Reality Of Death Research Articles

The impact of home mechanical ventilation on the time and manner of death for those with Motor neurone disease (MND): A qualitative study of bereaved family members

Motor neurone disease (MND) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder which is ultimately terminal. It causes muscle weakness which can lead to the need for assistance in breathing, for some with the disease. This paper draws on qualitative research using semi-structured interviews with 32 people bereaved by the death of a family member with MND who was dependent on home mechanical ventilation, from across the United Kingdom. Interviews explored how the end-of-life of a person who had used non-invasive ventilation to assist their breathing was experienced by participants, who had cared about, and for them. Four themes are used to examine the impact of dependent ventilation technology on the experience of dying on the part of bereaved family members. Themes are: accompanied dying, planned withdrawal of ventilation, blurred time of death, time post-death. The perception and experience of time was a key component across all four themes. Ventilator technology played a critical role in sustaining life, but it could also contribute to a complex dynamic where the realities of death were mediated or obscured. This raises ethical, emotional, and existential considerations, both for the individuals receiving ventilator support and their families, as well as for healthcare professionals involved in end-of-life care.

Concealment and Care in Deathcare During COVID

ABSTRACT: During the worst months of the COVID-19 pandemic, photojournalistic depictions of the havoc wreaked by the virus became ubiquitous. Images of physically distanced funerals and large-scale body disposal populated newsfeeds, but the labor and experiences of those working within these images—people handling bodies and guiding bereaved families—remained largely hidden from public view. Even before the pandemic, visibility and public recognition were complicated matters for the “deathcare” sector, as professionals cautiously constructed and defended the line separating the family-facing frontstage and industry-insider backstage. Our engagement with this sector through photography was motivated by a desire to illuminate the experiences of those working in deathcare during COVID outbreaks and lockdowns in Melbourne, Australia. Reflecting on photography as method in the study of death, we think through the complexities of seeing and unseeing, exposure and concealment in contemporary death rituals. The pandemic exposed certain realities of death and dying to the public but obfuscated others. Further, our ethnographic practice of portraiture revealed concealment to be a key element of the caring labors that deathcare workers perform.

Must the Reality of Death Be Unspeakable?

Attention to the manifestations of death anxiety in the clinical context is often absent in the discourse of psychoanalytic training. This exchange addresses some of the causes of such an absence: a fraught relation between privacy and secrecy, primacy of psychic reality and interpretation, and cultural underpinnings of sanitization of death.

The Concept of Wills in Nigeria: Reflections on the Freedom and Limits of Testamentary Power

Life is valued, living each day is an opportunity that we often take for granted, and the thought of leaving this world is appalling, this fear alone makes many shy away from the reality of death. However, death is inevitable and comes without a signal, how or when a person departs this world is only known to Allah, the All-knowing, all wise. We have to make sure that we are prepared everyday to join the hereafter, one of such preparations is the writing of a valid will because the responsibility we are assuming in our life time will become a difficult task in our absence.it is our duty to leave clear instructions as to how such task and responsibilities will be dealt with on our demise. In order to prevent family destructions and wrangling after his demise, the testator must ensure his wishes are clearly and definitely expressed in a valid and enforceable will strictly in compliance with S 9 of the wills Act of 1837 and the wills amendment Act of 1852. Islamic law does not require strict formalities for the execution of a will, it is sufficient that the intention of the testator is manifestly clear. Under statutory law according to the wills Act of 1837 a testator has absolute testamentary freedom, under Islamic law and customary law, a testator’s power to dispose of his will is curtailed by law. This paper examines the concept of wills under statutory law, Islamic law and customary law and concludes that complete freedom is the exception rather than the rule and that a will under Islamic law can be legitimately accommodated and practically implemented within existing statutory laws, so far as they are compatible with the principles of Islamic law. Under customary law a testator is restricted to dispose of properties subject to customary law but has the capacity to make a will under the wills Act.

