It is amazing how things come full circle. When I was in college, I initially went in to study psychology. During my psychology studies, I was presented with the idea that death was faced in stages, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. At the time, it was not known to me that this study of the stages was only thirty two years old. Nor did I recall who came up with this concept of stages. Well now I do.
I have not had much direct experience with death and dying. I always have considered myself a novice in terms of knowing how to deal with the subject; and I was surprised that after so many years of studying these stages of dying that I am coming back to study them again. This time, however, I have had time to rethink the subject and experience a little more of life. These experiences and lessons have reshaped the way I now think of death and dying.
The impact of this book on me has little to do with the idea of “stages of dying”; rather, it was the idea of a new dialogue around the subject of death and those who are dying. The dying is in fact all of us. We are born to die. Every human in history has died in every imaginable way and then some. So I asked myself, why is the dialogue so important.
If I were to embrace her book as empirical truth then I would have been reading the book as a learned scholar trying to enhance his skills. Instead, I embraced her book as a new way to deal with death in terms of medicine and dialogue. I took her words to heart when she wrote of the impersonalization of the health care industry. I could not have agreed with her more that health care needs to constantly be vigilant in its practice of knowing that individuals are humans and not specimens. Her idea that doctors should be working with the patient is, or as more, important than the treatment itself.
Finally, like so many other good books, Elisabeth introduces a new way of speaking about a subject. The very fact that she is having this dialogue with the world is important. She really raises the consciousness about death and dying. The subject has been treated with fear and contempt for what seems an eternity. Her words help me, and you, explore this very real fact that a physical death is certain for all of us. We all need new methods and words to use so we can further our exploration on the subject.
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Religious Science, Reviews, Science of Mind
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