The following lists the contents of Self and Society, Volume 36 Issue 2.
Each article can be downloaded as a PDF, but only if you are logged in as an AHP subscriber.
The table of contents for this issue can be downloaded as a PDF file.
Editorial:
Author: Maxine Linnell
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The secret house of death:
Author: Anne Bury
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Abstract:
The death of my grandparents was my first experience of people close to me dying. At the age of fourteen, my mother informed me over the phone that my grandfather had died. The funeral had already taken place. There had been no suggestion that I should return from boarding school for his funeral, despite my having a close relationship with him. I don't think any of my teachers were aware of his death, and indeed I myself seemed to be disconnected from any emotionality at the time. At eighteen, my grandmother's death was different. I had spent time with her up until her death and have memories of following her coffin with tears flooding down my face. I mourned her dying in silence; this was my family and our culture's way, and despite being brought up a catholic (or indeed because of it), I didn't really question or consider any after life.
Author: Tony Walter
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Abstract:
Death is not a single concept. When I've been writing about funeral rituals, the mourning for Princess Diana, roadside shrines, the reporting of death in the news media, afterlife beliefs, or the contemporary interest in reincarnation, friends and acquaintances have been intrigued and have often given me, unasked, their own experiences and opinions. When I've been writing about dying or bereavement the conversation quickly turns to other things. Le Rochefoucauld once wrote, ‘Death, like the sun, cannot be looked at directly’. We need a filter. So when I've been writing about the filters—such as rituals, belief systems, or media reports—friends and acquaintances are attracted. But if they fear I'm looking directly at death, without a filter, they turn away. As would have most human beings in history and prehistory.
Author: Josefine Speyer
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Abstract:
I have been with many people as they approached their death. My conversations with them, my experiences of their shift in consciousness as they approached death, lead me to believe that dying is a form of birthing, and that there is some kind of continuation of consciousness after death. I began to think of dying as a sacred process of transformation into an existence without a physical body.
Author: Carmella B'Hahn
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Abstract:
‘Solace’ is the name of the room where I sit most days and support people through their dark nights of loss. Mostly, it feels as if this is the work I was born to do; and no, I don't find it depressing. I feel uplifted by witnessing grief transform. And I know that positive transformation through the unthinkable is possible because I have lived through this life-altering process myself and thrived.
Author: Abigail Robinson
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Abstract:
Music-Thanatology is the use of live music, prescribed for the individual, sung and accompanied by the harp in response to the rhythm of the breath to ease pain and provide a visceral experience of the infinite at the end of life. In order to describe my personal calling to Music-Thanatology, I need to look at myself, as Rilke puts it, ‘tall and against a wide sky.’ In this way the events of my life exist as a reality, without the burden of judgement but carrying the richness of meaning.
Authors: Jane Morrell, Simon Smith
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Author: Robin Shohet
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Abstract:
My mother died on the 21st March 2007, the day before my sixtieth birthday. As I write it is now eight months on. The hospice have been very sweet and offered me counselling sessions, but they have only scratched the surface of the bewildering array of emotions I have experienced.
Author: John Ridpath
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Author: Richard House
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Author: Neill Thew
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Article:
Author: Asaf Rolef Ben-Shahar
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Author: Nick Duffell
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Author: Chris Beaumont
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Book Review:
Author: Maxine Linnell
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Letter:
Authors: John Gloster-Smith, Hello Julian, Ellis Roberts, Tree Staunton
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