The Reality of Death

The Reality of Death

A Foucauldian reading of ‘Technologies of the Self’ in Anatole France’s novel Thaïs

This study uses a phenomenological perspective supported by Foucault’s ‘hermeneutics of the self’ to analyse Anatole France’s novel Thaïs. The novel narrates the story of a Christian hermit, Paphnutius, and a courtesan, Thaïs. Living an abstemious life in the desert and reflecting on his sins of the past, Paphnutius recalls having met a delightful actress, Thaïs and how she seduced men, including him, into the sins of the flesh. Taken in by his exhortations, she leaves all her wealth and possessions and follows the monk to attain eternal beauty and bliss. Paphnutius successfully converts Thaïs to the courtesan before she dies as a ‘purified’ soul. However, after her conversion, Thaïs’s desire and love afflict Paphnutius, who ends up doubting the truth of his faith. When he comes to know that Thaïs is on her deathbed, he starts having doubts about the reality of death and hence of God/his belief. We attempt to add a theoretically driven analysis and set forth a few observations. This paper argues that Thaïs is the story of complex human interactions revolving around the axes of truth and subjectivity and provides an excellent narration of the aesthetics of existence in the pagan and early Christian world.

A Socio-economic and Religious Analysis of the Adesiedeɛ (Burial Items) Rite in Akan Dɔteyie (Pre-burial Funeral)

The reality of death is attested by everyday experiences in all human societies. Whilst death is a universal phenomenon, the rites associated with dying, death and funeral differ from society to society. The Akan community of Ghana performs many rites from the time that one’s death is imminent till the final funeral rites are performed, and even afterward. One such rite is the presentation of Adesiedeɛ (burial items). Whilst there are many publications about Akan funeral rites, Adesiedeɛ has not received any significant scholarly attention. This study was, therefore, conducted to examine adesiedeɛ rite from an Akan socio-religious perspective. It is an empirical research that collected data through participant observations, field surveys and interviews. The paper argued that Akan funeral rituals associated with laying-in-state and burying of the corpse are deeply rooted in the Akan belief in ancestors and the desire of the living Akan to maintain a good relationship with the supernatural. The paper found a close correlation between the Akan socio-economic and religious worldview and the rite of presenting Adesiedeɛ. The research contributes to studies on Akan cultural and primal religion. Keywords: Adesiedeɛ, Akan, Ancestors, Dɔteyie, Funeral

The poem «Terkin in the Next World» by A. Tvardovsky and the story «Notes from the Spirit World» by Zhang Tian-yi: a dystopian mortal mirror of the political regime

Russian and Chinese dystopias have similarities and differences in their genesis. The proximity of the dystopian texts of the two cultures is due to parallel historical and social processes, which are reflected in the plots of the corresponding works. The difference is manifested in the accents that both literature puts. In particular, we can say that there is no Chinese dystopia in the Western and Russian understanding: China sees dystopia more as fiction and satire. Despite this, Russian and Chinese dystopias have similar features. The purpose of this article is to analyze the ideological, plot, and motivational calls between A. Tvardovsky's poem "Terkin in the Next World" and Zhang Tian-yi's novel "Notes from the Spirit World". The scientific novelty of the research is seen in the fact that the author for the first time compares these works, designates genre signs of dystopia in both texts, formulates the specifics of the writer's assessment of the corresponding dystopian regime. The inhabitants of the afterlife, in which Terkin found himself, and the world of spirits are the image of contemporaries of Tvardovsky and Zhang Tian–yi, citizens of the state, which is metaphorically portrayed by writers as the reality of death. This infernal world turns out to be a mortal mirror for the political regime. In the case of "Terkin in the next world" it is an authoritarian regime, in the case of "Notes from the spirit world" it is a pseudo–liberal regime, and but in fact - oligarchic and nationalistic.

