The overall aim of this thesis is to illuminate and describe bodily changes and problems in incurable cancer, with focus on prostate cancer, from the patient’s perspective. The thesis consists of four papers, each of which illuminates various aspects of the phenomenon studied. The study population consisted of 24 participants, three women with different cancer diagnoses in the palliative phase, and 21 men with hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC) and skeletal metastases. Data are based on interviews (papers I–IV) and a quality of life questionnaire (paper I). The study design is cross-sectional (papers I–III) and longitudinal (paper IV). Qualitative description, descriptive statistics, phenomenological hermeneutics, and analysis of discourse were used to analyze data. The findings of study I show that the dominating symptoms for the men with HRPC (n=20) were pain and fatigue, and three different variants of each problem were described. The men said that changes in their sex life were not an extensive problem, even if it was scored as such. The symptoms differed in occurrence, extent, and meaning between the men, and were not necessarily experienced as problems. In study II, pain and fatigue were again the most prominent problems in men with HRPC (n=18), but pain and fatigue were seen to have different meanings. Pain was seen as synonymous with cancer. Pain can be alleviated, but it is a threat, both now and in the future, and symbolizes a painful death. Fatigue was viewed as a hindrance in the present. It was experienced as less threatening than pain, but as something that cannot really be changed. Fatigue represents the natural course death will take, as eventually sleep into death. An important finding of study II is that one meaning of bodily problems is to live in a cyclical movement of losing and reclaiming wellness. Understanding, and, to some extent, being in control of, bodily problems makes it possible to experience wellness. When the bodily problems increase or change, or when new problems appear or become a hindrance in the daily life, the experience of being ill returns. The findings of study III show that one meaning of fatigue in patients with cancer in the palliative phase (n=4) is a lived bodily experience of approaching death. This can be understood through the paradox of struggling against fatigue, and hoping to overcome it, yet expecting failure. The body, through fatigue, signals to the person that death is approaching, but the person is not yet “ready”. Paper IV shows that the way two of the men with HRPC talked about the past, present, and future changed during the disease trajectory. In the first interview, the men were open towards both the past and the future, while just before death, their narration was totally dominated by the concrete experience of the illness. The past became the past in the illness and not in life, and the present was flooded with extensive bodily changes. Also, the future had shrunk, although it also had been transferred to beyond death. Pain, fatigue, nausea, and other bodily problems figured largely in this change. This thesis provides important insights into the phenomenon of bodily changes when living with incurable cancer, with focus on prostate cancer. The thesis shows the connection between bodily changes and time, where different bodily changes have different meanings, and meanings seem to change during the illness trajectory (papers I–IV); and bodily changes close to death seem to take “all” time; what is left is the present filled with problems (paper IV). Further, it shows that bodily changes have a great influence on the cyclical movement between losing and reclaiming wellness in incurable cancer (paper II). The clinical implications of the thesis are that alleviation of pain and other bodily problems must be based on the meaning the patient gives the bodily changes taking place. That is, alleviation with the purpose to free time and to facilitate living in wellness as death is approaching.

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The main topic of this diploma thesis is death and dying in literature for children and youngsters and it´s usage in Pedagogics of free time. The thesis is divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. The theoretical part´s main aim is the definition of death as a part of life (a brief description of habbits and traditions, including today´s view), psychological perception of death by children of preschool and younger school age and analysis of key topics from chosen works for children and youngsters. The practical part contains a qualitative research (a semi-structured dialog) and a set of methodical sheets from the chosen works, containing their verification in praxis, including reflexion.

Sendo a violência e a preocupação com a segurança temas amplamente discutidos atualmente, seja por meio da imprensa ou de produção científica, a atuação profissional de policiais militares torna-se fator de preocupação e estudo, quer no âmbito da prevenção e repressão aos crimes, quer pelos desdobramentos que suas ações são capazes de provocar. Dentro deste contexto, de violência e risco, o presente estudo pretende traçar algumas considerações acerca da atuação do policial militar, que desempenha suas funções em ocorrências de alto risco, tendo como objetivo realizar um levantamento da produção científica com temática relacionada à atividade do policial militar, bem como verificar e detalhar a incidência de estudos cujo tema relaciona-se ao trabalho do policial como precipitador de sofrimento psíquico e implicações na saúde mental do trabalhador. A partir dos dados obtidos, foram feitas considerações a respeito do panorama geral das pesquisas que tem os policiais militares como sujeitos, bem como dos temas prevalecentes na produção científica nacional. Pôde-se constatar que, apesar do significativo aumento na produção científica nacional relacionada ao tema a partir do ano 2000, o que converge com a crescente preocupação a respeito da temática da violência como questão de saúde pública, quando se analisa a produção científica formal e acessível à comunidade acadêmica (em bases de dados comuns às pesquisas de nível universitário), os resultados ainda são diminutos se comparados à relevância do tema. Levanta-se como hipótese para tal fato a dificuldade em coletar dados qualitativos no âmbito policial, dadas as questões de hierarquia e protocolos pertinentes à organização da polícia como instituição, bem como certa resistência, calcada em estereótipos relativos à polícia como um todo, em enxergar o profissional de segurança pública como um cidadão, tão frágil e suscetível ao sofrimento quanto qualquer outro. / Once subjects like violence and worry about security are widely discussed nowadays, either by the press or scientific production, the knowledge about the military policemen activity become a very important factor, in the scope of prevention and criminal repression, or by the implication that their actions can cause. Within this context, the current study intends to make some considerations about the policeman activity, who very often works in very dangerous situations, making a scientific production survey, emphasizing the public security professional\'s activity. The purpose of this study was to check the incidence of works whose subject has to do with the policeman profession as responsible for the psychic suffering, as well as the implication in the worker\'s mental health. From the data obtained, we made considerations regarding the general view of the researches that have the military policemen as subjects, as well as the predominant topics in the national scientific production. We noticed that, in spite of the meaningful increase in the scientific production related to the subject from the year 2000, which is in accordance to the increasing worry about the violence as a matter of public health, when we analyze the formal and accessible scientific production to the academic community (in common databases regarding the university researches), the results referring to the qualitative researches are still small if we compare them to the subject relevance. We discuss the institutional and emotional factors which can be established as complicators at the time we gather the qualitative data among policemen, as well as the difficulty to see the public security professional as a citizen, so weak and susceptible to the suffering as any other.

