Existential and Humanistic Approaches to Death

The idea of immortality has been common to most of man's answers regarding the consequences to the dead person of having died. The ancient Mesopotamians believed in a dismal underworld full of misery. The ancient Egyptians, on the other hand, believed that death could contain all the comforts and amusements of the earthly life. To that end, they filled the tombs of their pharaohs with paintings and sculptures of servants, animals, festivities and sporting events; when the wandering ka returned to the body of the dead man, he would then have all the things around him for his pleasure. The Etruscan forerunners of the Romans also sculpted tools and foodstuffs into the stone of their burial mounds - which were carved out to resemble houses. They laid their dead on beds. In the tombs of the richer people, the beds were located in a room behind the apparent main "living" area. These tombs often had servants' quarters near their entrances. In this way the families and

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But, just as the self gives meaning to its life, so it gives meaning to its death (Grimsley, 1960). In itself death is a single fact amongst many others. Death is essentially individual. No one can have the experience of death unless it is his own. Karl Jaspers (Grimsley, 1960) pointed out that death does not destroy the essential existence of one's friend; it destroys only the essential existence of oneself. Over the past decade or so, the humanistic approach toward death has been particularly studied by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. She has been quite successful in winning the attention of the everyday person over to the plight of the dying. Although we have made great progress in the struggle to overcome disease in our modern medical technology, it seems, reading Kubler-Ross's On Death and Dying (1969), that modern man has forgotten to attend to the needs of the dying. Those needs are not only a struggle for his life and more medication to overcome his pain. He is confronting the greatest loss, the greatest mystery and fear, of his life. He is leaving his familiar body and life as well as everyone and everything he loves to - what? Kubler-Ross, in her study, talked with the dying patients of hospitals over much of the wo
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Approximate Word count = 3421
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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