The Semiotics of the Thresholds in (Sunset Garden) Diwan of the Poet Ghazi Al-Qasaibi

This study is concerned with revealing the semiotics of thresholds, and its role in building textual coherence at the form and semantic level in Sunset Garden Diwan of the Saudi poet Ghazi Al-Qasaibi. This research aims to spotlight on the semiotic theme of the title threshold and its relation to other thresholds. As the death phenomenon and absence dominated the poetic achievement space through intertwined semiotic relationships that lead to each other through the parallel text semiotics.This study is based on the semiotic method which concerns with searching for the interpretive connotations and revealing the profound symbols in the threshold structure and its role in the whole formation of the Diwan. Among the most prominent conclusions for this study is that; AlQasaibi was concerned with the thresholds poetics in his book Sunset Garden and he was able to transfer the meaning of thresholds from the margin to the centre when he revealed the significance of the symbols and connotations of the thresholds in the Diwan, which contributed to the space and coherence of the text.It also balanced between the centrality of receiving. Moreover, the poetic thresholds and their semiotic symbols contributed to the manifestation of the Diwan purposes and its contents, forming a unified texture starting with the front cover and ending with the back cover of the Diwan. The semiotic analysis of the poetic threshold in Sunset Garden Diwan showedAlQasaibi special vision of death and absence merged with nostalgia, eulogy and reconciliation with the concept and reality of death. The title also represents the first thresholds of the text that cannot be crossed.That is because it has the codes and symbols that help the reader and recipient to introspect the entire work.

Traumatisme et subjectivation

Different modalities of subjective responses can be observed from a traumatic encounter; the clinical picture of a post-traumatic stress state is rarely complete, and the examination of structural phenomena is not easy. The subjects we meet have joined the military institution at a time when their identity was still under construction, and continued to be built up in support of an ideal, which is not simply an individual ideal, but a group ideal, sometimes raised to the level of a legend, as can be observed within the Foreign Legion. It is well known that a latency period usually precedes the outbreak of unrest. This article will attempt to situate the subjective and temporal coordinates of certain traumatic decompensations and the related care issues. Our practice led us to observe that it is frequently during an experience of confrontation with the reality of death, when the subject is deprived of his identifications, that this ideal weakens. This unveils in passing some points of the “initial” subjective position of the one who will be henceforth a “psychic wounded”. The risk taken for his life, consubstantial of the military engagement, as an element carrying the narcissism, will lead us to explore the links between the collapse of the ideal and the outbreak of the psychotraumatic disorders. Very often, the treatment which the subject considers to have been subjected to, by his leaders in particular, and the effects of this treatment, lead the practitioner to revisit with the patient the issues of recognition which will not always be restored by the medical-psychological support devices proposed by the institution.

Death Depression Among Older Adults: A Concept Analysis Utilizing An Evolutionary Approach

Background and Purpose: The reality of death is a source of concern for humans. Managing issues associated with preparation for the inevitability of death may contribute to onset of death depression for aging individuals. The study purpose was to clarify the death depression concept in older adults including relevant features, antecedents, and consequences to further nursing knowledge development.Methods: Rodgers' evolutionary concept analysis was performed using the following steps: determination of concept and appropriate scope; collection of data for identifying concept attributes, antecedents, and consequences; and evaluation of relevant and alternative concepts for further clarification. A search for articles published between 1995 and 2020 relevant to death depression in older adults was conducted in the databases PubMed, Ovid, ProQuest, CINAHL and Persian databases SID and Magiran. Fifty-three articles met the inclusion criteria and final sampling. Findings were reviewed by two independent researchers familiar with the field.Result: Based on the study findings, death depression is characterized by cognitive, affective, and behavioral attributes. Antecedents of death depression include: health concerns associated with aging such as life-limiting or psychiatric illnesses; loneliness and loss perceptions related to social relationships; socio-cultural context; identity issues; and environmental changes. Consequences of death depression include negative adjustment in later life and the potential for adaptation.Implications for Practice: Death depression in older adults may contribute to adverse mental health sequelae. Therefore, assessment for ruminative death cognitions in older adults may lead to interventions that help prevent the onset of death depression. This study provides a foundation for further research, and it contributes to the development of nursing knowledge via concept clarification.

