32 pages • 1-hour read
On Death and Dying
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Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “On the Fear of Death”
In the 20th century, many advancements have been made that have made medical science more accessible and successful, and yet at the same time have made our fear of death more paralyzing and widespread. Therefore, there is a “greater need for understanding […] and coping with the problems of death and dying” (16). When we attempt to confront death existentially, “in our unconscious mind we can only be killed” (16), we do not generally accept the fact that we are mortal and can simply die of natural causes. The fear of death is universal.
In other countries where medical science is not so advanced, there seems to be a more natural and accepting attitude toward death. In many instances, the dying are allowed to pass away in the comfort of their own home. It is a paradox: “The more we are making advancements in science, the more we seem to fear and deny the reality of death” (21). The more technologically advanced we become, the less human we become; in certain instances, this does not seem like a good thing.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Attitudes Toward Death and Dying”
When medicine is changing and advancing, we must take stock of what is fundamentally important. Is it simply the prolonging of natural life, or is there something transcendent that might be worth preserving even more? Our attitude toward death tends to naturally be one based on power dynamics: “If we cannot deny death we may attempt to master it” (27). In a world where religion and faith seem to be waning, our collective ability to be comfortable with suffering and death seems to be waning as well. No longer is there a belief in a future that will somehow make up for the evils suffered in this life.
If we look into the future, we see “a society in which more and more people are ‘kept alive’ both with machines replacing vital organs and computers checking from time to time to see if some additional physiologic functionings have to be replaced by electronic equipment” (29). The only manner in which things could possibly change is if each individual is able to conceive of his own death in some way. Changing societal attitudes can, in many ways, begin with a retraining of the basic approaches taken by hospital staff. Rather than make death the domain of particular specialists, hospital personnel should be made to feel comfortable facing these particular difficulties. The author recalls a time in 1965 when four students of theology from the Chicago Theological Seminary approached her asking for help on a research project on the crisis of facing death. Through many obstacles, the author and students eventually founded a seminar where they encountered many dying, terminal patients and spoke with them about their experiences. Eventually the seminar “became an accredited course for the medical school and the theological seminary” (40).
One of the primary dilemmas that doctors have to face is the question of whether to confront their patient with the prospect of their own mortality. The author feels that in reality there is no dilemma: “The question should not be ‘Should we tell…?’ but rather ‘How do I share this with my patient?’” (41). The important thing is to maintain hope and to assure the patient that the crisis is going to be faced together, that the doctor is not giving up on the patient. In many cases when this is not done, or at least not done well, it is a problem of the doctor who has not yet faced the reality of their own mortality, who is thus uncomfortable in facing the issue with another.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The first chapter centers around the paradoxical and inverse relationship between medical advancements and the regression of human compassion and feeling. With the advent of novel technology and the previously unthinkable ability to prolong human life, there is an almost equal inability to conceive of death properly, to face our own mortality, or even to act in a human way in the face of suffering and death. In previous generations, and even in other countries around the world where medicine is not so advanced, death is just another aspect of life; it is something to be faced.
Modern medicine so impersonal in part because it is removed from the everyday; no longer do we die in our own homes, surrounded by the comforts of our loved ones and familiar things, but in sterile hospital rooms illuminated by artificial light, stuck with needles and machines and surrounded by strangers. While doctors and hospital personnel are trained in physical science, they are unprepared to deal with the emotional and philosophical crises that accompany impending death. Changes need to be made in how death is dealt with. Doctors and medical professionals need to confront death in their own way; experiential knowledge is invaluable. Death cannot be a foreign concept if it is to be handled properly with the care and attention that it deserves.
The mastery of death (as discussed in the second chapter) is the manner in which too many try to fight death, as if death is an enemy to be vanquished. Existence has become more technologically advanced; the end of human life is delayed further and further by increasing reliance on life-saving tech. As our focus on physical health has increased, religious belief in an afterlife has waned and dimmed. If each and every person could see it as their duty to contemplate their own death and mortality, it would be a boon not only to the individual but to society. Decisions could be made that would benefit society with a view toward the end; medicine would be focused on humanity as a whole lived experience, not simply as the preservation of physical life regardless of quality.
Kübler-Ross’s theological seminar about death was a turning point in her life as well as a turning point for seminary and medical schools. In the seminar, the real lived experiences of those facing mortality and terminal illness came to the fore. The dying became teachers of humanity, educating those with the most to learn and most to gain about how to treat and care for those on the brink of passing away. Those who care for the dying need to be compassionate, empathic, and hopeful; if the patient can feel that they are not alone, then their final days will be peaceful.
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