finality. The book covers the impact of endings throughout the life cycle, including effects on children, adolescents, adults, those near death and entire societies. New psychoanalytic perspectives on bereavement are offered based on clinical work, scholarly research and the authors’ own, deeply personal experiences. The contributors present compelling, often moving, enquiries into subjects such as the reconfiguration of self-states subsequent to mourning, the role of ritual and memorials, the tragic impact of unmourned loss, modern conceptualisations of the death instinct, and terror-based losses. In that much psychotherapy is conducted with people who have suffered some form of loss, this book will be an invaluable resource for all mental health professionals. The emphasis on the potential of working through the vicissitudes of these experiences will provide inspiration and hope both to those who have endured personal loss and to anyone working with grieving patients.
Winner of the 2008 Gradiva Award! Can something as negative as loss also be a positive, transformative experience? Is it possible that not only individuals but also societies can be developmentally arrested by problematic mourning? On Deaths and Endings brings together the work of psychoanalytic scholars and practitioners grappling with the manifold issues evoked by loss and finality. The book covers the impact of endings throughout the life cycle, including effects on children, adolescents, adults, those near death and entire societies. New psychoanalytic perspectives on bereavement are offered based on clinical work, scholarly research and the authors’ own, deeply personal experiences. The contributors present compelling, often moving, enquiries into subjects such as the reconfiguration of self-states subsequent to mourning, the role of ritual and memorials, the tragic impact of unmourned loss, modern conceptualisations of the death instinct, and terror-based losses. In that much psychotherapy is conducted with people who have suffered some form of loss, this book will be an invaluable resource for all mental health professionals. The emphasis on the potential of working through the vicissitudes of these experiences will provide inspiration and hope both to those who have endured personal loss and to anyone working with grieving patients.
Arguing that death is the central force shaping our social life and order, Michael Kearl draws on anthropology, religion, politics, philosophy, the natural sciences, economics, and psychology to provide a broad sociological perspective on the interrelationships of life and death, showing how death contributes to social change and how the meanings of death are generated to serve social functions. Working from a social as well as a psychological perspective, Kearl analyzes traditional topics, including aging, suicide, grief, and medical ethics while also examining current issues such as the impact of the AIDS epidemic on social trust, governments' use of death symbolism, the business of death and dying, the political economy of doomsday weaponry, and death in popular culture. Incisive and original, this book maps the separate contributions of various social institutions to American attitudes toward death, observing the influence of each upon the broader cultural outlook on life.
We are all going to die, but some of us will die better. As a spiritual teacher based in the Washington, D.C., area, Erica Brown has attracted a strong following among those looking for practical wisdom based on the world’s most revered and treasured religious texts. Here she shares stories and ref lections on one of life’s most essential topics: how we pack each day with love and meaning precisely because we will not live forever. Erica helps us confront our fears about death—for ourselves and our loved ones—and demonstrates how the last days of life can be among the most inspiring if we learn to leave a legacy of words and values, to forgive and apologize, and to make important decisions about our last hours. Praised by New York Times columnist David Brooks for combining “extreme empathy with extreme tough-mindedness,” Erica Brown is a leading religious scholar with a sense of humor and a gift for storytelling. In Happier Endings, she meets people of all faiths who deal with death in enlightening ways, including a mother who arranged for her children to sprinkle her ashes on a favorite ski slope, an ex-nun who prepares people to die, a group of women who ritually wash the dead, and a family whose grandfather’s Ethical will is read by his survivors each year. Brown leads readers on an emotional journey to prepare for and accept death, drawing on the wisdom found in many spiritual traditions. The crucial step, Brown writes, is becoming comfortable discussing death—and not just in the abstract. This kind of honesty allows for important conversations, from financial wills to last words that reinforce to those you love most what matters most to you. After reading Happier Endings, you will have a greater understanding of what a good death can be and what a life well lived looks like.