Live well, die well – an international cohort study on experiences, concerns and preferences of patients in the last phase of life: the research protocol of the iLIVE study

IntroductionAdequately addressing the needs of patients at the end of life and their relatives is pivotal in preventing unnecessary suffering and optimising their quality of life. The purpose of the...

The Sense of an Ending: Poetic Spaces and Closure in Keats’s 1819 Odes

Following Frank Kermode’s distinction, in The Sense of an Ending, between the stability of myth and the changeability of fiction, Keats’s ‘Ode on Indolence’ offers an understated self-conscious presentation of myth and fiction in comparison with the Nightingale and Grecian Urn odes. All three of these odes invest in mythologies as much as they remain alert to their own poetic frames and the fictive nature of the fictions behind them. This poetic self-awareness reconnects Keats’s odes with the reality of death behind the mythic figures of nightingale, urn, and indolence. Such subtle, shifting, self-awareness is also the hallmark of Keats’s ‘To Autumn’ and the poetic legacy it bestows to Wallace Stevens’s ‘Sunday Morning’, ‘Autumn Refrain’, and ‘The Woman in Sunshine’.

Boccaccio's Pisan Allegory of "Death" in Petrarch's Triumphus Mortis

From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, viral contagions, such as the Black Death of 1348, disrupted many social, political, and economic parts of life, situating the idea and the reality of Death in mass numbers at the forefront of late medieval and early Renaissance minds. Responding to the anxieties experienced by the thousands, literary and visual texts from this period emphasized the personification of Death as an imposing figure and common threat. This paper traces the visual evolution of the figure of Death which, I argue, developed according to intertextual and intervisual dialogues among Francesco Petrarca’s Triumphus Mortis, Giovanni Boccaccio’s L’Amorosa visione, and the fresco known as the Triumph of Death by Buonamico Buffalmacco in the Pisa Camposanto. While early visual portrayals of Petrarch’s Triumphus Mortis attest to the renewed interest in the “Triumph of Death” in the decades immediately following the 1358 plague, most artists depict a chariot atop which Death rides during a “triumphal” procession, painted elements that are not explicitly recounted in Petrarch’s text.  I investigate the reasons for this cross-contamination between word and image around the “Triumph of Death,” demonstrating further how Boccaccio’s engagement with funerary rituals informed his Amorosa visione, as well as his viewing of the Pisa Camposanto. The fusion of live-action pageantry with the visual “Triumph of Death” provided Petrarch with an intermedial model for his Triumphus Mortis, to which later artists turned for inspiration in depicting figures within and beyond the poet’s Trionfi. Such intermedial dialogues across art and poetry resonated with audiences striving to overcome the indiscriminate nature of Death and the fear of disease during a most unsettling historical moment.

Afterword: urbanity and the afterlife of death

ABSTRACT This article addresses the theoretical issues regarding rituals of death and the “afterlife of death” in urban life. Through an analysis of the five articles in this special issue on “Death and the City” that examine how death is controlled as a necessary component of urban social order, I suggest these case studies shed light not only on the essential technologies of social rules and polices regarding death, but they also reveal important truths about how humans join the material reality of death to death’s metaphysical meaning, or the “afterlife of death.”

We need to talk to people near the end of life about the reality of death

In this, my first editorial of 2022, I am focusing on the reality of our own dying, our own choices, and important conversations about death and assisted dying. I can recall many conversations I have had with people with advanced disease about facing their own deaths and how this enabled them to reflect on the importance of each life choice they make.

