Death and Dying

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the subject of death and dying in Western industrialized nations is seen as taboo. The paper goes on to explain how attitudes towards death in Eastern cultures and traditions, on the other hand, are essentially different and that there is a greater integration and cultural acceptance of death, particularly in the Tibetan tradition. The paper then refers to various literary works on the subject to highlight various attitudes about death and dying.

From the Paper:

"However, the process of sanitizing and sequestering death does not solve by any means the real and existential problem of death as the most inevitable and sure aspect of any individual's life. One cannot simply ignore death. As a result of the movement in Western Countries and cultures towards a materialistic and secular mode of existence, the fear of death and the end of life has in fact been exacerbated, rather then reduced. This has led to many psychological and philosophical issues that have tended to dominate cultural discourse in the last few decades. The fact that medical science is being shown to be incapable of dealing with many disease and causes of human death has also opened up the fault lines and questioned the scientific and medical attempts to sanitize and prevent the public from being concerned about death. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Hallam, E., & Hockey, J. (2001). Death, Memory, and Material Culture . New York: Berg.
• Lawrence D.H. (1936). Pornography and Obscenity: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence. London: Viking Press. p. 177
• Mcnamara, B. (2001). Fragile Lives: Death, Dying and Care . London: Allen & Unwin.
• Morrall, P. (2001). Sociology and Nursing. London: Routledge.

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