Written by luminaries who have shaped the field, this capstone book distills the collective wisdom of foremost scholars and practitioners, who together have nearly a millennium of experience in the death and dying movement. The book bears witness to the discipline's evolution and presents the insights of its pioneers, eyewitnesses, and major contributors past and present. They address contemporary institutional developments in hospice and palliative care, funeral practice, and death education. They discuss best practices in care of the dying and bereaved and contemporary thinking in thanatology.
With a breadth and depth found in no other text on death, dying, and bereavement, the book disseminates the thinking of such scholars as William Worden, David Clark, Tony Walter, Robert Neimeyer, Charles Corr, Stephen Connor, Phyllis Silverman, Betty Davies, Terrie Rando, Colin Murray Parkes, Kenneth Doka, Allan Kellehear, and others. To underscore the three broad ranges of development in the movement, the book first focuses on the interdisciplinary intellectual achievements that have formed the foundation of the field. The section on institutional innovations encompasses contributions in hospice and palliative care of the dying and their families; suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention; funeral service; and university-based death education. The final third of the book addresses spiritual support, using the arts and humanities, grief counseling across the lifespan, community-based mutual support groups, and future developments that promise to sustain, further enrich, and strengthen the discipline. Also included is a detailed guide to further, in-depth reading in the field.
Key Features:
Distills the wisdom of pioneers and foremost luminaries in the field of death, dying, and bereavement
Includes living witness accounts of the movement's evolution and important milestones
Presents the best contemporary thinking in thanatology
Describes contemporary institutional developments in hospice and palliative care, funeral practice, and death education
Illuminates best practices in care of the dying, bereaved, and traumatized
Author Biography:
Judith M. Stillion, PhD, CT is Professor Emerita of psychology and currently serves as a consultant on a variety of issues including end-of-life issues, meaningful aging, positive psychology applied to grieving and dying, strategic planning and facilitation of grief groups. Dr. Stillion's varied career includes teaching and counseling in the public schools and at the university level. She began teaching the psychology of death and dying in 1975 and continued for over 20 years. She also served as Associate and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Western Carolina University, USA Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs in the University of North Carolina System and founding Director of the Institute for Leadership, Ethics & Character at Kennesaw State University. Dr. Stillion is a past-president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and recipient of both their Death Educator and Contributions to the Field awards. She has written three books and numerous chapters and articles in her field of expertise, which include suicide across the life span, aging, positive psychology applied to grief groups and gender issues in death and grief.
Thomas Attig, PhD, is the author of Catching Your Breath in Grief and Grace Will Lead You Home (2012), The Heart of Grief: Death and the Search for Lasting Love (2000), How We Grieve: Relearning the World (Revised Edition, 2011), and numerous articles and reviews on grief and loss, care of the dying, suicide intervention, death education, expert witnessing in wrongful death cases, the ethics of interactions with the dying, and the nature of applied philosophy. He spent the greater part of his career (1972-95) as Professor of Philosophy (now Emeritus) at Bowling Green State University, USA where he served as Department Chair for eleven years and established the first PhD in Applied Philosophy in the world in 1987. A Past President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, Dr. Attig has also served as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement. He holds degrees in philosophy from Northwestern University (BA) and Washington University in St. Louis (MA and PhD). He currently resides in Victoria, BC, Canada and devotes his time to writing and speaking.
