Using a social-psychological approach, this edition remains solidly grounded in theory and research, but places greater emphasis on the individual and coping with death and dying. These two well-known authors and researchers integrate stimulating personal accounts throughout the text, and apply concepts to specific examples that deal with cross cultural perspectives and the practical matters of death and dying.
If you want to learn about the role of death dying and bereavement in society this book is for you. It is well-researched and straightforward. Anyone who has an interest in the funeral industry or the psychology of death I would suggest looking to this textbook.
Reading this book aquaints you with the entire concept of death, be it sudden or termial illness. I read this in a class I signed up for 2 weeks before learning my father was terminally ill. While the class was hard to stomach, I realized I picked up on a lot more than I thought from the reading later.
While I'm no professional on textbooks regarding death, I felt this was a text that both the professional and the layman could appreciate and offers research based ideas to spurn on further study and awareness for a culture that generally avoids the reality of death.
(For an updated 2016 edition the in-text photos were pretttyy bad, (this is not an academic note))