Death, Society, and Human Experience (12^th Ed.)

Providing an overview of the myriad ways that we are touched by death and dying, both as an individual and as a member of society, this book will help readers understand our relationship with death. Kastenbaum and Moreman show how various ways that individual and societal attitudes influence both how and when we die and how we live and deal with the knowledge of death and loss. This landmark text draws on contributions from the social and behavioral sciences as well as the humanities, such as history, religion, philosophy, literature, and the arts, to provide thorough coverage of understanding death and the dying process. Death, Society, and Human Experience was originally written by Robert Kastenbaum, a renowned scholar who developed one of the world?s first death education courses. Christopher Moreman, who has worked in the field of death studies for almost two decades specializing in afterlife beliefs and experiences, has updated this edition.

1. As We Think About Death 2. What is Death? 3. Denial or Adaptation: The Death System 4. Dying 5. Hospice and Palliative Care 6. End-of-Life Issues and Decisions 7. Suicide 8. Violent Death: Murder, Terrorism, Genocide, Disaster, and Accident 9. Euthanasia, Assisted Death, Abortion, and the Right to Die 10. Death in the World of Childhood 11. Bereavement, Grief, and Mourning 12. The Funeral Process 13. Do We Survive Death? 14. How Can We Help? 15. Good Life, Good Death?

Robert Kastenbaum (1932–2013) was Professor of Communications at Arizona State University. His other books include The Psychology of Death (1972, 1990, 2000); Dorian, Graying: Is Youth the Only Thing Worth Having? (1995); and On Our Way: The Final Passage Through Life and Death (2004).

Christopher M. Moreman is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at California State University East Bay, and has written and edited important books on topics related to death and dying. He is the editor of The Routledge Companion to Death and Dying (2018), the author of Beyond the Threshold: Afterlife Beliefs and Experiences in World Religions (2008), and the editor of the three-volume The Spiritualist Movement (2013).