coping with dying

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Coping with Dying

Charles Corr identifies four primary dimensions in coping with dying: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. This highlights the fact that coping involves more than just body or mind. The spiritual dimension, it should be noted, is not exclusively religious; rather, it encompasses a person’s basic values and sources of meaning about life and death. This model shifts our perspective from a narrow or limited view of coping with the threat of dying to one that is holistic.

Observing family interactions in response to life-threatening illness, sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss noted four distinctive ways in which a context of awareness about dying shapes communication styles:

  • closed awareness
  • suspected awareness
  • mutual pretense
  • open awareness

Reference

DeSpelder, L. A. (2015) The Last Dance: Encountering Death and Dying. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/97812601…

In a minimum of 200 words answer the following question and respond to one other peer in a minimum of 100 words.

Select one of the four primary dimensions in coping with dying: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. Which do you believe is the most important and discuss why you made that choice.