Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T11:48:21.879Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dying other, dying self: Creating culture and meaning in palliative healthcare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2012

Christopher J. McCann  and
Hector Y. Adames
Christopher J. McCann*
Affiliation:
Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Clinical Counseling Department, Chicago, Illinois
Hector Y. Adames
Affiliation:
Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Clinical Counseling Department, Chicago, Illinois
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Christopher J. McCann and Hector Y. Adames, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, 325 North Wells St, Office: MM-4116, Chicago, IL 60642. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Dying is an act of creativity, and we each die as cultural beings. Culture helps us create the meaning death requests of us. However, the dominant culture of the healthcare system views death as a failure of modern medicine, an event of unspeakable terror and taboo. Palliative clinicians must honor each dying person's cultural identity (as well as the person's family), not subject it to the dominant discourse of Western medicine. This article offers practical guidelines for palliative clinicians to do so, as well as a case vignette.

Keywords

Palliative careCultureMeaningMulticultural issuesDeath and dying
Type
Original Articles
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , August 2013 , pp. 289 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adames, H.Y. & Fuentes, M.A. (2011). Having a voice and being heard: Exploring the impact of multiple social identities on the self. In Experiential Activities for Teaching Multicultural Competency in Counseling, Pope, M., Pangelinan, J. & Coker, A. (eds.). pp. 49–51. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association Press.Google Scholar
Becker, E. (1973). The Denial of Death. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, M. (2003). Existential Therapies. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Frosh, S. & Baraitser, L. (2003). Thinking, recognition, and otherness. Psychoanalytic Review, 90, 771–789.Google Scholar
Fuentes, M.A. & Adames, H.Y. (2011). The social cultural profile. In Experiential Activities for Teaching Multicultural Competency in Counseling, Pope, M., Pangelinan, J. & Coker, A. (eds.). pp. 153–155. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association Press.Google Scholar
Gibbins, J., Mcoubrie, R. & Forbes, K. (2011). Why are newly qualified doctors unprepared to care for patients at the end of life? Medical Education, 45, 389–399.Google Scholar
Goldenberg, J.L., Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., et al. (2000). Fleeing the body: A terror management perspective on the problem of human corporeality. Personality And Social Psychology Review, 4, 200–218.Google Scholar
Spinelli, E. (2007). Practising Existential Psychotherapy. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Yalom, I. (1980). Existential Psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar