The six expressions of attitudes towards death are

There is an obsessive fixation with death in television, movies, comedy, and literature. Mass media has continued to affect people’s perceptions of death in the United States and many other countries across the world. Violence has been used extensively in showing or rather as a source of death on television. This, in turn, has had a significant impact on society, particularly on young people. Death has been depicted as worthless in the media. Grief and loss of life do not take center stage, nor does empathy.  In language, death instead of being portrayed as the inevitable, it has been portrayed as an intrusion. People tend to talk about death as something that happens to us rather that it is something that we do that result to death. In language, death is taken as an accident but in truth, it is a natural process. As the first experiences of death diminishes, so does its representation in language and the media.

In literature, death has been represented as an expected part of life. It has been shown as being natural. For instance, Greek literature avoids details about death. The reason is that they had accepted it as being part or rather cycle of life and human experience. Attitudes towards death in visual art differ from one place to the other. In some cases, it is culturally specific or personal while in some instances it garners respect universally in a particular ethnic group. Visual artists have used an array of structures, images, objects to negotiate the process of grieving, aging, commemorating, or dying. Art is viewed as a window of expressing one’s personal loss impact. Humor is also used as an expression of attitude towards death. It diffuses the anxiety about death as well as managing fear to a manageable perspective. The population has opened up discussions for death. Currently, topic about death is not viewed any longer as taboo in many societies.

Question 2

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross relationship with God is that of respect. Kubler has always been a Christian and has worshipped the “true” one God. In the film on the life of Elizabeth, she mentions that God is the God of all religions. That he is above all the other gods in the world. Elizabeth believes that she usually talks with God. She also believes that her sense of inner truth throughout all her public career is surer to her than any external information. Her information is derived from her relationship with God. Elizabeth believes that there is life after death. After death, Ross believes that there is a transition. In her transition, she pictures herself meeting Mahatma Gandhi, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and Carl Jung. Ross believes that after one dies, there is an offer of an opportunity for purification of the soul. This is an intermediate state that is known as the purgatory. This stage is widely known among the Christians and it borrows this concept from the Greek notions of the body and soul. The dualism were the most important influences on Christians. Elizabeth is a firm believer of immortality. In the afterlife, we experience a sense of belonging and prepare for a new life.

The most important symbol that Ross identified in her studies is the five stages of grief. These stages are:

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

According to Ross, the denial stage is where a person refuses to accept the reality or the facts related to his/her current situation. Ross explains that this is perfectly natural as it is a defense mechanism for a person. She explains that many individuals especially those that are in traumatic change become locked in this stage. The second stage is anger. AT this stage, anger can manifest itself in numerous ways for a person. Individuals that deal with emotional issues can be angry with oneself or people around them. The third stage is bargaining. AT this stage, individuals try to brain with whatever God believes in. This is the stage where non-religious people sometimes attempt to be religious to various deities. Individuals also bargain with other people especially when facing less serious trauma. They negotiate a compromise. The second last stage is depression. The depression stage s also referred to as preparatory grieving. It is sometimes viewed as some type of acceptance but with an emotional side to it. This stage shows that the individual has last accepted the reality. The last stage is acceptance. This stage is not static and it varies according to an individual’s situation. People who die sometimes enter this stage long before those that will be left behind.

Ross believes that people first need to accept the reality of death. Before we move to the afterlife, individuals need to belie that dying is not the end to life but rather continuity to another life. Kubler-Ross also believed that the middle-aged people were the ones that were most informed about death. In her career, she was usually in the company of young and middle aged people during their last period of life. The middle-aged people were freer to die and they were not fearful about the impending death. She however states that people who felt that they had not accomplished something in life usually feel more stressed during their last period of impeding death.

Question 3

In the past, hospitals were devoted mainly to acute intensive care for only a small duration. The short period meant that many terminally ill patients were released home early to suffer in pain. However, the work of Kubler-Ross in 1969 led to the development of hospice. She was the sole reason that palliative and hospice came to be part of healthcare. Unlike nursing homes and hospitals, hospice is a program and not necessary a place. It is a program whereby it cares for the dying patients and their families. The goal of hospice is to focus on comfort rather than cure. Palliative care on is the active care of patients whose disease is unresponsive to the curative treatment.

One of the challenges facing the hospice and palliative care is the presence of a primary caregiver who is available 24/7. In the United States currently, there is a shortage of medical practitioners and with the increasing number of hospice, the case will only worsen. Hospice usually lacks funding which has been its greatest impending challenge. Another challenge for the hospice is that it cannot give care for long period. Bureaucracy has led to the six-month rule. The life expectancy for a person in a hospice is only six months or less. Care has also been routinized as a result of bureaucracy who hinders proper care. One of the biggest challenges for the hospice is expansion access to underserved populations. The rich are continuing to enjoy the benefits of a hospice while the rest of the populations are continuing to suffer in silence. Expansion should be made to areas that are underserved.

Question

According to the authors, the reaction of loss (Grief) can be felt in terms of thoughts (mental distress), feelings (emotions), physical responses, behavioral responses and spiritual responses. The mental aspect of grief involves a person feeling confused, anxiety, or being in a state of disbelief. Individuals usually experience a sense of disorganization and depression. Their sensory responses are erratic and undependable as well as experiencing paranormal activities; this can include the vague sense of a deceased’s presence or hallucinations. In terms of the emotion aspect of grief, an individual shows a sense of longingness, sadness, and loneliness. Anguish and sorrow manifests itself in the individual as well as the frustration of being unable to control that event. Outrage and anger at the injustice of the loss also manifest itself for the person grieving.

Survivors understand loss through ways such as feeling angry at God if an individual is religious. This usually involves a person foregoing religious events for a while because of the loss of their loved ones. The duration of grief for individuals varies depending on the attachment and importance of the deceased. For instance, if the deceased is a parent, the bereaved will mourn for a longer period. However, a relative that lives far away may not have the same impact as a friend that a person has grown together with. People usually blame a supernatural entity for the loss of a loved one. This phase can be a referred to a stage of denial. The complication of grief always depends on the attachment between the deceased and the bereaved.