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The textbook The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying by Lynne Ann DeSpelder and Albert Lee Strickland provides a comprehensive, up-to-date, and readable introduction to the study of death and dying. It directs attention to the evolving understanding of death and dying in today's culturally diverse environment. In a straightforward, conversational style, with an extensively illustrated format, The Last Dance provides a solid grounding in theory and research as well as in methods for applying what is learned to readers' own circumstances, both personal and professional. No other textbook so successfully combines the research and theories of such diverse disciplines as anthropology, art, ethics, health science, literature, philosophy, psychology, public policy, religion, and sociology. The eleventh edition of The Last Dance includes coverage of key topics yet retains the focus, writing, and pedagogy instructors have come to expect from the best-selling text in death studies.
Brief Contents
Preface xxi
CHAPTER 1: Attitudes Toward Death: A Climate of Change 3
CHAPTER 2: Learning About Death: Socialization 51
CHAPTER 3: Perspectives on Death: Historical and Cultural 91
CHAPTER 4: Death Systems: Mortality and Society 141
CHAPTER 5: Health Care: Patients, Staff, and Institutions 175
CHAPTER 6: End‐of‐Life Issues and Decisions 215
CHAPTER 7: Facing Death: Living with Life‐Threatening Illness 259
CHAPTER 8: Last Rites: Funerals and Body Disposition 295
CHAPTER 9: Survivors: Understanding the Experience of Loss 335
CHAPTER 10: Death in the Lives of Children and Adolescents 379
CHAPTER 11: Death in the Lives of Adults 405
CHAPTER 12: Suicide 435
CHAPTER 13: Risks, Perils, and Traumatic Death 473
CHAPTER 14: Beyond Death / After Life 515
CHAPTER 15: The Path Ahead: Personal and Social Choices 553
Name Index 577
Subject Index 589
In The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying, we offer a comprehensive and readable introduction to the study of death and dying, one that highlights the main
issues and questions. The study of death—or thanatology, from the Greek thanatos, meaning “death”—is concerned with questions rooted at the core of our experience. Thus, the person who sets out to increase his or her knowledge of death and dying is embarking on an exploration that is partly a journey of personal discovery. This is a
journey that has both cognitive (intellectual) and affective (emotional) components. Thus, The Last Dance embodies an approach to the study of death and dying that
combines the intellectual and the emotional, the social and the psychological, the experiential and the scholarly.
The title The Last Dance relates to a book written by Carlos Castaneda about the warriors of the Yaqui Indian tribe in Central America. Because a warrior can die on
any day, the warrior makes a dance of power in the face of death. Castaneda says that, to truly live, we must keep death over our left shoulder. In other words, death is part of life and, because we can die at any time, we should be dancing through life. The painting on the cover, The Dance of Life, by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch,
evokes thoughts of the inexorable, compelling cycle of life. It depicts a festival dance on the Еsgеrdstrand beach on a midsummer night. An indifferent moon sheds light on the water while the dancers dance a roundel, a ring dance. One woman is entering the dance, another is leaving. There is youth, innocent new life, and age. We are sometimes asked how we came to write a college textbook on death and dying. Lynne says, “It’s as simple as the realization that students hated buying the many books needed for studying all of the topics important to learning about death and dying. And I hated having to assign all those books. One day at the start of a new semester, after getting the usual complaints from students, I whined to Al, ‘Why isn’t there just one book that a student could pick up and put under his or her arm that would cover all of these topics?’ Al’s response was, ‘Well, why don’t we write one?’”
So, some years ago, after five years dedicated to research and writing, The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying was born. Each subsequent edition reflects the
changes and transformations that have occurred in the field of death studies. This book provides a solid grounding in theory and research as well as in methods for applying what is learned to readers’ own circumstances, both personal and professional. It encourages a constructive process of self-discovery. The Last Dance is not an indoctrination to any particular point of view but, rather, an introduction to diverse points of view. The values of compassion, listening, and tolerance for the views of others are emphasized. Readers may form their own opinions, but when they do we hope it is only after considering other possibilities in a spirit of open-mindedness. Unbiased investigation leads to choices that might otherwise be neglected or overlooked.