Up to 90% of adolescents in the U.S. experience a loss of a family member or friend. However, prior research on loss of a family member has focused predominantly on the adult experience (e.g., loss of a spouse), parental bereavement (loss of a child), or grief counseling as an intervention for dealing with loss. Little is known about the sibling loss experience, particularly from the point of view of the surviving sibling who suffered the loss when they were young. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the narratives of young adults who experienced the loss of a sibling during adolescence, and to understand the role of family, friends, and resources. This research utilized three theoretical models: Erik Erickson's theory of Psychosocial Development, Murray Bowen's theory of Family Systems, and Theresa Rando's 6 R's theory of loss. Eight participants (all female) between 18 and 30 years who lost a sibling between 13 and 18 years were invited through posting in 4 closed sibling loss groups on Facebook. Using Reissman's thematic analysis, data from semi-structured interviews revealed five themes: returning to school (refuge vs. struggle); being there (sources of support); emotional separation (family, friends, and the lost sibling); identification of self/moving forward (turning points following the loss); and family dynamics with departed and surviving (maintaining the lost connection). Future research should intentionally sample other demographics to broaden the understanding of sibling bereavement across age, gender, ethnicity, and religion. Positive social change implications include efforts to promote training and programs sensitive to the unique needs of bereaved young adults in secondary school and college settings.

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No description available.

This dissertation explores how late medieval and early modern English culture understood the possibilities of experience inherent within our dying moments. I argue that, rather than approaching the moment of death as exclusively terrible, unbearable, or meaningless, as some literary scholars have claimed, many could instead hope to find within such moments the opportunity for what Erasmus called “glimmerings”—new revelations, actions, and experiences of the world. I explore how the drama of Shakespeare and Marlowe investigates both the promises and illusions of the glimmering worlds cast up in one’s dying moments. This project draws on the thought of Hannah Arendt to elucidate the actions, forms of life, and worlds that can be undertaken and sustained in the circumstances of dying. In Chapter One, I uncover the late medieval roots of an association between dying moments and worldly awareness, expressed in fifteenth-century English texts such as Nicholas Love’s Mirror of the Blessed Life of Christ, Thomas Hoccleve’s Learn to Die, the morality play The Castle of Perseverance, and Desiderius Erasmus’s Preparation to Death. My second chapter argues that sixteenth-century ars moriendi texts such as Thomas Lupset’s Way of Dying Well, Thomas Becon’s Sick Man’s Salve, The Book of Common Prayer’s “Order for the Burial of the Dead,” and John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments each provide strategies of dying that preserve both self and world from the deteriorating force of mortality. Chapter Three moves from theological to dramatic inquiries into the moment of death, examining how Marlowe’s tragedies The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus scrutinize the risks of dying in conditions of exposure, in contrast with the sheltering protections of dying in a little room. My fourth chapter takes up Shakespearean tragedy to illustrate how King Lear evaluates and dramatizes the consequences of William Perkins’ Salve for a Sick Man, which contends that we are unable to undertake meaningful action in our final moments. In my last chapter, I show how Shakespeare’s late plays, Pericles and The Winter’s Tale, consider whether, in the presence of death, one can claim flourishing life and feel at home in the world.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第24183号 / 理博第4874号 / 新制||理||1697(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 足立 幾磨, 准教授 Huffman Michael Alan, 教授 今井 啓雄 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

“An Examination of the Death and Dying of Companion Animals” explores the human-animal relationship as enacted in the home by becoming interspecies families. In particular, these relationships are considered when companion animals are dying and in need of special care and attention. This work provides historical and cultural context for how humans attend to animals in death and dying through the history of pet keeping and a complex literature review to explore the intersections of death and dying and religion, and human-animal studies. Specifically, models for companion animal end-of-life care replicate those services for humans by providing palliative care and a myriad of other treatments to attend to the suffering of aging and terminal pets. In addition to examining the creation of companion animal hospice and how it has quickly grown since the early 2000s, this work also confronts questions of euthanasia as a burdensome decision-making process. The decision to euthanize a loved one is fraught with ambiguity, uncertainty, and, at times, guilt. These experiences are idiosyncratic and by creating a discourse and popular platform through which to share these instances of death and dying, this project contributes to the newly established death positivity movement in drawing attention to caring for dead bodies in the home. This project ends by exploring after-death-care for companion animals. Burial and cremation are still, for the most part, how human families dispose of companion animal bodies. In addition to these more traditional forms of disposition, companion humans are also starting to preserve their companion animal bodies through taxidermy and freeze-drying. Though still considered grotesque by many companion humans, companion animal body preservation is just one example of new and reimagined mourning rituals. It is through these rituals and the recognition of this particular grief that the human-animal relationship in the home is seen in a new, complicated, ambiguous and intimate light. / Religion