The Psychology of Death: 3rd Edition [Hardcover]

Robert Kastenbaum PhD (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 7, 2000

In this extensively updated and revised edition, Dr. Kastenbaum continues to examine and expand upon issues of dying and the ways in which we shape and reshape our conceptions of death.

New to the Third Edition are chapters on how we construct death; Death in adolescence and adulthood including discussion on suicide, physician assisted death and Regret Theory and Denial; new approaches to the role of death anxiety, Terror Management Theory, and Edge Theory, and much more.

A major contribution to the literature -- this book is must reading for professionals and students of psychology, thanatology, gerontology, social work, and those working in hospice care.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Robert Kastenbaum has been honored for his contributions to death education and research by the Association for Death Education and Counselling, and the National Centre for Death Education. He has served as president of the American Association of Suicidology. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Robert Kastenbaum, PhD, left a promising career as a skating messenger to enter University of Southern California on a fellowship in philosophy. He emerged as a clinical psychologist, and later served as director of a geriatric hospital before taking up his current responsibilities as professor of communication at Arizona State University. Along the way, he founded International Journal of Aging and Human Development, and Omega: Journal of Death and Dying. He is a past president of the American Association of Suicidology and past chair of the Section on Behavioral and Social Sciences of the Gerontological Society of America. Kastenbaum scripted the National Public Radio series: "Essays for the Ear: Youth's the Tune, Age the Song." He was a co-editor of Handbook of the Humanities and Aging (Springer Publishing Company, 1992), companion volume to the present book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Springer Publishing Company; 3 edition (February 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826113001
• ISBN-13: 978-0826113009
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,520,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the Authors Finest Hour, November 21, 2005

By 

D. Becker (Albrightsville,PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Psychology of Death: 3rd Edition (Hardcover)

Robert Kastenbaum is an "old-hand" when it comes to thanatology, yet this book fails to reflect the depth and insight of his other works.
This volume is geared for researchers more than practitioners as the author reviews, in a clinical way, research on death related to developmental aspects, gender, research methods and so forth. The authors attempt at psychodynamics of death in his chapter on the death instinct was so convoluted as to be incoherent. Furthermore, the author seemed to fail to have read Freuds' book: Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Civilization and Its Discontents-not to mention Eigens': Psychic Deadness. The author should have stuck to his Kaplan and Saddock style book on the psychology of death and avoided depth psychology altogether. Missing also, of course is a Jungian perspective,ego psychology, object relations, Marcias' idea of identity style, Kruglanski's the need for closure, the constructive approach, terror management theory, the ideas of Ernest Becker or narrative approach and so on.
The authors other books reflect keen insight and much broader understanding then this book does. For those researchers with a new interest in death or for a young student considering research on death this may serve as a narrow introduction to the psychology of death