‘Total Pain’ as the Pain of a Lifetime This post looks at Cicely Saunders’ influential term ‘total pain’ in terms of endings and limits. ‘Total pain’ articulates how pain for someone whose life is ending is a whole overwhelming experience which combines physical, psychological, social and spiritual elements. My own PhD project looks at how… Continue reading →
The world stopped making sense when my sister died. She wasn’t supposed to die young, with a small child, most of her life still to be lived – it was an unprecedented event. In order to try and find meaning to my inchoate grief, I began to explore others’ stories and experiences with dying and… Continue reading →
Before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted conventional thinking around death and dying, Death Cafés around the world were encouraging people to reflect on their mortality. Death Cafés are informal social spaces where strangers meet to ‘have a conversation’ about death and dying. They can be organised by anyone, anywhere in the world. With death rates now… Continue reading →
Until Death Café meetings moved from cafes, libraries, community centres, cemeteries, etc. to the online sphere due to social distancing measures, it had not occurred to me to specify that my PhD thesis is about face to face Death Café meetings. Online Death Cafés were an exception, not the rule when I conducted my fieldwork… Continue reading →
Coronavirus is changing the way we live in a way that is repeatedly said to be unprecedented. We say we are living through strange times, extraordinary times, difficult times. For some of us lucky enough to be able to work from home time might be stretching out in lockdown into an endless series of Thursday… Continue reading →
Even at The Lancet When it comes to assisted dying, even one of the world’s leading medical journals can get caught out. It’s curious in this age of ‘precision medicine’, that leading commentators and thought leaders in the medical field can still struggle with crucial terms and definitions about assisted dying. Whatever your views on… Continue reading →
Through an interdisciplinary Arts Lab on Reading and Writing Death and Dying, Dr Elizabeth Reeder, Dr Naomi Richards, and Amy Shea are running a half-day symposium on Wednesday 22nd January 2020, 1-5pm, at the Women’s Library in Glasgow. The symposium is open to 40 people and will comprise various writing workshops responding to imagery and… Continue reading →
Online memorials have been a relatively popular form of memorialisation for the best part of this century. They bear markings of birth and death, just as traditional gravestones, however, they allow for an exceptional amount of interaction within them – the bereaved can send messages to the deceased, upload pictures, music, art, poems, and even… Continue reading →