The Changing Paradigm of Death and Dying

Biologically, death means the cessation of a living being and dying is the process of reaching towards this cessation. However, this biological sameness in medical terms cannot define death completely; it is also a culturally constructed idea. As society transformed from one phase to another, the ways in which the phenomena of death and dying are construed have also undergone a change. This article is a review-based paper that attempts to understand the changing paradigms of death and dying from pre-modern/early modern times to the post-modern era. In primitive times, aborigines attempted to comprehend the reality of death in the light of separation of blood and flesh and accordingly devised practices to deal with it. Gradually, the organised institution of religion evolved and developed very systematic answers to the phenomenon of death. People perceived death and dying, according to their religious orientation and had an attitude of acceptance towards it. Then, modernity heralded and shifted death and dying to the purview of science. From being a part of life, death became an enemy of life. Thereafter, in post-modern times, death has become a ‘spectacle’ which is much more visible but kept at a safe distance.

Разрушение идентичности и отчуждение от смерти в танатосенситивной цифровой среде

The purpose of the research is to determine human attitude to death in the modern information society, as well as to identify death influence on identity formation in virtual space. The phenomenon of thanatosensitive digital environment is considered as a factor of destruction and degradation of the human spiritual world. Novelty of the research lies in providing an insight into the process of alienation from death as a source of destruction of human identity in virtual space. For the first time, it has been found that the entire digital environment works as a disruptive mechanism for destroying human identity through total oblivion of the fact of being finitude. As a result of the research, the author has found connection between identity crisis and alienation from the reality of death in the modern digital environment and also formed a new cultural and philosophical concept: alienation from death.

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The aim of the article is to examine military black humor as a form of adaptive processes and the individual�s response to the fear of death in the system of psychological defense mechanisms and coping strategies. A more complete results in this study can be gotten through the integration of discourse analysis and psychoanalytic interpretation. Discourse analysis has the most empirically oriented approach and allows to focus on extensive psychological issues such as cognition, emotions, attitudes, values, prejudices, memory, motives. Psychoanalytic interpretation focuses on the symbolism of the unconscious, universal meanings and psychological mechanisms that are important material to analyze totality of derived psychological meanings present in dark humor patterns. The material for this empirical, inductive study is text fragments, memes and photographs, which are posted on the website of �Military service� Ukrainian group. Results and discussions. One of the thematic dominants of military dark humor is the threat to life and fear of it. The fear of death itself is one of the human existence conditions. Such amount of fear fits into bounds of what most humans can psychologically tolerate that does not destroy or paralyze activity. In order to protect his psyche from the destructive effects of traumatic situation during which the norms of fear exceed the standards, a military man often seeks to restore the functional state of his body and reduce emotional stress. Considering this perspective as a pragmatic aspect of humor it can be argued that the creation of the game reality of death in dark humor depends, first of all, on those coping strategies and psychological defense mechanisms, which are most appropriate for a person�s psyche. According to the terror management theory an individual uses certain coping strategies and defense mechanisms depending on whether or not he is aware of the inevitability of death. Analysis of the dark humor patterns created by the Ukrainian military and actualizing the theme of death and everything associated with it make it possible to outline the following range of adaptive mechanisms ranked in a descending order according to their relative importance in the total sample: �Desacralization�, �Regression�, �Desensitization�, �Positive re-evaluation�, �Displacement�, �Sublimation�, �Denial�. Conclusions. Being natural human emotion fear of death during combat activates defense mechanisms and coping strategies. The study of the projection of these occurrences in dark humor have made it possible to conclude that the military dark humor is the result of frustrating life experiences and aimed to reduce sensitivity to fears and improve their psychological state. This is achieved owing to changing the modal evaluation and the capability to be emotionally withdrawn.

Existence beyond death? Encouraging those who face death

Modern medical technology has transformed the way people live and the way they die. Today, in some instances the process of dying takes longer, due to more advanced medical treatment and therefore requires more sophisticated care than before. This contributes to the fact that terminally ill people are wrestling with the reality of death. This article endeavours to investigate the phenomenon of death from a biblical perspective and specifically attempts to answer questions such as ‘What is death?’, ‘Is there an intermediate state?’, and ‘What is “heaven” like?’ The article is written in such a way that it equips therapists with biblical information which can clearly be communicated to terminally ill Christian believers to assist them in coping with their trauma and uncertainties; it also intends to remove the sting of death and obtain more clarity on an existence beyond death.