There's nothing like being told that in three months you'll be dead to make you think about what you really want in life "A novel about self-discovery, with plenty of surprises and a snappy, Bridget-Jones-gets-a-terminal-diagnosis vibe." -Booklist Jennifer Cole has just been told that she has a terminal blood disorder and has just three months to live--ninety days to say goodbye to friends and family, and to put her affairs in order. Ninety days to come to terms with a diagnosis that is unfair, unexpected, and completely unpronounceable. Focusing on the positives (she won't have to go on in a world without Bowie or Maya Angelou; she won't get Alzheimer's or Parkinson's like her parents, or have teeth that flop out at the mere mention of the word apple), Jennifer realizes she only has one real regret: the relationships she's lost. Rather than running off to complete a frantic bucket list, Jennifer chooses to stay put and write a letter to the three most significant people in her life, to say the things she wished she'd said before but never dared: her overbearing, selfish sister, her jelly-spined, cheating ex-husband, and her charming, unreliable ex-boyfriend--and finally tell them the truth. At first, Jennifer feels cleansed by her catharsis. Liberated, even. Her ex-boyfriend rushes to her side and she even starts to build bridges with her sister Isabelle (that is, once Isabelle's confirmed that Jennifer's condition isn't genetic). But once you start telling the truth, it's hard to stop. And as Jennifer soon discovers, the truth isn't always as straightforward as it seems, and death has a way of surprising you....
Explains life and death for all living things with illustrations about plants, animals and people.
If you wish to live well, practice dying. Death and dying are universal human experiences. All that lives is transitory and will depart this life. Encountering Life’s Endings encompasses the practical, psychological, philosophical, cultural and spiritual aspects of dying and death viewed through the prism of the passing of the author’s mother (94), father (89), brothers Al (69), Joe (46), Eddie (44) and numerous friends and colleagues. Interspersed throughout the book are the thoughts and insights of leading figures in the field of thanatology as well as diverse and illuminating teachings by eastern and western sages and spiritual teachers, ranging from Thich Nhat Hanh to Stanley Keleman. Readers are provided with meditations and visualizations that serve to lessen the pain and suffering associated with death and dying, thus enhancing the possibility of experiencing the last stages of our lives as a final gift to self and others. Other types of life’s endings are also dealt with in this book. For example, the death of love; facing the possible death of a child, the necessity of allowing parts of ourselves to die in order to be more fully alive; birth as a form of dying; letting go of pain and suffering in order to experience pleasure; the casting off of normality to attain sanity; and the dying of the earth, Written largely in the form of a personal narrative, hearts will open, emitting compassion for all sentient beings, and minds engaged, resulting in the deepening of how we think about, approach and experience the ebb and flow of our lives. ********************************* Louis Silverstein’s Encountering Life’s Endings: Practice Dying Live Well offers compelling testimony about basic but overlooked truths. As someone who has experienced the tragic, untimely death of a child, I have searched far and wide for words that would help me to process and recover from such profound loss. With beautifully descriptive prose, Silverstein provides guidance and wisdom, delving deeply into what is for the most part unspeakable in Western culture—the relationship between life and death. It is a gentle and honest book that weaves personal narrative with illuminating teachings from a variety of spiritual writers that provide the tools for transforming suffering into strength. Alvina Quintana, Associate Professor Women’s & Latin American Studies, University of Delaware In his fearless exploration into the meaning of dying and death, Louis weaves his way through a maze of tragic historic and current family losses, makings stops along the way in a sensuous paradise of philosophic wisdom. The answers found and the meanings revealed are richly satisfying, as is the journey through the book. Loretta Downs, Founder, Chrysalis End-Of-Life Inspirations In this personal account of meeting the death of others, Silverstein brings to light how we can imagine dying and wonder about our own. People will be moved by this book and gain insights. Stanley Keleman, The Center For Energetic Studies If you wish to live fully, practice dying is the Platonic advice that grounds much of Louis Silverstein’s pithy and personal guide for turning our fears of death and dying into explorations of the of the arts of living: forgiveness, creativity and love. Reflecting on his years of study and teaching and his own experiences with death and dying in his family, he offers us insight into how death awakens emotional and spiritual reserves that not only open the gates of grief and provide healing, but also miraculously shatter the life-long patterns of thinking that contributes to the real tragedy in life-- death of our spirit. Michael McColly, The After-Death Room: Journey Into Spiritual Activism
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION! "Original, sparkling bright, and layered with feeling."--Sally Thorne, author of The Hating Game A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They're polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.