Love Letters to the Dead: Resurrecting an Epistolary Art

2009 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy A. Lander ◽  
John R. Graham-Pole
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Therapeutic Potential ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Life Care ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Reflective Dialogue ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead

This article explores the art of letter-writing, specifically to our beloved dead, as a form of autoethnographic research, pedagogy, and care work. As university teachers and qualitative researchers in palliative and end-of-life care, we review the literature and history of epistolary communications with the deceased, as a prelude to writing our own letters. John writes to his long-dead mother and Dorothy to her recently deceased spouse Patrick, each letter followed by a reflective dialogue between us. Through this dialogue, we highlight the potential application of this art, or handcraft, to formal and informal palliative care, and the implications for practice, pedagogy, policy, and research. We propose that such direct, non-mediated, communications can offer a valuable form of healing for bereaved people. The therapeutic potential of letter writing and the abundance of literary and popular culture exemplars of responses from the dead are also largely unexplored in death education and research.

scholarly journals Resolving disagreement during end of life care in the critical care unit: The case for communication not arbitration

2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Michael Hartwick ◽  
Gwynne Jones
Keyword(s):  
Hypothesis Testing ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
Health Care Team ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Substitute Decision Maker ◽  
Diagnosis And Prognosis ◽  
Scientific Hypothesis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Unique Individual

Clinical medicine tries to resolve the uncertainties of diagnosis and prognosis. The natural history of the illness is repeatedly examined using both our own knowledge base and that of our colleagues. This is an iterative hypothesis testing process that starts with the history and physical examination and progresses with increasingly complex tests. Thus, the uncertainty of diagnosis and prognosis is diminished but never absolutely eliminated because of the limits of both our knowledge and our tests. Our scientific hypothesis testing, using the reductionist process, by which the whole can be deduced from the sum of its parts, has some human limitations. Science deals with generalities that strive to be objective and value free. In contradistinction, the patient is a unique individual, with deeply embedded personal values, whose wholeness is greater than the sum of his/her parts. For example, the patient may have qualities with descriptors such as insightful, tender, suffering or anxious. Thus, there is often a tension between medicine and science as well as a tension between the wishes of the patient, or Substitute Decision Maker (SDMs), and those of the health care team.

Corpses, Popular Culture, and Forensic Science

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Penfold-Mounce
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Forensic Science ◽  
Detective Fiction ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Organ Transplant ◽  
Mass Consumption ◽  
Television Shows ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Low Culture

The dead body has a history of being a source of fascination for the living, with ancient narratives relating to mysterious corpse powers that have fed into how the dead are portrayed and consumed by society. Corpses are graphically visible within the 21st-century West (namely America and Europe) in not only news coverage of natural disasters, war, and human-inflicted trauma but also, most prominently, popular culture. Popular culture will be interpreted here to refer to the ideas, attitudes, images, and texts within the mainstream of a given culture (specifically Western) from the 20th century onward that reflect products and activities that are aimed at the taste of the general masses of people. It is often considered “low culture” or unsophisticated, as it is synonymous with consumer culture and mass consumption; however, it can offer a space where new meanings can be made and explored by subverting or overturning taken-for-granted ideas. The manifestations of popular culture are varied, but the main focus here will be on film and television, which are largely unavoidable and visually vivid as a form of entertainment. Consuming the corpse within popular culture is dominated by portrayals of corpse parts via organ transplant mythology, the undead (zombies and vampires in fantasy and horror genres), and the authentic dead (fake corpses played by actors or mannequins most often used in crime procedurals and detective fiction are part of the forensic science process). Viewing death within the fictional context of the undead and forensics has made the corpse, particularly the opened and violated corpse, into an acceptable entertainment commodity. Accusations have been made that these dead bodies within forensics-based television shows and films border on pornographic in that they seek to be shocking and deviant while meeting the expectation to be entertained by violated, wounded bodies. However, we are no longer shocked. We are acclimatized, and the undead and the authentic dead within forensic science in popular culture have been central in this process. Death and the dead are safe when consumed through popular culture, which provides us with a softening lens. Popular culture portrayals particularly of forensic science enable distance between the dead and the consuming viewer. It is a point of safety from which to explore death and human mortality.

Invest in Health, Not Death

Pained ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 139-140
Author(s):  
Michael D. Stein ◽  
Sandro Galea
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Advance Directives ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Poor Health ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Loved One ◽  
The Dead

This chapter assesses the inevitability of death and the need to think about how people can live healthy lives, without ignoring how they end. Once people accept that they are going to die, how they spend their money and their time on health begins to shift. Perhaps death can help people focus on living better, on the conditions people need to create in order to generate health. Of course, people should not neglect the experience of dying. Two out of three Americans do not have advance directives that guide what treatments they receive if they are sick, and they cannot communicate the end-of-life care that they want. Engaging in a dialogue about how people manage the dying process can help correct this oversight. It is also important to remember those who are left. The dead leave behind the grieving, who can experience a burden of poor health that is directly linked to loss of their loved one. Ultimately, recognizing the inevitability of death can guide people toward ways in which they can live healthier, die with dignity, and ensure their loved ones are supported when they pass on.

Comfort while Dying: a Transnational History of Pediatric End of Life Care

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Hill-Smith
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Care ◽  
The Public ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
History Of ◽  
Being There

Through an in-depth analysis of current and historical literature, this thesis explores the question: what is hospice and end of life care for children? I will dissect the various dimensions of children’s hospice care and how it has evolved over time. Also in my thesis, I will draw from my personal experiences in volunteering at a children’s hospice to discuss the support and care that volunteers receive. Through this literature review I hope to bring to light to a subject that is often overlooked or too difficult for people to discuss. I will propose plans to better the care for children and families who are facing the end of life. My thesis will summarize the current literature available about the type of care that children receive worldwide and how this care affects families and children’s well-being. There has been minimal research done on children in end of life due to the topic’s sensitive nature. My goals is to inform the public of an under discussed but important topic in paediatric medicine.

Strengthening End-of-Life Care for African-American Patients and Families through Education and Community Outreach

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 115-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric C. Holmstrom
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Community Outreach ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Unique Challenge ◽  
History Of

Care for African-American patients and families at the end of life presents a unique challenge to healthcare providers. Providers need to be culturally and historically competent to effectively serve persons with a long history of distrust of the white-dominated healthcare system. Effective means of addressing outreach, access, and service issues for this community need to be twofold. They must focus on those who deliver the care and those who receive it. This twofold focus inspired the education and community outreach that were key elements in this ACE Project. The resources of the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life (ICEOL), particularly their APPEAL curriculum, was key to strengthening end-of-life care in the internal culture of Abington Memorial Hospital and the community they serve.

Seventh-Day Adventists and Care for the Newborn

2019 ◽  
pp. 213-232
Author(s):  
Gerald R. Winslow
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Newborn Infants ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
History Of

As a practical expression of their faith, Seventh-day Adventists have established healthcare institutions, including facilities for the intensive care of newborn infants. This chapter provides a brief history of Adventist engagement in health care and seeks to explain how core Adventist convictions provide the motivation for providing such care and shape the way it is given. The chapter also describes how Adventist beliefs may affect the ways in which Adventists or their family members receive health care. This includes beliefs in divine creation, human wholeness, freedom of conscience, spiritual commitment to health, and worldwide mission. Adventists believe that, by the Creator’s design, each person is a spiritual and physical unity. Using the example of a specific case of neonatal intensive care, the chapter explores how Adventist convictions are likely to support and inform caregiving and care receiving. Also described are Adventist principles for end-of-life care.

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