The theme of controlling the experience of dying through technological manipulation and through the social isolation of individuals is central to this book. This new work explores how the American value of individualism and the widespread commitment to technology have given rise to particular forms of governing the process of dying that are unique to the professional dominance of death in the hospital setting. It focuses on how the values of technology in the broader society are applied in the framework of medicalized care of dying patients, and discusses the consequences this has for their lives. Additionally, this book analyzes how the value of individualism, so ubiquitous in the broader society, influences the treatment of dying patients and their definition of the meanings of their own dying. It shows how the dominant values of the American cultural system are institutionalized in the medical treatment of dying patients.
The explicit purpose of this book is to analyze dying and death in the cosmopolitan, modern setting. There is, however, an additional theme that is implicit in the analysis and observations. The portrait of dying, which is provided in the pages of the book, also tells us a great deal about life. It demonstrates that the foundation for the medicalization of death that piercingly shapes the life experience of dying persons and loved ones is a product of the ways of life in the broader culture.
The most important message of the dying patients whose lives and sufferings so enrich this book, was not about death. It was about life. This book, with the landscape of modern life and death which it portrays, is devoted to understanding and honoring the lives and sufferings of all dying persons--both present and future.
Intended Audience: Death education professionals, grief counselors, death educators, bereavement therapists, grief ministry, bereavement groups; Professionals in: Psychology, Sociology, Medical Nursing, Social Work, Counselors, Hospice, Clergy