While retaining the popular features of earlier editions, this new edition of The Last Dance reflects the ongoing evolution of death studies. Although people sometimes think, “What changes about death?” the truth revealed in these pages is that much has changed in recent decades and continues to change in the present. Because of this fact, every chapter has been revised to integrate the latest research, practices, and ideas and to enhance clarity of presentation.
Throughout the text, we give attention to the ways cultural and ethnic viewpoints shape our relationship with death, and there is specific discussion of the viewpoints and traditions associated with people of African heritage, Hispanic heritage, Native American heritage, Jewish heritage, Celtic heritage, Arab heritage, Oceanian heritage,
and Asian heritage, including the diverse cultures of Southeast Asia as well as the cultures of India, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. In the pages
of The Last Dance, you will also find coverage of
•• Ongoing developments in care of the seriously ill and dying, especially as they pertain to hospice and palliative care
•• Death through the life course, from infancy through later adulthood, including a section on death and the college student
•• New directions in mortuary services, including personalized funerals, “green burials,” and innovative options for body disposition and memorialization
•• A changing health care system and its impact on dying and death
•• How the Internet and social media are influencing our relationship to death, dying, and bereavement in the digital age
•• Insights about grief gained through an appreciation of the dual process and twotrack models of coping with bereavement, as well as other models that can aid in
understanding bereavement, grief, and mourning, including discussion of working through grief, maintaining continuing bonds with the deceased, and “telling the
story” or narrative approaches to coping with grief
•• How achieving the “Care-Full Society” and striving toward the creation of “compassionate cities” could improve and enhance our encounters with death
In addition, this edition contains new and updated material on organ donation, grieving through social media, AIDS, physician-assisted death, use of opioids and medicinal marijuana in pain management, and school shootings and mass killings. Throughout this edition, there are updated statistics and changes reflecting new DSM-5 information.
The study of death is unavoidably multidisciplinary. Accordingly, contributions from medicine, the humanities, and the social sciences are all found here in their relevant
contexts. Throughout the book, principles and concepts are made meaningful by use of examples and anecdotes. Boxed material, photographs, and other illustrative
materials expand upon and provide Counterpoint to the textual presentation. Specialized terms, when needed, are clearly defined. We also urge readers to make use of the online resources described in the “Connect” section.
About the Authors
Lynne Ann DeSpelder and Albert Lee Strickland collaborated on writing projects over a number of years. The many editions of The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying could not exist without the unique combination of their talents as a teacher and a writer working together. The early decision to tape and transcribe classroom lectures with student interaction gives the book a conversational tone. The book's interdisciplinary flavor reflects the goal of covering the subject as broadly as possible.
Both Lynne and Al are members of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement (IWG), which gives them opportunities to work closely with death-related professionals from many countries. IWG meetings are held in various countries, creating opportunities to pursue one of their favorite aspects of the study of death and dying― cultural diversity in practice and belief. In 2003, they received the Death Education Award from the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC).
Lynne is an educator, author, and counselor. As a faculty member at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, she developed and taught one of the first interdisciplinary courses on death and dying. Certified by ADEC as a death educator and as a grief counselor, Lynne was instrumental in developing the organization's Education for Certification program. In addition to producing audiovisual and print resources, she lectures both in North America and internationally to professional, corporate, and community groups. She also conducts training programs and in-service education for hospices, school districts, community organizations, and health care professionals.
Al is a professional writer whose interests focused on death-related topics since the late 1970s. He is a former editor of The Forum Newsletter published by ADEC. In recent years his professional interests combined with a lifelong involvement in music, resulting in invitations to perform musical concerts centering on themes of death, dying, and bereavement, showcasing his voice and guitar, in Australia, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Canada, and the United States. A member of the Authors Guild, he is currently at work on a novel