ABOUT THE BOOK
In this thoroughly revised third
edition of Death & Identity—a book that has, since its first edition in 1965,
become widely known as a classic in the field of death studies and sociology—editors
Robert Fulton and Robert Bendiksen offer an important collection of essays on death, grief
and bereavement. Written by a distinguished group of international scholars and
practitioners who approach the subject of death in modern society from a multidisciplinary
perspective while emphasizing a sociological outlook, Death & Identity integrates the
best of the wide body of important literature, research and public policy issues that
relates to death. One of the most fascinating compendiums on the study of death in
decades, Death & Identity is necessary reading for those interested in the study of
life and death.
The material in this anthology is arranged in four parts: Perspectives on Death; Grief and
the Process of Mourning; Bereavement and the Sociological Response to Death; and Public
Policies and Private Decisions: Clinical Perspectives on Death and Dying. Adding
thought-provoking introductions to each section of new and classic studies and articles,
Fulton and Bendiksen skillfully weave together social structures, behavioral processes and
disparate views of death in a way that will help the reader better comprehend the issues
and problems that death engenders in modern society.
The contributions to this valuable collection — the theoretical discussions as well
as the research reports — share the common goal of illuminating the problems that
death poses to both society and the individual. Readers will gain a greater understanding
of the unique, yet ubiquitous, place that death occupies in human life. This latest
edition of Death & Identity will serve as a stimulus for the continued study of this
ever-challenging subject.
CONTENTS
Part One:
Perspectives on Death
Introduction
1. Death in
Contemporary American Society
Robert
Fulton, PhD
2. Conceptual
Approaches to the Study of Death
Kathy
Charmaz, PhD
3. Death in the Western
World
Talcott
Parsons, PhD
4. The Sociology of
Death: A Historical Overview
Greg Owen, PhD, et al.
Part Two: Grief
and the Process of Mourning
5. The Mourning of
Children
John Bowlby, MD
6. Grief and Mourning
John
S. Stephenson, PhD
7. Is Grief Universal?
Cultural Variations
Wolfgang Stroebe, PhD
Part Three:
Bereavement and the Response to Death
8. Death at a Distance:
A Study of Family Bereavement
Greg Owen,
PhD, et al.
9. Religion and
Bereavement: A Conceptual Framework
Robert Wuthnow, PhD., et al.
10.
Business Temporal
Norms and Bereavement Behavior
Lois Pratt, PhD
11. The Funeral in
Contemporary Society
Robert Fulton, PhD
Part Four: Public
Policies and Private Decisions
12. A Sociological
Perspective in Medical Ethical Decision-making
Bernard J. Hammes, PhD
13. Death-Related
Issues in Biomedicine: Euthanasia and AIDS
Robert H. Blank, PhD
14. The Hospice in the
Context of an Aging Society
Judith A. Levy, PhD
15. AIDS: A
Sociological Response
Robert Fulton, PhD
16. Social Policy
Assumptions and Principles on Terminal Care
International Work Group on Death
Bibliography
Index
The Charles
Press, Publishers
